Olivers Updates

As most of you know, I was born with a Club Foot – below are pictures of before treatment, treatment and today.

I’m so happy, the doctor gave me the best news today, check out my feet!

This is what my foot looked like when I was born (right foot is my club foot) – Dr. Jinguchi told me I scored a 6 out of 6 (6 being the worst) so I was possibly in for longer treatment. He said most kids take up to 4 casts to straighten the foot out but it could be as much as 22 casts. Yikes!

Each time I went to Children’s Hospital the doctor would stretch my foot down and out the opposite way so that all the tendons could be stretched and make my foot straight.

Here the doctor is casting my foot – I normally wore these casts for 6-12 days depending on the doc’s schedule. This cast actually came all the way up my thigh so I wasn’t able to take regular baths because my mommy & daddy couldn’t get it wet. I ended up only needing 6 casts and then I had to have my Achilles tendon cut because this was the only tendon that doesn’t stretch enough. This procedure was NOT my favorite, I cried a whole lot and mommy and daddy both felt helpless. After that I had to wear a cast for 3 weeks then it was onto my special shoes.

I have open toed shoes that connect to a bar. My right foot (the Club Foot) is turned at 70 degrees and my left one is turned at 45 degrees. This helps keep the stretch in my Achilles Tendon and everywhere else. I will have to wear this 23 hours a day for 3 months.

Yesterday I went to the doctor and he said that I had excellent mobility in my foot and he was very happy – I have graduated to only having my special shoes & bar on for 14 hours a day.

Yay! Normal feet…