Run, Kellen, Run!

For as long as I can remember, Kellen has walked on his toes. Actually, I never really noticed it. But other people pointed it out regularly. At 3 years old, the doctor said not to worry about it. At 4 1/2, the doctor said I should take him to see the orthopedic specialist to determine if there was a cause and how to correct it. This was back in June.

So, I took him to see Dr. Carlen. Dr. Carlen stretched his feet and watched him walk and said that he needed about 10-15 degrees more movement in his calf and ankle muscles. The doctor explained that they can't usually determine which came first (the chicken or the egg)...did he start walking on his toes because his muscles weren't long enough, or did his muscles not stretch because he walked on his toes? I think the toe-walking came first and with his growth spurts (the bone grows first), the muscles never had to stretch. So he prescribed physical therapy 2-3 times per week, as well as some leg braces to force Kellen to push his heels down.

He started physical therapy shortly after. His therapist is really nice and sweet and she showed me how to stretch him each day to increase the movement. He sees her a couple of times a week and she does exercises with him to increase his muscle. They do really fun stuff inside and outside. They have a Nemo room, Mickey room, play kitchen, cars, even real horses that Kellen got to feed his first time.



He was finally able to get his leg braces today. It took a while to get an appointment, then I thought they were making the braces, and it turned out they were trying to get a hold of me to approve the balance not covered by insurance. Once I approved that, they had to make them, and we barely picked them up today. The office was really nice and waived my co-pay though. That saved me over $200. So they fit his braces on him and some special shoes that go over them. He has to wear them a couple of hours a day and increase in time until he can wear them all day. But he can take them off if we go somewhere.



His first time walking in his new braces:


So now we continue physical therapy and stretching several times a day and remembering to put the braces on every day to try to get this issue corrected. He's aware that we're trying to correct it and I try to remind him to "walk on his feet" but his habit is deeply ingrained, so it will take some effort. With some time, walking with his braces won't be such a chore.

And these pictures I took to show typical Kellen:
Here he is asking what the fake foot is and what it is for:



And here he is asking what the ruler/knobs are and what they are for:



He asked about 300 other questions and made almost as many comments. When Derek handed Bridger and Kellen each 1 sticker, Kellen asked, "Why did we get one sticker?" He's such a sweet and friendly boy. Some people are taken aback by how friendly he is. But most of them time, people are friendly back and think he's adorable. I think he's pretty darn adorable too!