This is a very personal post and I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about it but realised that when I was looking for reassurance, there really wasn't much on the net, if this post can help just one person, I will be so thrilled!
It began at our 23 week rescan, we were super excited to find out we were expecting a little girl, i was secretly hoping for a girlie :) but all the excitement then turned into heartache as the sonographer turned to us and said "there is something I need to talk to you about" at that moment I felt sick, Ben too, what was wrong, I hadn't prepared myself for something possibly being wrong, "you might have noticed I was looking at baby's legs a lot", her legs?? Oh god what.."it looks like she has something called talipes, where baby's feet turn inwards from being curled up in the womb", that was it for me, I burst into tears, she won't be able to walk I thought.."on occasion it can be linked with other genetic abnormalities as well", what?? My head went into turmoil, I woke up this morning excited and happy and now I feel lost..
We were given a leaflet to look at..with a picture of what talipes looked like, I wasn't interested in the rest of the brochure once I saw that, Ben tried to reassure me that talipes really wasn't that bad, it's easily treated babe he kept saying, looking back I feel so selfish that I wasn't even thinking how this might be affecting him, he had the same news as me, and yet there he was reassuring me and telling me it's all gonna be fine...we got to the car and I called my mom straight away, bursting into tears again, mom there's something wrong, there's something wrong..
We were put in touch with a child physio and planned a meeting to discuss what can be done to help, the STEPS website was recommended for us to look at for advice and somewhere to talk to other parents going through the same thing..it helped, I didn't think it would but it did, it was scary at first, reading about casts and special boots and bars, up until the age of 4..4 years in boots! I began to think of the positives, it's treatable, she will be able to walk, maybe a little later than usual but it's going to happen.
We had the meeting with the physio who reassured us lots, we were then told about positional talipes, this is where the feet are turned in but with just special exercises they should be able to be straighten out, a lifeline!
Cutting a long story short, once Abbie was born we were in the ward and our physio came in to check on her feet, "Yep it's just positional, I'll see you in a few weeks to get you started on the exercises"..we couldn't believe it!! No casts, no boots, yay!! :). We were thinking of the worse case scenario and now we have the best :)
6 months later and many appointments later, with a little bump in the journey where it looked like she may need casts just for a few weeks, her feet are almost perfectly straight! She has a special toe which is set back a little from the others, that's it, We had so much agony and stress over what we thought was coming, it all ended up just fine, beautiful happy feet :)
Obviously we had a very happy end to our story, if she needed casts and boots we would've coped still and everything would still end up perfect but it would've taken a bit longer that's all :) No other genetic abnormalities either which for any parent is a relief, don't get me wrong, we would've loved her exactly the same and nothing would've changed how we felt, she still would've been our little princess :)
I very much recommend the STEPS website, whether your little one has positional talipes, true talipes or other leg/hip problems, they are incredible, the forum is great also, talk to other parents and parents to be and hear stories and get reassurance from those who have been through it too..
If you want any more advice from me personally, I'm happy to speak to you :) click on the contact tab above to send me an email!
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