at 6 and 3/4 years old

[Guest guest]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to provide an interesting update to our son who is now

6 and 3/4 years old and was born with moderately severe bilateral

clubfoot. was one of the first internet Ponseti method

children being treated by Dr. Ponseti in the spring of 1999.

A message about our early story can be seen here in a post from a

number of years ago at

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/nosurgery4clubfoot/message/15815

We recently returned from a family skiing trip where is doing

very well at improving his skiing. He is also on a youth basketball

team and has played baseball and soccer since he was about 3 years old.

About a month ago, was playing with his 16 year old brother

. jumped up to grab and they both fell over onto

's leg and foot. was hurt and was limping. My wife

called me at work to say that she was concerned about whether or not

something was broken in his foot, especially considering that it had

once been a clubfoot. She decided to take him to our local pediatric

orthopedic surgeons office to get an x-ray of his foot to make sure

nothing was broken. This ped ortho was 's original doctor who

we had left to go to Dr. Ponseti over 6 years earlier. This doctor

had later switched over to the Ponseti method about 4 years ago.

Allyson and drove to our original ped ortho's office and

wouldn't walk and so Allyson pushed him into the doctors office in a

stroller. The doctor examined his foot and sent him in for an x-ray.

While the x-ray was being done by others, the doctor told Allyson how

he was amazed by how well his patients were doing with the Ponseti

method and that he had hardly ever done any clubfoot surgery since

switching over 4 years earlier.

's x-ray was done and nothing was broken. The doctor looked at

the x-ray and said " This is the x-ray of a normal foot. " He was

amazed when looking at the x-ray and then went on discussing how happy

he was to have switched over to the Posneti method.

After a long visit and discussion on the Ponseti method between the

pediatric orthopedic doctor and my wife; got off the table,

walked out of the room as if he hadn't been hurt and pushed the

stroller out to the car.

In all of his 6 and 3/4 years, has been as normal as and as

capable of doing anything that his brothers and sisters did at the

same age. We are always grateful for Dr. Ponseti's dedication and

persistance in advocating his method until the internet helped parents

become aware that his method existed and doctors finally acknowledged

that it was the best way to treat clubfoot.

We are excited to see so many other parents have been able to find out

about the Ponseti method as well.

, Allyson and (born March 17, 1999 (St. s Day)