My husband Paul and I welcomed our first son, Jakob, into the world on February 9, 1998. At first, I didn't pay any attention to his feet, although I did count all of his parts. When I went into the nursery to see Jakob (around 2 AM), the nurses started talking about his feet. I really didn't know what they were talking about, so I just went with the flow of the day. When the pediatrician came in later that morning, he explained that Jakob had bilateral clubfeet, but that it was easily treatable. By 7 PM that night, Jakob had his first set of casts. They were done by the on-call orthopedist at the hospital. They were horrible looking, and I can't believe I let this doctor touch my child. The next morning, the edges of the casts had rubbed sores on the back of his knees. They covered the edges, and sent us on our way. After a week in those casts, the orthopedist referred us to Dr. Weinstein at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC). Since we live in Iowa City anyway, we were very thankful.

On February 18, we saw Dr. Weinstein for the first time. He took the time to answer all of our questions and told us what to expect. We did a total of 6 casts with Dr. Weinstein, including the post heel cordtenotomy casts. On April 6, Jakob was fitted with a Denis Browne Splint (or brace as we call it). After a couple days of adjustment, we were all doing great.

It is now almost 2 years later and Jakob keeps us very busy. He has not let his brace slow him down much, if at all. He still wears it overnight (and he even brings it to us on occasion to put it on). He is even getting close to walking in it (which is a scary thought to me).

I hope our experience can help even one person see how non-invasive and easy this method is on us parents and especially our children.

If anyone has any further questions, they can contact me anytime.

Teresa McLaughlin
4790 Rapid Creek Rd. NE
Iowa City, IA 52240
(319) 354-7038
email: teresam@excelonline.com

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