So, after about three months after his operation. We went to the Physio Department to discuss Ronnies Talipes and what the next process will be with regards to his feet. Physios Hannah and Jenny at Addenbrookes were fantastic. They discussed with us that he's feet will need to be in casts for approximately Six weeks. Me and Sarah were very anxious about this because Ronnie likes to move his legs around a lot and was starting to bend his legs freely and kicking around the whole time. We were concerned about how much this would restrict his movement and how this would impact on his muscles due to the casts being up his legs. The whole purpose of the casting was to make his feet more flexible and put them back into the position where they should be. Ronnie was very good when the casting started. He was well behaved, with a little help from having a bottle of milk at the time. He just laid there and let Hannah get on with it. After a while he realised, he couldn’t move his legs, and this did make him upset. First night he was very upset due to not being able to move his legs as freely as he would be able to normally. Ronnie soon realised that he could bang his legs around and still have a little bit of movement with them, so he was a lot happier with that. We went back to Addenbrooke's for his casting every week and after the first week we noticed a difference with his feet. By the end of the six weeks, his feet were in the position where they should be, which will help him be able to mobilise in the future and be able to walk around. Next thing he would require is special boots with a bar across his feet to keep him in the same position for up to 23 hours a day. For a month to six weeks after that, it went down to just nap and night-time. This could be up until the age of three or five.
When he had his boots and bar on, we had to keep an eye on his skin and watch out for sores because we didn’t know how much sensation he would have due to his Spina Bifida. Therefore, he might not be able to make us aware if it hurt or not. Ronnie however, had better ideas and was certainly able to tell us if he didn’t want them on alright. He became very vocal about it to make sure everyone was aware.
Always Brave, Always Happy, Always Smiling, Our Warriors
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