Forgot to blog about Ben

It was ages ago now, early March. Ben went to see the orthopedic consultant for his feet. The doctor feels he is happy with the progress considering how severe Ben's talipes (clubfoot) was when he was born. Certainly compared to then, they are amazing. Still, a high percentage of kids his age are fixed well before now.

He is to continue in his brace - which he can still crawl and pull up to stand against furniture even with the bar attached, lol - for at least naps and overnight, but I keep it on throughout a lot of the day too. It is trying to find a balance between helping his feet and not hindering his development further. He can't stand unassisted yet and is yet to walk, but he just started to tentatively cruise last week :)

From the current position of his feet, his doctor feels that as he becomes more mobile and hopefully weight bearing, that that will help to reinforce the downward pressure, but that when he does start to walk he will probably walk on the inner sides of his feet. I don't really get this since his ankles are so weak, to me whenever he loses his position it is always out over. Anyway. He thinks he will need the tendon transfer surgery on both feet that Jack had in 2006, but not for another year.

I just want the best for him you know, it's tough. He tries so hard and in the scheme of things, he's fine and happy and is just a typical little cheeky boy, but sometimes he struggles physically and gets upset.

I'm just tired. Now, I'm sure when Jack had his last op, the doctor said he'd get the next stage after 4 weeks. When I saw him with Ben, he said "um, 6 weeks will be ok". 6 weeks is this week and I haven't even had a letter with a date yet. I'll have to ring them. Jack's next stage will be to get the rest of the wires removed form his foot and casted again (removed) to be measured for AFO's, then another cast until they are ready a couple of weeks later to maintain the post op position. I am very anxious to see the results, but really want him out of the cast. He's been in one since January, he needs a proper bath! When he his healed, his school are also going to try him in a walker to try to push the next stage of his development. Jack can't stand at all, though does have a step reflex, no crawling or pulling up, so he's even behind Ben, he has *extremely* low tone and almost no muscles, only weighs around 25lb. I'm very conscious of the "warning" we were given that if kids aren't walking by around 6 (he's 4.5), there is evidence that they will not ever.