Last Friday, Meg went to her first Pediatric Orthopedic surgeon (who specializes in feet) appointment. Dr. Sinclair confirmed that Meg does have vertical talus in her right foot. Vertical talus is similar to club foot but sort of the opposite problem. Club feet are pushed up and to the inside of your leg, vertical talus you foot is down and to the outside. Both problems are treated similarly. The foot is casted to stretch it out and manipulate the bones in the foot to align properly. Since her bones are still cartilage, now is the best time for casting. So on went Meg first cast! They were out of pink, so we went with purple. The plaster is only from the bottom of her knee down, but the fiberglass is all the way up to her hip. They have found that if they don't fiber glass all the way up, babies kick their casts off! She will get a new cast every friday over the next month or so and then her foot will be re-x-rayed to see how the therapy has gone. After that, it sounds like surgery will be next to fix any other problems and lengthen her achilles tendon.
We are praying that the casting will be highly successful! The better the casting the less surgery she will need, although our doctor did stress that they try to do as little surgery as possible.
Meg was pretty crabby that first day, but she's been a real trooper the rest of the time. Unfortunately, it's no more pants for this girl! Tights are much easier to stretch over a cast or just cut the leg out if I need too!!
4 comments:
Hello! I found your blog by googling Vertical talus. My daughter was diagnosed with it as well. She is one month and we will be starting the casting soon. I was curious how treatment has gone and what has it consisted of since her first cast? Hope things are going well for her!
Janelle,
I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner, hopefully you'll look at my blog again! Meg had surgery in April to lengthen her achilles tendon and reposition a few bones in her foot. Everything went great. She wore a cast for 6 weeks after surgery and then wore braces at night until the middle of August. She is brace free right now! We go in for another check up this Friday to make sure everything looks good.
I just ran across your page!! my daughter was born in February and also has vertical talus. we have been doing casting (currently have a purple one because they ran out of pink)! She will have surgery at the end of this month. Has your daughter been diagnosed with anything else? It is so hard to find personal information about this!!
Hey Gals! Came across this blog. We have a Facebook group called "Vertical Talus" with about 25 members, mostly parents, whose children are in various stages of treatment and beyond. We'd love to have you join us!
Post a Comment