Talipes Information and Parental Support Group
Date: 10 October 1998
From: Sara Spalding <Spaldingsd@aol.com>
Johnathan, and his twin brother, Steven, were born on 8/3/94.
We had no idea he would be born with severe bilateral club feet. He was casted by that
night. He went through weekly cast changes for the first few months. He had his achilles
tendons released at 4½ months of age. After a few more months of casting, we stopped with
those and he wore AFOs. They weren't much help in our case, and at 9 months of age
Johnathan and his twin had surgery to put tubes in their ears and Johnathan had his
corrective surgery at the same time. His incisions were a horseshoe shape and he had 3
pins in each foot. He had full plaster casts for 5 weeks after surgery. Casts were removed
and the pins, and we went back to soft casts (fiberglass) for 5 more weeks from below the
knee. One more cast change with short, soft casts and then were done. During the last
casting, he got the chicken pox...and since he was the 3rd one of my children to get them,
he got the most pox. We had him soaking in the bathroom sink with Ziploc bags over his
casts...what a sight! Johnathan's last set of casts came off when he was 13 months
old...within a few weeks he was walking. He has never had any physical therapy or had to
wear special shoes or braces after surgery. 
After a 2 year lull of dr
visits, we just saw our pediatric ortho. and got a wonderful report. We heard the words
that every parent longs to hear..."No limitations, no restrictions. We'll see you in
3 years."
The photo above was taken 3 hours after corrective surgery;
The photo on the left was taken just after the first cast removal.