Part 2

Heath's Story Part 1    Part 3

Heath finally gets his casts off on 1 December. Andy and I can’t wait – to give him a bath, take him swimming, let him crawl in the sand, not to be kicked by a boy with ‘concrete’ legs and watch him learn to walk.

On the 13 September 1999 Heath had surgery to correct his talipes at Wellington Hospital. He was eight months old.

We were on a downer the morning of surgery because Heath woke up with a temperature – OF ALL THE DAYS! We were concerned that surgery wouldn’t go ahead, but as it turned out it did. The anesthetist said there was no inflammation of the throat and ears so he was happy to proceed – thank goodness.

Heath was in theatre for 3 hours, then went into recovery. The surgeon called us in the hospital Parent’s Room and told us that surgery had gone well. He had told us just before surgery that he would put pins in Heath’s feet as they needed a lot of correction.

I stayed the night with Heath and decided to take the bed offered in another room as Heath was in a room with two other children. The nurse woke me at 1 am to give Heath a feed. He was still very drowsy and didn’t take much. Then I was woken at 6 am because he was stirring and he had a really good feed this time.

We got the first proper smile from Heath 24 hours after surgery. After the morphine was switched off we were transferred to our own room (4 pm, day two). At this stage Heath was playing and ‘talking’. He was also trying to move round in the cot. Fairly much back to normal, which was great. He was discharged first thing the next day – day three. We were told to keep giving him Pamol (panadol) for pain relief until the end of the week at least.

Well – things were easy in hospital compared with what was to come. We came home on Wednesday and on the following Sunday Andy, myself and Heath were back at the hospital because one of Heath’s feet had become really inflammed and swollen around one of the pins. I had actually been keeping an eye on it because of the problems some of the people who had written to the TIPS website had indicated when pins are involved. Luckily Heath didn’t get admitted for IV antibiotics as infection around pins can be very serious (portal of entry of infection to the bones). Anyway the orthopaedic doctor prescribed some oral antibiotics and we were sent home. I had to bring Heath back to the Orthopaedic Clinic on Tuesday and Thursday for a check up. The right foot wound was full of pus, but the nurse cleaned it and redressed it and by Thursday it was looking a lot better.

You may be wondering about all these trips to the hospital – well we are extremely fortunate to be living only 10 minutes drive from Wellington Hospital.

Two weeks after surgery Heath had another general anesthetic and had his feet reset and cast replaced. Blue fibreglass casts – lighter and not as bulky. Heath grizzled for 24 hours this time, waking hourly through the night. We thought he was just adjusting to the casts (or teething) – HOWEVER we discovered his right foot around the pin had become infected AGAIN. It was extremely swollen with nowhere to swell in the tight casts. So it was back to the clinic again for another prescription. They had to cut the front of the cast out at the foot as well to check the wound and relieve the swelling.

Heath’s foot became infected yet again after that course of antibiotics was finished so he basically stayed on antibiotics until the pins came out on the 18^th October (5 weeks after surgery).

The anesthetist decided to give Heath a sedative before having the anesthetic to get the pins out and another set of casts put on. Apparently for the first change of casts they had problems because Heath was upset – I hadn’t gone into theatre the second time. I was a bit hesitant about Heath receiving MORE drugs, but if they recommend these things it is difficult to say no, especially if they say it will be of benefit to your child. Anyway, after the sedative Heath was VERY relaxed and seemed to forget that he was hungry. So he had the pins taken out (what a relief) and feet reset and new casts put on for another six weeks.

On the home straight………..

As for his development – a lot of you parents, concerned about your child’s development, will be pleased to hear that Heath started crawling with his casts on at exactly 9 months. I thought he would be happy enough with this mobility. However, to our surprise at 10 months he was up on his knees reaching for the TV and video knobs (typical!). AND to top it all off he is now standing – YES - IN HIS CASTS – and shuffling his feet forward to get closer to what he is holding onto. I thought this would be absolutely impossible for him to do but he doesn’t know any different and just wants to stand up. So he is doing it all the time now. I never thought he would get this far with casts on.

So now we have two days to go until Heath gets his casts off. CAN’T WAIT!!