Serial Casting

We had a pretty good week. The boys were off school for President's Day on Monday and Tuesday so they only had a short week at school. As usual, Jake had several therapy appointments this week and we made a decision on Wednesday to try a new treatment for him. We've been talking about some different options to try and help his gait. Even with the botox, his foot is still rolling to the outside edge when he walks and his knee is turning outward. His PT and the orthodic specialist recommended we try serial casting which will stretch his heal cord and increase the range of motion in his ankle. This will also help his foot fit better in the new brace he'll be getting after the casting treatments. He was fit for the brace he has now while he was still in the hospital and his ankle muscles haven't come back as quickly as they thought they would, so it's really not working the way it was intended.

He got the first cast on Friday. What they did was hold his foot in what would be a fairly neutral position for most of us, cast it and he'll wear it for a week. Each week for 3-4 weeks, they'll bring the foot up a little higher stretching the heel cord a little bit more and put on a new cast. We were really worried about how it would affect his mobility, but he's doing great. He gets a little off balance due to the weight of the cast, but he's able to walk and get around just fine. Funny enough, his biggest worry about the whole thing was having to wear athletic/sweat pants to school since he's definitely a jeans kid. He is quite excited that he gets a break from PT and home PT for the next few weeks since there isn't too much we can do with his cast on. As always, he's being quite the trooper.