Re: Weird question for those with atypical experience and A.T. problems

October 31, 2005

Faith,

What you are describing does sound problematic to me.

Was he doing this the last time that Dr. Ponseti saw

him? Oh, no, you just said it was within the last two

weeks. How many hours is he wearing his shoes? Do

you feel like he is walking better in the morning but

then starting to walk clumsily as the day goes on? It

almost sounds like this foot is trying to relapse but

the shoes are keeping it from happening totally, kwim?

I wonder if you upped hours if this would help. Do

you think he is going through a growth spurt that

could be causing this? I would send pictures to Dr. P.

-- see what he thinks. Does he still have good

dorsiflexion and abduction? My own thoughts

(non-professional of course) are maybe increasing his

hours in the brace for a while, and if that doesn't

really seem to do the trick, maybe re-cast? I would

think that Gabe is still too young to make an ATTT

decision, again, just IMO, but I think they are really

trying to make the brace and casting work in lieu of

the ATTT for kids at older and older ages.

Hope this helps some,

allison

--- faith slattery wrote:

> Hey guys.... I know there's been a post going around

> about ATT, but I haven't been able to stay on the

> computer lately long enough to read any of it.

> Gabe's feet really look great for the most part, but

> I've noticed lately (the pasted two weeks) that his

> left foot is startign to look a bit more weird than

> it did. It's always been the worst of the two and I

> have an appointment in Idaho on the 15th. I was just

> curious if anyone has experienced this: Gabe can

> still wear his shoes just fine, but I've noticed the

> inversion I see whne he walks just keeps getting

> worse. Also, sometimes it looks like his anterior

> tendon is pulling really badly and he seems really

> clumsy... sometimes it seems fine. Ikeep gravitating

> toward panic, and thinking his foot looks pretty

> good. I really only looks odd from the front... Is

> it possible that his foot is relasping a little and

> then going back to normal. It's really weird, Iknow,

> but nothing has been normal about his treatment so

> far anyway. I should

> mention he has atypical feet. Anyway, I'm going to

> post some pics on the CFpics site in a few. Tell me

> what you think.. Oh, when Gabe is just standing

> still, his feet still look awesome. The problem is

> when he is walking quickly. He simultaneously rolls

> off the outside of his foot and his toes sometimes

> pull inward (anterior tendon, I'm sure). His heel

> is still down. His foot also seems a lot more stiff

> than it did. He kind of goose steps with it (just

> the left). I don't know if he's just being silly or

> if it's a symptom of the rest...

>

> __________________________________________________

>

October 31, 2005

, He's inthe brace for at least 14 hours, which is pretty hard at this

point. It means he's in it for at least 4 waking hours. If he's going through a

growth spurt, which is entirely possible, I wouldn't have guessed it. This has

happened before and I did send Ponseti a video. Ponseti was really quite pleased

with what he saw. He noticed the inversion too but said some of these kids have

more of that than others and not to worry. It looks as if his foot is trying to

adduct when he walks, but like I said, when he is standing still or wearing his

shoes or has his foot relaxed, it looks great. I guess I'm leaning toward growth

spurt right now... maybe whichever tendons are pulling his toes in will stretch

out again. This has happened a few times actually. Each time I'm about to rush

him to the doctor, it starts looking better again. The difference this time is

that I've noticed it for a couple weeks now, not just a couple days. The past

few days I have been keeping his shoes on

16+ hours, so maybe that will keep things in place. I have a feeling that Dr

Showalter will pretty much say the same thing... to keep his shoes on longer

till it's not a problem... If he thinks it's the anterior tibialis doing the

pulling , that is. only concern is if he thinks Gabe has a better chance of

avoiding the ART later, I hope he'll cast now and not make do now with what

we've got. I'd hate to stop at adequate if that foot could be good. I've told

you what hassle it is to get GAbe into casts though... It's a hard call. Oh, his

dorsiflexion is still awesome.I know it'll be at least another 2.5 years before

he'd have the ATT, I was just wondering if anyone who'd wound up having at

experienced something like this... I f it sounded like that was the problem. I

wish I could post some pictures, but like I said, every picture I took looked

fine yesterday. You can only see it when he walks.. and then , not all the time.

Ispent about 20 minutes trying to catch it withthe digital,

but didn't get anywhere... I'll keep you all updated. I have to call the

Mcdonald house in Boise now...

and Grindon wrote: Faith,