The Story of Joseph's Feet

It's the night before Joseph's surgery so I thought I would share his story of his feet.

A little over five years ago at a routine ultrasound, Jeffery and I were informed that our baby would be born with club feet. (the right foot being the worse) These pictures were taken a couple days after Joseph was born. We brought our new little son home with two full leg casts on. The next three months were busy with doctor appointments every two weeks or so to get new casts. The Dr. would manipulate and stretch Joseph's feet before recasting them. The Dr. and his staff were always complimenting me about Joseph. He was such a good baby. Hardly ever cried as the dr. would play with his foot and then recast them. I remember that many times, Joseph would simply fall alseep while the dr. did his job.
After three months with a very heavy baby, the final cast came off. For some reason a few casts were plaster like the ones above, but most were like the one below that you could just peel away.

Jeffery came to the last casting appointment with me, and wanted to do the honor of freeing his son.

Again, Joseph was just as calm as a lamb, with very VERY ticklish legs!
Then the part I really disliked- THE BAR. Once the serial casting was complete, next was the Dennis-Brown bar. It was a pair of open-toed shoes attached to a bar. Joseph was to wear the bar 23 hrs/day. It was awful. He was awkward to hold and to nurse and at night we would prop his little legs up on a pillow so he could sleep. There were a few good points with the bar. The first being that changing diapers became easier...just grab the bar and lift. The second, he couldn't roll around at night, or for that matter at all. To this day Joseph sleeps flat on his back, and does not move all through the night. I remember if Joseph was really grumpy it was a cinch to make him happy-remove the bar for a few minutes and he was all smiles.
I don't have a lot of pictures with a good shot of the bar- here's one though with Riley on the left and his cousin Elijah on the right.

He wore the bar all day long for several months and then just at night until he learned how to walk. Joseph was a late walker. He lost the instincts newborns have to step -up. Then to spend so long in casts not bending his legs just to go to not being able to move them one at a time. Once the bar was off, he had to learn how to move and bend his legs independently. After the bar, we were advised to put his shoes on the opposite feet. After a while though that started to hurt his feet so we stopped. So after waiting for his gait pattern to get established and then his bones to become big enough, the time has come for the surgery. He'll have surgery on both feet tomorrow morning. We feel so blessed to have Jeffery's brother John, a podiatrist, do the surgery. We know he's the best and that our Joseph is in the best hands.

These pictures were taken last night. He's only recently started to complain that his feet hurt sometimes. After seeing the x-rays back in December, he's probably has been in pain all along just doesn't know any different. It's time for him to feel better.