First Day of Casting

My daughter, Anja. has a foot deformity called Congenital Vertical Talus.  It is too severe to be corrected by casting alone so we have bounced the idea of surgery around for a few years.  Her ortho doctor, who is wonderful and I like him very much, never made us feel like the surgery was necessary, but that it was more of a cosmetic type of deal, so we never felt that it was urgent.  However, after repeated visits and x-rays, he finally decided to consult with a more experienced doctor up in Seattle.

The x-rays were sent, and the reply was swift: do the surgery!  We were urged to consider surgery on her feet to help preserve her ability to walk.  Although she gets around well enough right now, there is a good chance that could change when she's older.  Doing the surgery now could keep her on her feet and out of a wheelchair for the long-term.  With this new revelation, we decided to go ahead with the surgery.  And we decided to try to do it before baby Isabelle comes, which means casting needed to begin immediately.  This initial pre-surgery casting is for the purpose of loosening her tendons for surgery.  He's afraid he will have to stretch them out quite a bit during surgery, so this should prevent that.

On Friday morning Anja was casted with her first set of casts, and she will now require weekly cast changes for four weeks leading up to the surgery.

Before we left for the hospital, I took one last picture of my sweet girl up on her feet.

She was NOT happy at the hospital.  Who would be?  Look at the size of those beasts!

After her casting, we had time to make it to First Friday Mass.  I was hesitant to take her anywhere so immediately after having the casts put on, but she was cracking jokes and laughing in the car afterwards.  She was in surprisingly great spirits, so I felt okay venturing to Mass, and it ended up being a daily Mass for the Dead which I had never been to before.  Oh, those black vestments.

After Mass, we barely had time to grab a quick lunch before hastening to my older son's dentist appointment.  By the time we got home that evening, it was already dinner time.  I was fully exhausted, but before venturing into the kitchen I decided to give Anja her gifts.  The night before casting I had run out to grab her some activities to help keep her busy during these tedious hours stuck in a sitting position.

Lugging the wheelchair in and out of the van is proving difficult for me (not only is it heavy, but I'm 7 months pregnant.)  The casts are also pretty heavy and I'm already struggling to pick her up and move her around the house.  I foresee lots of time spent at home.