As many of you may know, Siena Mckay Reichert was born on July 21st at 6:56 am. She was 6 lbs even and 19 1/2 inches long. She's growing really well and is already almost 7 lbs.
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| One proud daddy! |
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| So tiny! |
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| Getting ready to leave the hospital! |
When she was born, she had a club foot. You can find info on a club foot on Wikipedia. You can kind of see it in this picture:
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| It's her right foot, and it just looks turned..can you see it? |
Well, just yesterday, Joel and I took little Siena to the pediatric orthopedic in Salt Lake to have it checked out. They already got her in a cast to start correcting it.
I looked on Wikipedia and it sounds like they're using the Ponseti method for correcting her club foot. They could do a surgery, but apparently the casting method works better in the long run. The Dr said that although the surgery corrects the foot in appearance and it looks really nice, it unfortunately leaves scar tissue that often causes the foot to be stiff and they have mobility problems with it when they get older.
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| Caught her smiling..lol what a cutie! |
The Dr said that she will need to come in once a week for 4 weeks to change out the cast, and then after that she will have to wear this "shoe thing"(I'll work on finding out the technical term for it..) for24 hours straight for 3 months. I found a picture that was similar to the "shoe thing" the Dr showed us:
I can't remember when, but I think it's during the casting process, they will have to cut her Achilles tendon(YUCK!), but it apparently grows back on it's own a little longer, and they don't even have to stitch it back together.
After 3 months, she will only have to wear the "shoe thing" at night and during long naps, but unfortunately she'll have to do that for 3 years! kinda crazy huh? Poor little girl! But better to get it fixed now than to have problems with it forever!
So anyway! That's our update for this week! I'll try and post with every Dr's visit. Have a great day!
I looked on Wikipedia and it sounds like they're using the Ponseti method for correcting her club foot. They could do a surgery, but apparently the casting method works better in the long run. The Dr said that although the surgery corrects the foot in appearance and it looks really nice, it unfortunately leaves scar tissue that often causes the foot to be stiff and they have mobility problems with it when they get older.
The Dr said that she will need to come in once a week for 4 weeks to change out the cast, and then after that she will have to wear this "shoe thing"(I'll work on finding out the technical term for it..) for24 hours straight for 3 months. I found a picture that was similar to the "shoe thing" the Dr showed us:
yay! I love her! Thanks for blogging, Kris!
ReplyDeleteShe is so freaking adorable! And it's so great that you are able to starting fixing her foot while she's so young. I've talked to my brother Clay about that in the past... (he's a podiatrist). She is perfect and in a few years, her foot will be working easily too. Congrants you two! I'm in SLC and I want to come see you!
ReplyDelete-Karen
Kristin, that was an excellent post! So glad to get a chance to see this and it helps me understand better, too! Your little Siena is growing, too. Her face looks fuller now and it is exciting for you to watch her grow. You have so many happy times with her ahead. She is a very blessed young lady to have such GREAT parents! Beautiful baby!
ReplyDelete