Thursday, January 15, 2009

Second Casting Appointment

We took Kaitlyn's first set of casts off Wednesday night before her bath. They are the soft form of casts...NOT plaster casts. Hers were made of fibreglass. They are very light-weight. Anyway, we were really hoping that she didn't have any breakdown, but alas! She has pretty severe bruising on both her heels. More on the right side. I'll put some pics at the bottom, but don't look if this sort of thing bothers you!!! Let me tell you that the bruising doesn't bother her at all! I can rub my finger across the breakdown and she doesn't even wince. Let me remind everyone too that Kaitlyn has perfect sensation.
She is such a trooper. She didn't mind having the casts at all. She could still lift her knees to center and squeeze them open and shut. She could still use her slings and is probably what saved her heels from completely breaking through! We have decided not to recast today, but rather wait until next week and recast then, if her heels look better.

So fa the gain from even one casting was HUGE! SOOOO worth having it done. She went from a -25 degrees on the right foot to zero, and she went from -30 degrees on the left foot to a -7!!!! Zero degrees is a 90 degree bend, the negative side of this is when the toes point away from the body. I thought this was pretty good. The other awesome part is that her feet are in better alignment and her toes are no longer curled down and to the side. I’m really happy so far!!!

We should be able to maintain what we've gained with proper physio over the next week, and hopefully we'll be able to recast again next week. If everything goes as well with the second casting then it may only take one more casting. Then we get temporary splints while we have AFO's made. (Ankle foot orthosis).

Kaitlyn's Right Foot






Kaitlyn's Left Foot


1 comment:

Devon said...

Hey girl! We need AFOs now too...our SMOs didn't do anything...

Yikes! Poor girl! I am glad though that the bruising doesn't seem to be hurting her. I'm glad the casts went so well!!!

Hugs to all of you! Are you guys freezing over there?