My husband and I finally decided that we wanted to have a baby after 4 years of marriage. I had a very difficult time getting pregnant. It took a year and a half with hormones to finally get pregnant. We were so excited. My pregnancy seemed smooth until the final month. I became hypertensive and was induced at 37 weeks.
The day finally came that we were going to see our son, finally. I ended up having a 23 hour difficult labor. When Justin was born, we were thrilled. When I looked over at the table where they were cleaning him, my heart dropped when saw his legs and feet. They were not normal. I was devastated.
They said he had bilateral clubfoot. I had no idea what that was. I had no idea what we were going to be facing. The doctor immediately put him in casts. The only time I got to hold him as a baby without casts was then I was still in the labor room. The doctors said that he would be fine with casting.
At the time, we were living in Maine. There aren't many specialists for pediatrics in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont. We saw an adult orthopedic for his serial casting. Serial casting is plaster casts that are changed every week to slowing change the direction of the growth in the foot. Sometimes this is all a baby needs to be able to walk. There are others who need more to help the feet to grow straight.
After 6 weeks of serial casting, there was no change. Every cast change was a battle. My son would scream and kick every time. The doctor said that he was strong. Stronger then any baby he has seen. He was not sleeping at all and was constantly fussy. I ripped the casts off which helped everything. The only other option we were giving was surgery. The closest pediatric orthopedic surgeon was in Boston. There was an orthopedic surgeon in Portland, ME who had worked on children which was 45 min away. We went to see him.
The plan was to start the surgery at 3 months of age. The doctor said this was the safest age for anesthesia. The first option was to do the surgery right away without putting him to sleep. I just about had a stroke when they said the baby doesn't feel it. They are too young. OMG!!!! This was the beginning of making major "life effecting" decisions for my son with absolutely no knowledge of his condition and the doctors were not very forthcoming either. This was pre-social media and information on the internet.
