Annika's Story

[Guest guest]

Annika was born on March 30th 1999 with bilateral club feet.

She was cast at 24hours and then received three more sets of

casts by the Podiatrist that we were referred to through

Kaiser Permanente. My mother-in-law had done some internet

searching around week 3, and found Dr. P's information. So

we did much like the rest of you, and researched our butts

off for the next week. Annika received her 5th set of casts

up at UCSF by Dr. Delgado (by the way, she has been removed

from Dr. Ponseti's list of doctors). After that, we flew to

Iowa and stayed for 3 weeks and 3 days, having a total of

5 sets of casts done (every 5 days) and then of course the

heel cord tenotomy which was done before application of the

5th and final set. Three weeks later, it happened that Dr.

Ponseti was at UCSF doing a clinic. So we were able to see

him at the time of Annika's cast removal. Right into the

DBB. Annika did not have a problem with them, we were lucky.

Since then Annika has learned to crawl, pull-up to standing

and is just starting to cruise around furniture. I took video

of her standing the other day, which I am going to copy and

send to Dr. P to check out. I have some questions about one

of her feet, so I want him to see it. Since I can't count on

the opinion of someone who doesn't practice correction the same

way DR. P does, they wouldn't know what is 'Normal' to see in

this type of method.

We are so grateful to have found out about Dr. Ponseti. I am

most grateful that we found him BEFORE we attempted any surgery!

I just had Annika's new size 2 shoes fitted with that plastizoid

at the ankle yesterday. $45!!! Ugh, that's how much I paid for

the shoes! Anyhow, I put the new shoes on today, and spread the

bar about 3/4 " . Annika is in the shoes for 12 hours at night.

When Dr. Ponseti was here in October, he indicated that that was

enough time, so we have not been having her wear them at naps.

I'm not sure about this, however the concern that I mentioned

above would probably NOT be caused by not wearing the shoes an

additional 2 hours each day. The foot I am concerned about is

not turning in or anything like that. When she stands, it looks

like she's leaning on the 'inside' of her left ankle. I'm wondering

if this is how it normally looks because of the 'overcorrection' or

what. So, I will copy my video and send it to Dr. P.

Here is the link to Annika's page if you havn't seen it yet.

The pictures load pretty quick.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=76323 & a=601182

Just click on " Club Feet " album. Then click on the small picture

if you want to see it larger. We photographically documented most

of the process.

So, that's about it for now. Am eager to see what the next few months

bring for Annika.

Lori Stime & Gillam

Kirsten & Annika