The promised update

Alene asked me to post a little update since we have had such an outpouring of love and concern for little Xan. So here you go!

We went in to see Dr. Stotts at Primary's on Monday this week. After looking at his foot for a long while, and rubbing his own chin for even longer, he came to the decision that he wanted to give Xan’s foot a break from casts for a short time. Xan’s skin has become so sensitive, discolored, and bruised in certain places that he feels it needs a break and a chance to become healthy again.

Here's Xan's foot at our Primary Children's appointment on Monday Jan. 31, 2011

Here are 2 pictures of Xan's foot the week before and 1 week after the tendon release on Jan. 25 when Dr. Faux decided to refer him to Dr. Stott. You can really see the creases in his foot here.

Two weeks from now we’ll have a casting appointment with Dr. Stotts. A few weeks – and a few casts – after that, he expects the foot to be in a correct enough position for a more invasive surgery. Fortunately it’s not what they used to do, back in the day, where they opened up the entire foot to rearrange things, but they will open up the back of his heel/leg so that they can cut the achilles tendon along with many more surrounding tissues that have too much tension. After that, it will be another few weeks in a cast to allow it to heal in a good position. Then if all looks good we'll move onto braces. Yay!

It’s not fun to see Xan going through so much more than a typical club foot correction process, but we’re still optimistic, and Xan is being a patient/brave little guy!

Thank you to every one for all the support and prayers. We appreciate it so much.