Maybe she'll be a foot model after all!

In the first few days after Kendall was born, one of the first things that I noticed was her overlapping toes.  Having had foot problems for most of my life, I was concerned about it and asked her doctor when he visited us in the hospital.  I was told that they should straighten out over time, and that she'd "probably never be a foot model", but should be able to walk, run, jump and do everything that she wanted to do.

Over time, and especially as she began to walk, he toes did straighten out a bit.  However, she never seemed to have the balance that she should have, and would trip and fall quite often.  She would also get blisters on her toes as they rubbed against one another when she wore shoes.  

My mom urged me to take her to a specialist after hearing a horror story about the surgical procedures needed for an older child with a similar problem.  The specialist diagnosed her with "curly toes" and recommended a quick surgical procedure that would fix the problem.

On Monday, Kendall had the surgery to straighten her toes.  Formally called a "bilateral toe tenotomy", the surgery involved cutting the tendons in the affected toes, allowing them to stretch and straighten.  We should also see increased mobility and flexibility in the toes.  I guess that this type of surgery is also used for children with hammer toes and club feet.  The surgery was at 8:30 a.m., and we had to check in by 6:30, so our bleary eyed crew woke up about 4:30 a.m. and was out of the house a little after 5:30.

Once at Children's Hospital, we checked in, waited, met with the nurses, doctors and anesthesiologist, watched a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and then the nurses scooped up our baby and took her away.

The surgery only took about 30 minutes - long enough for Dan and I to shove some food in our mouths at the cafeteria.  They paged us and ushered us into a waiting room where we met with the doctor.  Everything went well and they only had to cut the tendons in two toes on each foot.  We thought they were going to have to cut three on each foot.  We waited another hour and then were able to visit her in the recovery room.  

The poor thing cried and wailed for a good 20 minutes, but calmed down after she received a second does of pain medication and about 4 cups of juice.  We spent about an hour and a half in the recovery room, then we were discharged and headed home.

Recovery at home has gone amazingly well.  We removed the bandages on Wednesday morning and now have her feet covered with socks.  She has dissolvable stitches which should stay in for another week.  By Wednesday she was up and moving around pretty normally, and by Wednesday evening, she was back to her fun-loving self.

Monday night - watching shows on the ipad and feeling pretty good on the pain medication

Monday night - looking straighter already!

Tuesday night - getting around, but crawling...

...with more of an attitude

Bandages won't make it much longer

  

Wednesday morning - showered, had my bandages removed and feeling back to normal!

We had a hard time with this procedure, because we really didn't want to put her through the surgery.  I felt horrible about it, and found myself second guessing the decision the night before we took her in.  I want Kendall to be able to do anything in life that she wants to do.  She comes from two athletic families, and if she chooses to be an athlete, I didn't want to regret not helping her when we could.  I know that we made the right decision, and it has been a pretty easy recovery process.  Who knows, with those brand new toes, maybe she will be a foot model one of these days.