Club Feet – Fifth Casting and Tenotomy

As I said before, I asked Dr. D if Justin could have a local and get the tenotomy. He was agreeable so we planned on going to B’ham the night before. Bad weather factored in and we decided to get up Tuesday morning and drive up instead. Goli agreed to take Troy early (have I ever said she is an angel from God? Well, she is!). The weather caused our power to go off, the smoke detectors were going off, we decided to change the batteries (at 2 a.m.). One of the new batteries was bad so it messed up the rest of the system. Like a bad mother, I disconnected the system. Justin was a bit restless and I think woke up to eat either 3 or 4 times (between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

Tired we were!

Arrived in Birmingham, forgot Tylenol, went to a random drugstore and got some before the appointment.

Dr. D gave Justin a local anesthetic in both tendons. He cried pretty nicely for that. They let us take him to a room with a table and a pad where he was to lay. I didn’t see any straps to hold him down which was surprising. They said it would take 10-15 minutes. We went back to the room and waited. Less than 10 minutes later, he came back with the nurse who was feeding him a bottle. He drank almost 2 ounces by the time they brought him to us. Dr. Doyle and the resident, Dr. Maddox, said he did great and didn’t really wiggle. They clipped his Achilles right where he wanted. Told us to come back in a week to change the cast again and make sure everything looks good.

Justin did great on the ride home but did get fussy over the next few hours. A little tylenol helped that. Last night he slept great.

Before and after photos:

The first is before and taken with a phone so not the best photo. He has LONG feet! The second turned sideways for some reason. I’m going with it, though. Doesn’t look like that much of a difference since last week.

It would be an understatement to say that the trips to Birmingham are getting tiresome. I mean, I have to be honest, right? The procedure doesn’t take long but the travel back and forth and lack of sleep is somewhat exhausting. I am grateful for his treatment but will be VERY glad when we don’t have to drive back and forth as much.