Our second Child Cole was born with Club foot.
Congenital Talipes Equinovarus (CTEV)

We are posting this information for people to learn more about club foot and how it is not as a Serious Defect as some people may think.

This defect happens in 1 of every 500 Americans!
(1-1000 world wide.)

Club foot is painlessly treatable without Major Surgery.

Go here for our Progress photos of Cole's feet

The possibility of Cole having club feet showed up on the first ultrasound at 17 weeks. The Dr’s could be not sure because they could not see both feet clearly. After 3 more ultrasounds they still could not be for sure.

We have no known family history of club feet and all other Blood and Amniocentesis test came back normal.

At 39 weeks C-Section birth On April 16 2007 Cole was perfect 8.4 oz baby boy.

Other than the bilateral club foot Congenital Talipes Equinovarus (CTEV) 

Talipes Equinovarus is the medical term for a disorder of the foot such as that shown to the Left.
The term Congenital Talipes Equinovarus (CTEV) may also be used and is derived from;

Congenital: this is a deformity which is present at birth
Talipes: means simply the ankle and foot
Equinovarus: refers to the position of the foot, pointing downwards and inwards.

Quick breakdown about club feet on the Valley Children’s Hospital website

Our pediatrician Dr Kratzer examined him and made an appointment for right after Cole is discharged from Clovis Community to see the Orthopedics at Valley Children’s.

April 23,2007 Monday 7 days old we took Cole to Valley Children's for his first appointment for his club feet and the Doctor decided to do the Ponseti Management Cast Treatments

Valley Children's Hospital is Awesome! We are so lucky to have a World Class children’s Hospital in the same county just 30 minutes away from our home. 

Doctor Gerardi, Joseph, DO  at the Valley Children’s Hospital Orthopedic Department looked at his feet and manipulated his feet where he wanted it and cast them.

Every Monday for the next 3 weeks Cole had his feet manipulated and new cast. Soft Wrap casts was used. NON PLASTER
 

Dr. Gerardi and his staff is so good with Cole. Even after Cole peed on him twice.

After 3 weekly Ponseti Management Serial Castings his feet would not stretch any more due to the Achilles tendon was to short.

On May 17th Cole was 32 days old and had the surgical cutting of both Achilles Tendons (Tenotomy)

Tenotomy is the cutting of a tendon. This and related procedures are also called tendon release, tendon lengthening, and heel-cord release.

That morning (5am)we took off Cole's cast at home and gave him a bath.

Before the surgery we first we visited Valley Orthopedic in Fresno to have Cole’s feet Molded for his Foot Brace. We like to call it his First Snow Board.  Tom Beall the owner met us first thing in the morning because we had surgery latter that morning. Valley Orthopedic are a family ran business and treated us great.

Thank you Mr. Beall for Going out of your way see us on our schedule. 

The Tenotomy was done in the out patient surgical center at Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera County.

Cole was put under General Anesthesia;  cut a 1/2 centimeter incision above both his heals to cut the tendon .

The Dr. Manipulated he feet to an outward orientation and casted them. Cole would stay in this cast for 5 weeks.

5 weeks after the Tenotomy we took Cole to Tom Beall at Valley Orthopedic and he removed Coles Cast Cleaned him up and fitted him with the “Snowboard”.

Tom took his time and explained to us how to put it on and how to care for Coles Brace and his feet.

Cole will wear this brace for 23 hours a day for up to 6 month. Then when he sleeps for a few years.

The only thing that bothers us about this brace is he pulls half way or all the way out of them about 2 times a day. We are trying to get more information on this brace because we cant find one like it anywhere on the internet.

Brace Update: 8/7/07

We took Cole down to Visit  Valley Ortho Monday and they told us that the Brace is Specially made by DAFO. http://www.dafo.com/index2.html.

They take a Dafo Softy foot brace and Add the Lower bar to the Orthopedic's Specified Width and Angle. http://dafo.com/index.cfm?pageID=3080

FYI this brace before insurance is around $1200. I'm sure this cost includes the fittings and checkups that the staff due every few months to be sure they are fitting proper.

6 weeks after the Tenotomy Cole had his First Visit to Dr Geradi's office at Valley Children’s. The Orthopedic Nurse Practitioner looked at his feet and said everything looks great.

Monday 8/6 we took Cole to see Dr Geradi. He said he is doing great and to come back in 3 months. He feet are at the 90 Deg angle they should be at.

Go here for our Progress photos of Cole's feet

Here is a 20 minute video testimonial from Dr Ignacio Ponseti, patients.

You must have QuickTime 4.x to view the video. If you have the QuickTime 4.x plugin for your browser, the video should stream into your browser. Use the popup menu in the lower right corner of the QuickTime window to save the file to your hard drive.

The video can be viewed in its entirety, or in 7 sections and each being approximately 2 to 4 minutes in length.

Video - Full-length Version

• Clubfoot Video Section 1
• Clubfoot Video Section 2
• Clubfoot Video Section 3
• Clubfoot Video Section 4
• Clubfoot Video Section 5
• Clubfoot Video Section 6
• Clubfoot Video Section 7

This information is directly from

To be continued……

 Visits to this page from 7/23/07