February 19, 2016

Well we have made our trip to Portland and met with the orthopedic surgeon for Elliot.  Whew~ what a crazy ride we have been on lately!
We found out that Elliot has "talocalcaneal coalitions" in both feet.  This is unusual for someone his age - at least to the progressed state that he is in.  Surgery is the direction we will be going in a month from now...

The coalition means that the bones have grown together where there should be a joint.  This makes the flexibility of his ankles/feet very limited.  It is also quite painful to move and act like a 9 (almost 10) year old should act.  He is a trooper and has a huge pain tolerance, only stopping when it is searing pain...

The "plastic feet" (custom orthotics) that he has been wearing since July of last year, have helped him tremendously but they have reached their max.  He has been growing like a mad man!  The surgeon told us that he should only need "basic" orthotics to put in his shoes~ so that is even more exciting!

From what the doctor told us he will be cutting the bone on both sides of where the joint should be and then filling it in with a piece of fat taken from the back of his heel.  This will be done to both feet.  So really the only healing will be with the skin and muscle, (since they do NOT want the bone to heal back together) He will need to wear walking casts for a month and can be weight bearing within a week.  He will have to wear the walking casts for a month or so and should be without pain very soon after (meaning the pain he has been experiencing up until now.)   That is the most exciting thing.  He will not necessarily gain mobility of the foot/ankle but the pain is the main issue.

If we don't do this now there is only pain management and the possibility of having to fuse his ankles in the future, which limits his activities tremendously.  We may have to look at that option at some point anyway but this extends that timeline for us...  We just want to allow for him to try and be a part of whatever interests him for as long as possible.

Well, I hope I have answered some of the questions that you had about what is happening with Elliot.  We will not be having the surgery until March 30th.  We only had so many days to choose from and I didn't want to have him recovering during his birthday or over spring break when his grandparents would be out visiting... sooo pushed it back a tiny bit.  Not sure how we are going to be able to make him part of a baseball team during all of this - but we will try!!!  Since that is the one thing he is pretty adamant about wanting~

We all love and miss seeing our families and friends in Colorado!  Sorry I STILL haven't written a "xmas" letter !!  Maybe just keep in the back of your mind that we have been hard at work on making our home ready for guests... hint, hint!

- Jen, Brett and the boys