Surgery?

Over the last 4.5 months we have had at least one doctors appointment every week. Initially they were my pregnancy appointments as we neared Xan's due date; after Xan was born however, most have been related to Xan's club feet treatment.

Xan needed only 3 casts to advance his right foot to a state acceptable enough to prepare for the braces. His left foot has been an adventure though (18 casts and counting)! Progressively for the last couple months, although we've been able to rotate his ankle more and more, the foot itself has looked progressively more deformed. Every time we'd take off a cast I'd just look at his foot and it made me sad. It was getting more and more weird creases and looked painful. It seems so incongruent with the sweet, joyful spirit of our little boy. It's been sort of an eye opener about how people who live with disability everyday can be stereotyped.

So, today was another one of those casting doctors appointments and it was a bit discouraging. Since Xan underwent a tendon release procedure last week, (where they cut his Achilles tendon and recast his foot in the normal position so the tendon heals appropriately and not so tight,) we were hoping for some pretty good progress. Last week they weren't quite able to elevate his foot to a normal position, so they decided to try and adjust it again this week before the healing was 100% complete. Well, when they took the cast off today the foot looked just as deformed and our doctor said he'd even lost progress. They took some x-rays as you can see below. It's fascinating to see how much work that poor little left foot needs as the bones alignment is incredibly off.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge. Then you can zoom in on his left foot to see the bone structure.)

Our doctor (Dr. Faux) whom we really like, is an incredible adult orthopedic surgeon but recognizes that pediatrics is not his specialty. After seeing the x-rays Dr. Faux is convinced Xan needs surgery since his foot is so resistive. Consequently, he has now referred us to a Dr. Alan Stott up at Primary Children's for a second look and as someone who can hopefully reconstruct Xan's foot. We'll head up early Monday morning and I'll try to keep you updated in a timely manner of what steps we will take next.

I am so grateful for so many things at this point. First, I'm so glad we live close enough to a facility that specializes in children's surgeries and club feet. I'm so happy our original doctor was humble enough to realize a procedure may be out of his scope rather than try to save face and possibly end up doing something that maybe wouldn't be the best thing for Xan. And mostly, I'm just grateful that God sent us this beautiful, sweet little boy who has handled all of these challenges better than I ever would have imagined he could. We love his smiles, his coos, and his excitement for life. We feel so blessed to be his parents and appreciate so many of your prayers and concerns on our behalf. Thank you!