Cast-free Kylee! {4 weeks post SPOTT surgery}

Our Kylee is now cast free! She ended up being able to get it off 1-2 weeks early than we had anticipated – yay! I have to take a moment to brag on this little girl. She has made this entire process seem like a piece of CAKE. Seriously, she is such a brave, tough little girl and continues to amaze me as she grows!

I mentioned a while back that she happily starting crawling the day we brought her home from the hospital after surgery as it was much easier than being wheelchair bound. It was within 2 weeks she started applying pressure and walking on her left foot. Took us all (including her doctor) by surprise but she insisted she was fine and her doctor gave the OK as long as she tolerated it. Because of her smooth sailing recovery, Dr. Mayfield decided to take the cast off a bit earlier than planned.  You’ll notice her cast is no longer neon yellow and she is sporting the caution orange color here. Somehow she (ahem…Daddy) got her cast wet during one of her baths so had to have it re-casted which is where the orange came in. Bret and I took her this week to have it removed for good! She walked right in there like she owned the place and was happy to get the show on the road…

 

Below are pictures of her incisions… if you don’t handle stitches, incisions and a little dried blood very well, here is your warning to leave and come check the next blog post….

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Dr. Mayfield did a total of 5 incisions. Here are the first three on the inside of her foot. He started at the bottom, took a teeny tiny tendon, sliced it in half (length ways) and then proceeded to transfer it up and around the back of her leg using other incisions to help guide the tendon to the desired spot on the other side of her foot. The pink arrow is the incision where he did a gastroc release to help with her tone issues.

Here is the outside of her foot. You can see the tendon was brought around the back of her leg and again “weaved” under the skin where it was attached to the spot that the middle arrow is pointing to. You can see where the outside of her foot is calloused from walking on on it for so long. Her doc is confident over time and walking in a more natural position that it will all heal itself.

Kylee is now wearing a boot to help protect her foot a little longer. We’re unsure yet as to if she will go from this into a regular shoe or if she will still need to have extra support from an SMO (brace) of some sort, like she wore prior to surgery. She will go back to Cooks in 4 weeks to check her progress and to discuss the next step. Obviously we would love for her to FINALLY be brace-free but understand there may be a few more hurdles to jump before we reach that point, and that’s ok!

Now… some before and after pictures! Here’s a pretty typical picture of Kylee’s foot before surgery. This one was taken in October.

This one was taken at the hotel the night before her surgery. While we could physically manipulate her foot to (somewhat) point it forward, it always went back to this position. Walking, running, standing still, with a brace, without a brace, with or without wearing shoes THIS is what she dealt with 24/7. Although she has never seemed to mind, it was painful to watch and unfortunately, it was only getting worse as the months passed.

Ready for this?! Kylee’s foot as of yesterday…

Seriously. Look at how freaking great she looks! This is NO manipulation at all and is all her. Although she is walking well in her boot, she’s still very hesitant to walking barefoot. The first time she stood without her boot she cried and sat back down immediately. I’m not sure how much of it is pain and how much is just that weird sensation of not having your foot being held in one position because of the cast. Dr. Mayfield said we can expect it to be tender and sore as things loosen up again. I’m very anxious to see once she does start walking on it how everything looks but for now, Bret and I are so please and even more so thankful we have amazing doctors that help our babies thrive!

Here are a couple of shots from the back BEFORE surgery. This is a good representation of the best position we could get her foot into before..

…and a look from the back post-surgery!

There have been several times over the past few weeks, while in her cast, that we notice her leg/foot still turned inward. Her neurologist and surgeon are keeping an eye on the rest of Kylee’s left leg. We’ve had several doctors think she has a mild case of tibial torsion (where the tibia twists abnormally) going on while others don’t think it’s an issue. One thing that is certain is that kids with hemiplegia cerebral palsy are at a very high risk for abnormal bone development on their affected side. We’ve been told over time, there’s a good chance Kylee could develop other issues further up her leg that we may need to address. All of that, of course, depends on her growth and the results we see from this surgery. While it seems obvious her foot will be MUCH better from here on out, what we don’t know is how much of that twisting was her actual leg and not just her foot.

Before we left Dr. Mayfield’s office she let him know she was “ready for him to fix her left hand”. Bless her heart. Makes me sad but also happy at the same time knowing she feels that safe with him! He explained to her that he doesn’t work on kids’ hands but his very good friend did and that as soon as we finish up her foot, he would be happy to introduce her to Dr. Sherman. One thing at a time, baby girl!

Thank you all for your support through this surgery (and the others we just had!). We greatly appreciate all of the prayers, the cards, the meals and the extra help with the kiddos. Bret and I are so so blessed to have so many people who care and who back us through whatever is thrown our way!