The first of many visits....

Shriner's Hospital- Salt Lake City
How extremely blessed we are to have this facility so close to our home.

On the casting exam table

The casting beginning all the way down from the foot

to his groin area.

All tuckered out. The blanket was given us from Shriner's.

Yesterday was a long, hard, exhausting and emotional day for me. Hudson and I made the first of many visits to Shriner's Hospital to evaluate his feet. I was hoping that all we would need to do would be stretching exercises but I also knew there was a possibility he made need casting as well.

I dropped Ashtyn and Brice off at Grandma's house and made the 40 minute drive to Shriner's Hospital. We met with the pediatric orthopedic doctor, Dr. Hennessey. All of the nurses and doctors there are super friendly and fantastic. It was determined that he has a mild case of right clubbed foot and possible positional club foot on the left side. The treatment plan will probably be about 1 year long which is considerably shorter than the 3 year process for regular club foot patients. There is a 6-8 week casting phase and because Hudson's right foot is considered a mild case, he would start with phase 3. Dr. Hennessey believes it should only be about 2-3 weeks before he completes the casting phase and will move right to bracing. He will wear the braces for approximately 2-3 months, 23 hours/day and then just naps/bedtime. The doctor thinks the left foot will straighten out normally on it's own or just require some stretching exercises. She will re-evaluate the left foot next week to determine if casting will need to be done.

After the initial evaluation, we moved to the casting room. It was about a 10-15 minute process where his right leg/foot is turned at a certain angle and then casted all the way up to his hip. The cast is made of "plaster of paris". This was the hardest part for me since Hudson was extremely upset during the whole process. I didn't want to have a bawl fest in front of the doctors so I waited until I left. I was told that he could be a little fussy because of the pain from the turning of the foot and to give him Tylenol if needed. Sheesh, the poor little guy cried a ton last night and was so miserable. Kenny and I took turns holding him all night so he would be somewhat comfortable. He seems a little happier today now that he is getting used to this big ol' cast on his tiny little leg. We follow-up next week for re-casting of the right leg/foot and possible left leg/foot as well.

This was definitely not the news I wanted to hear but at least the course of treatment will be a lot shorter than a regular club foot patient. I'm purely in survival mode at the moment as I try to figure all of this out, but once we get adjusted to this new transition, things should hopefully be a bit smoother.