Brody's Precious Feet - Week 1

At our 20 week Ultrasound Brody had an irregular heartbeat so we were sent to Fort Wayne the next week to a specialist. The heartbeat ended up correcting itself but in the ultrasound they noticed that he had clubfoot. I didn't really know much about it at the time so I went home and read about it and it made me nervous/scared reading the process our little guy would have to go through to correct this. Dan and I spent lots of time praying and continue to spend lots of time praying for little Brody. I am so thankful that God understands all my fears and heartache and helps me through it all.

Well here we are Now at the beginning of the process. As you can see in the pic both of his feet are turned. It is kind of hard to tell how much they are actually turned because his legs are curled up in this pic. I never actually got a good pic because I didn't realize he would be getting his casts on so soon.

We went to our 1st doctor appt. this past Tuesday, August 9, and they ended up putting his first set of casts on. It was a little more traumatic than what I thought it would be. I cried a lot during the casting and for the next 24 hours! Brody didn't handle it very well. He cried in pain for about 24 hours and then he started to get back to his normal happy self. It was a long 24 hours. It was so heartbreaking holding him and trying to comfort him while nothing seemed to help.

So far the plan is as follows:

• Brody will have casts for about 12 weeks and will get new ones every week.
• The doctor told us that 80% of the time babies with clubfoot have to have their tendons cut in the back of their heal to help correct and straighten the feet.
• Brody will then have to have to wear braces on his feet until at least age 2.
• 20% of the time further surgery would be required down the road (praying we are not in this percentage).

Next Steps: This Monday 8/15 I will have to take his casts off by soaking them in water and vinegar. I have been told this will be a long process until i get it all figured out. I will have to do every week the night before each of his appointments.

Please pray for Brody during this time and pray for us as it is a lot of things to do and very hard to see him go through this. We are very thankful this is something that can be fixed at such a young age.