I was so afraid that Keaton's feet were going to scare me when he was born. It consumed my thoughts. Were they going to make him ugly? The answer is no....I hardly even noticed them when he was born! We had arranged for him to be seen by a highly recommended orthopedic in the area, Dr. Neustadt with All Children's hospital, just 5 days after his birth. Through our research, we determined that the sooner we began treating his clubfeet the better. Dr neustadt follows a treatment schedule called The Ponseti Method. It is a series of casts done for approximately 6 to 8 weeks, and the cast is changed once weekly. At the end of those casting, there was a possibility that a surgery would be performed to lengthen the Achilles tendons. In Keatons situation we had to have surgery on both feet, followed by a cast for four weeks that did not get changed at all.
We got recasted every Tuesday for seven weeks. Each morning before the appointment with Dr Neustadt we would remove Keaton's casts at home. There would be some crying involved due to discomfort. Mom of course cried more than baby. Go figure!
This is the location that we decided to take Keaton to to be treated by Dr.Neustadt
www.chortho.com
And here is a link to our patient testimonial, at bottom of page
http://chortho.com/testimonial/
After Keaton's 6th cast, we were told by the doctor that there would need to be a surgery to ensure that Keaton's feet would not return to his original position. Even though after each casting we could tell an amazing difference in his feet, we could also tell that his heel was not falling into the correct position. Keaton had an achilles tendon release surgery on both feet on April 25th, 2012 at All Children's Hospital in St. Pete. It was successful, and we are now in the recovery phase. He has a final set of casts on his feet until May 22nd. At that time, we will have those casts removed and he will start wearing a set of boots with a brace. They will look something like this....
 |
| Ponseti boots and brace that Keaton will recieve at the end of May. |
 |
| Here is Keaton at one of his appointments at Chortho....they have warm rags on his legs to loosen up the adhesive left from the previous weeks casts. |
 |
| This is Keaton on his playmat during week four of casting....as you can see, these casts did not hinder his fun in the least. |
 |
| This is Keatons left foot prior to being casted. Day four of life. Note the severe inturning of the foot. |
 |
| This is Keatons left foot one day prior to surgery. Major change from the picture above! |
 |
| Week two of casting |
 |
| We nicknamed Keaton "Wooly Bear" on the days of recasting. After we removed his casts there was still some left over cotton each time. This was week six. |
