To and Rhonda

[Guest guest]

My husband and I also bring our Christian to Dr. Herzenberg for

treatment. Dr. Herzenberg uses " The Pirani classification scheme " to

evaluate the severity of the clubfoot and to the track the progress of

the correction. As far as I know Dr. Pirani also uses the Ponseti

method although I do not remeber what country he practices in.

I am sorry that Trigger is having a diffcult time. Christian adjusted

quite quickly. Perhaps if you put the shoes on for a short time each

day and gradually lengthened the time he wears them. I feel like this

easy for me to say because generally Christian is very happy and I'm not

dealing with a totally fussy and screaming baby. However, I have to say

that I think it is totally irresponsible not to follow through with the

full treatment, the shoes with bar being so crucial to treatment's

success. Dr. Herzenberg also told us that the only failure he has had

using this method was a family who did not comply with the splint. On a

broader scale, when the method fails due to non compliance I beleive it

hurts the whole effort to encourage others to use this method (both

other physicians and parents). I think you are taking a big gamble and

if you lose we all lose.

Donna Blevins

> Rhonda wrote:

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> Hi all,

> Sorry so long to update... We went Monday for our check up on

> Tigger's feet. Dr. Herzenberg said his feet look GREAT! Next I had to

> tell him (even you all did not know this and I know many of you will

> reply and tsk tsk me) that Tigger has not worn his shoes and bar since

> November. He was just put into them at the end of October and had a

> difficult time getting used to them. At the end of November I went

> into the hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery and had to leave

> him without me for two days and nights. He was/is very attached to me

> so was having a difficult time not knowing where I was. He did not

> eat/sleep much while I was gone and my dd, who was watching him, did

> not want to compound his discomfort with the shoes. When I came home I

> was still very sore in my stomache area from surgery and was afraid he

> would kick me with them so I did not put them back on him right away.

> About one week had passed when I tried to put them back on. He threw a

> fit but I made him wear them. Two days later he came down with a bad

> case of the flu (vomiting and diarreah). That lasted a week and a

> half. He was so miserable already I could not put the shoes on and

> just watch him scream. by that time, we were supposed to go into the

> shoes only at night. We did have him wearing them at night for about a

> month although he rarely made it the whole way thru the night.

> sometimes he refused to wear them more than an hour. sometimes he made

> it till his first night feeding. Maybe twice did he make it the whole

> way thru. By mid January he had REALLY grown out of his size 00 shoes

> and I did not know of where I could buy them around here. The only

> place I knew of was in Baltimore and we were not supposed to go there

> till 2/21. I finally found a place about 3 weeks ago and he measured

> two sizes bigger. We got them and he had a hissy fit when we tried to

> put them back on him. we even bought him good qualtiy regular shoes to

> wear to Church, etc. He wont wear them either. As a matter of fact, he

> won't even wear socks! I spent a few weeks putting his socks back on

> at least dozens of times a day before I just gave up and let him go

> barefoot. That was a long explanation but I wanted you to get the

> jist.

> In discussing this with Dr. H, he said in NO WAY could he condone

> this because it it not the acceptable in the course of the Ponsetti

> treatment. I understand that. He did say that he MUST say that

> Tigger's feet DO look GREAT! And that he would not have known had I

> not told him.

> We are keeping a close watch on his feet and if there is ANY sign

> of regression, he WILL be back in his shoes. I pray daily that this

> will not happen.

> Now, my question is this.... As there are varying degrees of any

> illness/injury/defect, so there are also varying degrees of treatment.

> Some may have to take a certain medication for an illness longer than

> others or a higher dosage, etc. Why does EVERY case of clubfoot have

> to have the EXACT same treatment? It was agreed in the beginning that

> his was a very mild case of clubfoot and indeed it corrected VERY

> easily. Is it not possible that four casts and two months of shoes and

> bar could have corrected it?

> As well, according to Dr. H, there is a physician in Israel (not

> Dr. Porat, but another) who also had a couple of patients who did not

> follow through with the shoes and bar and their cases turned out ok.

> Dr. Ponsetti, himself, addressed this and said it was NOT acceptable.

> The child has to wear the shoes for two years.

> In sum, we are not in the shoes, his feet look GREAT, and we are

> keeping a close watch on them.

> Rhonda

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