Progress

This little guy has had quite the drama with his feet!

After the 8th cast with our podiatrist in Show Low (he was only supposed to have 6), we were told that Sawyer still wasn't making much progress and that they wanted us to do a consult with the orthopedist on the mountain.

I'd had some doubts and uneasy feelings early on in the casting wih the podiatrist because the casts didn't look anything like the ones I saw when I would research club feet. After the 8 casts with little progress, I was REALLY feeling uneasy and unsure about what we should do. Sawyer was supposed to have surgery the next week, but it seemed obvious that he wasn't ready!

After a lot more research, I decided after my walk with Sawyer one morning that he needed to be doing the Ponseti method of treatment. It's only come about in the past 10 years and there are apparently very few doctors who've been correctly trained in it. I came across a story of a family with a similar story as ours. They had done several casts with a doctor without much progress, and off of a whim they decided to email Dr. Ponsetti himself. Surprisingly, they got personal response from Dr. Ponseti telling them to fly to from California to Iowa to do treatment with him.

That day when I got home from my walk I told Mike about it and we said a prayer to try to find out what we should do. Up to this point we had talked about praying for direction but put it off and never actually said the prayer and asked. After we prayed about it I told him maybe I should just call Phoenix Children's Hospital and see what they recommended. I explained the situation to the front desk of the pediatric orthopedic department and he recommended that we schedule an appointment with their club foot specialist. The problem was, the soonest they could squeeze us in was in two months. I told him how grateful I was that they were squeezing us in but asked what we should do in the meantime. Sawyer was still wearing casts from the previous doctor. Should we let him take the casts off and go without casts for two months or should we let them go ahead with the surgery and keep doing castings? The receptionist put me on hold and went to the back to talk to the doctor. He came back and asked "can you come tomorrow?" I quickly said yes, we would cancel whatever we had going on and we made the trip.

The good news we found out was that no harm had been done with the casts he was already wearing. The bad news was we'd have to start from scratch. Sawyer's legs were a little irritated from being in the casts for so long, plus they didn't really have appointments since they'd just squeezed us in in the first place, so he went without casts until we could be seen again after three weeks.

This is what his feet looked like right before the first appointment at Phoenix Children's:

And this is what they looked like after this last cast was taken off:

Here he is in the full leg casts he's been sporting now.


We're going back to the Valley for one final casting this weekend, then he'll have surgery to release his Achilles' tendon the next week. After that, he'll wear a final cast for three weeks, then a brace for up to four months full time, and then just at night for up to four years.

Driving to the Valley every week after he'd already been in casts for two months and waiting over two hours at every single appointment has been rough. We never had to wait more than 15 minutes at the doctor in Show Low and he treated Sawyer like he was his own son. However, I think now that there's just something to be said for specialists! Our new doctor is so methodical in the casting and seems to know club feet inside and out! He even trained with Dr. Ponsetti personally! I'm so glad we feel on the right track and I can so easily imagine Sawyer running and keeping up with his brother and sister!

One leg down, one to go!

There's also something to be said for having such great friends and family! The amount of support we've gotten from so many of them is overwhelming! We'd talked at one point about doing the castings in Flagstaff since it's a little closer. I'm so glad we didn't! Our friends Adam and Melissa let us stay with them every weekend for almost a month, Heidi and Jake let us stay in their new house without supervision all last weekend and have provided much needed emotional support and entertainment. Brian and Mel usually feed us at least one meal on every trip we make and Mel's been watching the kids so Mike and I can both go be with Sawyer (keep in mind, I said we've never waited less than 2 hours to see the doctor. Then there's casting time and driving time...last time, we dropped the kids off with Mel at 3:00 and didn't get back until after 7:00!). And my parents have been giving us a discount on rent to help pay for gas. I have no idea how to even begin to thank everyone for their help! So far, Blue Bell's been about all we can come up with!

Other than that, we've been trying to make the most of our trips down there and the kids have enjoyed swimming, riding the carousels at the malls, playing with their cousins and friends and Mike and I've been trying to make up for years of no places to shop or get things done! We still come up with a full to-do list for every trip!

Remi wouldn't ride the carousel. Grant never wanted to stop!

Our kids are acquiring a talent for making themselves at home when we're not at home. Here they are at IKEA.

Getting ready for a swim at Adam's. Remi doesn't swim though...one of her only fears!

It's been an adventure, that's for sure! Luckily, our kids travel well and are excited to go. I'm also so happy that the trips have kind become a time for Mike and I to get to catch up after busy weeks and that after talking the whole way, it really doesn't seem like four hours.