Our Success....We pray it continues.

[Guest guest]

Hello to All,

I haven't been on the site in a very long time. I decided to check in

just today to see how everyone was doing. I thought that it might be

nice to share our story with some of you in order to give a little

light at the end of the tunnel.

Our story began back in 2003. Our little boy, Zack, was born with bi-

lateral clubfeet. I am not one to be politically correct so please

forgive me if I don't use the correct terminology. Anyway, my

husband and I were scared to death. We had never even heard of

clubfoot. We were quickly referred to Shriners in St.Louis where we

were introduced to Dr. Dobbs and his wonderful staff. After meeting

with Dr. Dobbs and discussing our treatment methods it was obviously

a no-brainer to choose the non-surgical method. We began the casting

process and got through that with essentially no problems. After

nearly 3 months of casting and a tenotamy, we were then introduced to

the DBB. We were under the assumption that the casting was the hard

part.....WRONG. Zack soon had some blisters and pressure spots,

would pull out, cry, he was unhappy, we were unhappy, we felt like it

was a nightmare. My husband and I had a heart-to -heart about the

situation and realized that WE could not give up but we had to ask

for some help with our situation.

This is where Dr. Dobbs, , and stepped in. They came

to my rescue on several occasions. They listened, told me what I

needed to hear but not always what I wanted to hear. Never the

less...they helped get us through the tough times. I made three

trips in one week to get the DBB to fit right. I worked with the

shoe shop and they in turn worked with me. Before we knew it Zack

had great flexibility and was wearing the DBB like a pro. He turned

over and crawled and began to pull up in the bar as well. Zack of

course is now 3 and only wears the bar at night. Looking at him

today you would never know that he ever had a birth defect. I will

always be thankful for Dr. Dobbs, , and the rest of

the staff at Shriners in St. Louis. They have always went out of

their way to make us feel like we were appreciated and taken

seriously. I would like to tell all new parents to keep the faith

and stick with it. Don't give up and no matter what don't blame

everything on the bar. The bar is a good thing and should be viewed

as such. We always told Zack about how special he was to get to wear

the DBB. It is all in the attitude. It takes a while sometimes to

get to that place but once you do things will start to look up. Pray

that our last year goes well. Zack, I know is well on his way!!! We

would love to help anyone in any way that we can.

Sincerely,

Nikki, Mike, and Zack s