Re: Re: Atypical club feet????

December 3, 2005

My son's feet were not stiff, however, they were complex, or atypical.

Atypical feet usually present one of these characteristics: A horizontal line

through the center of the sole of the foot where the arch is -- often this line

extends to the outer edges of the foot. These feet are usually very " fat " the

calves adn legs are usually rather " fatty " too. These feet are difficult to

cast-- there is usually significant slippage until the tenotomy is performed.

The arch is absurdly high and the foot appears crunched. Also, the big toe

tends to stick out from the rest of the toes. It kinda apprears separate form

the rest of the foot. This site explains it in more techical, accurate language

http://adifferentfoot.freeservers.com/. If you aren't having trouble withthe

casting... if her feet are responding well, you probably need not worry. If you

are a member of the Clubfoot site, I posted before and after pics of my son's

feet inthe photos section. Hope this helps.

Faith

novemberfable wrote:

I, too, suspected that my son's foot was atypical/complex (he was born

on Nov. 3 LCF). I emailed a few pictures of his foot to Dr. Ponseti

and he seemed to think that based on what he could see, the foot was

complex. However, it's hard to determine from pictures alone since you

can't check the flexibility. My son's doctor who is POnseti certified

checked his foot and believed that even though it was on the severe

side of the spectrum, it was not atypical/complex since it wasn't very

stiff.

>

> was born on October 27 with bilateral club feet. She is in

the

> casting phase and is doing well. I was wondering how I would know

if

> her feet are " atypical club feet " or not? I have heard that term

and

> do not know. Her doctor has not said that they are atypical and has

> described them as " on the better side of moderate " as club feet go.

> She has good flexibility (dorsiflexion) and is responding well to

> casting. I would post a picture but am not sure how to put it into

the

> body of this email. (I am high-tech challenged!)

>

> Carol and , born 10-27-05, bcf, serial casting stage

>

December 3, 2005

Usually they are. I didn't mean to contradict you. We just got lucky with GAbe's

feet.

novemberfable wrote: Thanks for clearing it up,

Faith. I'm too new at this and don't want

to give misleading info. I thought a lot of it had to do with the

flexibility of the foot.

> >

> > was born on October 27 with bilateral club feet. She is

in

> the

> > casting phase and is doing well. I was wondering how I would

know

> if

> > her feet are " atypical club feet " or not? I have heard that

term

> and

> > do not know. Her doctor has not said that they are atypical and

has

> > described them as " on the better side of moderate " as club feet

go.

> > She has good flexibility (dorsiflexion) and is responding well

to

> > casting. I would post a picture but am not sure how to put it

into

> the

> > body of this email. (I am high-tech challenged!)

> >

> > Carol and , born 10-27-05, bcf, serial casting stage

> >

>

December 3, 2005

more stiff I mean...

faith slattery wrote: Usually they are. I didn't mean to

contradict you. We just got lucky with GAbe's feet.

novemberfable wrote: Thanks for clearing it up,

Faith. I'm too new at this and don't want

to give misleading info. I thought a lot of it had to do with the

flexibility of the foot.

> >

> > was born on October 27 with bilateral club feet. She is

in

> the

> > casting phase and is doing well. I was wondering how I would

know

> if

> > her feet are " atypical club feet " or not? I have heard that

term

> and

> > do not know. Her doctor has not said that they are atypical and

has

> > described them as " on the better side of moderate " as club feet

go.

> > She has good flexibility (dorsiflexion) and is responding well

to

> > casting. I would post a picture but am not sure how to put it

into

> the

> > body of this email. (I am high-tech challenged!)

> >

> > Carol and , born 10-27-05, bcf, serial casting stage

> >

>

December 4, 2005

Right, while Gabe had plenty of flexibility(except dorsiflexion) and his feet

were easily corrected, the excess " fatty " tissue made it really easy to slip his

casts. I believe in his first , oh, 7 months of casting, he was probably casted

approx. 30 times. He did have all the usual tell-tale signs of atypical feet:

the creases, the high arch, the crazy big toes:), tons of excess connective

tissue... Once we finally got out of the casting phase and into 's

everything was peachy. Those shoes are amazing! Anyway, Gabe's feet, since he's

been walking, look better all the time. They relapsed once at 10 months, but

after some extra attention from DR Ponseti, they've been great since. He's 19

months now. We're crossing our fingers that things will keep going the way they

have been... By the way Angel, what you told me about growth spurts really must

have been what was going on with his left foot. Of course, by the time we got

worried enough to make a DR appt, they had gone back to

looking great... Next time I won't worry about it so much... Thanks!

angelmommy23 wrote: I am so embarassed every time my

site it posted because it isnt up-to-

date lol I have finally found my paper file for it, tho, and hope

to start working on getting it all up-to-date, including getting

fresh info out of Iowa, soon! *does happy dance*

As it happens, alot of things that may seem like they would be a part

of complex/atypical clubfoot, are not necessarily. Kai's foot was

severe in deformity, moderate in flexibility, yet corrects quite

easily ... it just either does something funky in the process or wont

stay.

Faith is right, tho, there are some things that point to a complex

foot. The one thing to remember is that not all of these feet slip

their casts. I don't know why, but Kai never did. He also only

slipped out of the Markells once or twice, but they just did nothing

for him.

Angel

> >

> > was born on October 27 with bilateral club feet. She is

in

> the

> > casting phase and is doing well. I was wondering how I would

know

> if

> > her feet are " atypical club feet " or not? I have heard that term

> and

> > do not know. Her doctor has not said that they are atypical and

has

> > described them as " on the better side of moderate " as club feet

go.

> > She has good flexibility (dorsiflexion) and is responding well to

> > casting. I would post a picture but am not sure how to put it

into

> the

> > body of this email. (I am high-tech challenged!)

> >

> > Carol and , born 10-27-05, bcf, serial casting stage

> >

>

December 4, 2005

Faith, I am so glad to hear that things straightened back out again!

I find the thing about excess connective tissue very interesting ... I do not

now, nor have I ever believed that Dr Mosca did anything wrong or out of order

to cause Kai's foot to become atypical. Heck, he managed to put casts on that

STAYED on what I now know is a foot that can bend in some pretty weird places.

But the thing is ... Kai's foot isn't the only place he has connective tissue

problems. At the bottom of his ears, there is something weird with the tissue

so that his lobes are actually attached by some connective tissue to the backs

of his ears (hard to explain), he was born with a short frenulum under his

tongue (tongue tied) and while it has stretched out a lot; he is never going to

be able to stick hit tongue out very far; the newest one is something called

penoscrotal webbing, where there is a web of connective tissue on just where is

sounds. He was supposed to have corrective surgery for that on Wednesday, but

he had the flu so will go back in 2 weeks to have it taken care of. There is

also apparently some issue in his heart that doesn't effect functionality, but

causes all his EKG's to come out looking like there is a hole in his heart. All

of that, plus there are/were at least 3 places in his foot/ankle that were

restricted. That, to me, is an awful lot of connective tissue problems to be

coincidental. I really believe that he has some underlying condition of the

connective tissue ... maybe it just did not form right? ... and that is what

caused the clubfoot in the first place, not to mention all the other stuff.