on the 12th we had another appointment with the physio. Just a follow up, they squeezed us in before christmas. the physio was really happy with her progress, and the measurements and tests all came back normal. so they decided to discharge her from treatment, she was going to have her file kept at the hospital, but only untill the end of march, incase she has a relaps, but other than that she was classed as 'normal'.

However, over the last week, we have celebrated christmas, and there has been alot of excitement, alot of playing and running around, and the weather has been so hot and muggy. we have noticed that Charlotte has been walking up on her toes alot lately. we have had to remind her a few times every day, and i am starting to get concerned again. hopefully it has just been all the excitement and things will settle down, but i it is like this in the new year, she will probably need to be re cast...

so the casts came off today..... and we went home without any more on!!! in 2 weeks she had gained over 20degrees of movement in both feet. they are now both even, and classed as 'normal' now! she got an insert to put into her shoe to stop her from being able to get up on her toes easily in the shoes, and has to wear them for around 6 hours a day for the next few weeks. we dont have to go back to the physio till next month now. its just a matter of making sure the habbit of toe walking doesnt take over, as she could easily revert and undo all the work. if she does do that, then she will need more casting in the early months of next year.

im so glad it worked, it was worth it. to see how well she is walking now, though her ankle muscles are verry weak from being in the casts for 2 weeks, im glad we did it. we still have some home physio to do to help her strengthen the muscles, but they are all game type things, like tunnel ball, soccer games, walking on her heals only, things like that. and she can finally do those sort of things. although she used to always run on her toes, she couldnt play tunnel ball, she would always get top heavy and fall, its not easy bending over like that when your on your toes. she could kick a ball with amazing accuracy, and still can (we tried it today). the pool and bath were a big hit today as she hasnt been able to use either in 2 weeks.... man 2 weeks seems like such a long time.

so far so good.... i cant believe we made it this far, the worst has past, and the future holds minor adjustments in a worst case scenario.

well, we go back to the hospital for physio again tomorrow, and im hoping we will come home without casts on. so far she has done hardly any damage to the toes of this weeks casts, and the heals are worn pretty well. she has even started running heal toe! i guess i will be dissapointed if she does get the casts put back on, and she will probably be upset if she goes home without some. she has been telling everyone that she is going to get pink ones. i'll just be glad when i can hear her little feet on the tiles again, and she can feel grass on her feet. oh, and she can have a bath again!!! i'll be sure to update you tomorrow on how we go. hopefully its a good result!

ok, where to start. Yesterday was physio day again. we'll start with the cast removal and testing...

The cast removal was pretty standard for a fibreglass cast, they used the saw connected to a vacuum, she was really good about it, even though she was a little afraid of the noise she just let them do it. once we got to wash the stinky feet she got to hop down and have a walk around.... and she was pretty much FLAT footed. most of the steps she took were heal toe, which nearly made me cry, before the casting the best we could get was flat straight down, never heal toe. the casting had done what it was supposed to. she could even, for the first time in her life, stand flat footed and bend over and look at me between her legs. it was amazing! i didnt realise how much she couldnt do till now. because she was always on her toes, she would get off balance if she tried to bend over like that. now she can play tunnel ball!

next came the testing. they got charlotte to lay on her stomach like last time, and pushed her toes up towards her knees and used their little instrument to see how much range of motion she had, and she had gained 15 degrees in one week! it was amazing, totally worth it. hearing that she had made so much progress was just what i needed to keep me strong for the next week of casting, maybe even her last week depending on how well this one goes.

Then we had to re cast. this time it was a more uncomfortable one for charlotte, she had to wait for what seemed like half an hour for all the extra padding to be put in place, then the casting was more uncomfortable and tighter. they pushed her foot to it's limit, and it looked painful, then hold it there untill the cast had set. my poor little girl was laying there, clearly in discomfort, and i  couldnt do anything about it, i had actually taken her there to get it done...

So now, Charlotte has purple casts, that hold her toes off the ground, she is litterly being forced to walk on her heals. and the count down begins again... while i was at the physio i asked again how common this condition is, as i have been continually told that it is quite common, and was promptly told that the paediatric physio does on average 4 per YEAR! at a teaching hospital, they only do 4 a year... how common is that? to me i would say it's rare. the treatment is done for club feet aswell, so those 4 they do a year is for toe walking, and club feet put together.... talk about misinformation. no wonder i cant find anyone else who has had to do this