Mr Eli has Talipes…What happened next?

Just hours after Eli was born, 6th August 2012.

It’s just dawned on me that I have failed to write about Eli’s Talipes! I did blog about it when I was pregnant as it was found when I was having additional scans at UCLH, you can see the original post here: Hospital Update: Baby Boy bump has (mild) Bilateral Talipes. And I mentioned it in the 4 week update I did, here: An Eli Update: 4 Weeks Young. But I haven’t updated my blog with the developments since…

So from the top, it was found during an additional scan at UCLH that ‘baby boy bump’ had mild Bilateral Talipes. As the weeks progressed and I got bigger,  it meant that ‘baby boy bump’ got more and more squashed up inside me. This was the cause for Eli’s Talipes; it’s “positional” due to him literally being too big for me!

As you can see, from the first picture above (taken just a few hours after Eli was born), the Talipes looks really mild. But it turns out Eli was quite lethargic after my traumatic labour and birth. It wasn’t until he was home that we noticed how much he pulled his feet inwards (picture below).

This photo looks distorted, must have been a strange angle! Eli is 4 days old.

We were seen by a Paediatrician just before we left Broomfield Hospital and we were told that Eli would need his hips X-rayed and of course, Physio. I was told to expect both appointments within a few weeks.

After 3 weeks, I spoke to my Health Visitor who advised to wait one more week and then chase. I chased and chased and chased. I was pushed from pillar to post between departments. I couldn’t believe how badly organised everything was. (Hence why I haven’t actually written about this until now!). It was an absolute shambles. I finally received an appointment for Eli to have his hips scanned when he was 7 weeks old. During the scan I was told his hips were absolutely fine! (PHEW!) And again, that his feet were an isolated case due to him being so crammed in (Sorry boy).

I was STILL yet to receive an appointment for his Physio at this point. But as we have common sense, from birth, we had been massaging Eli’s feet ourselves with exercises we found on the internetz.

8 weeks old, after his first set of immunisations.

-You can see Eli’s left foot is much straight, but his right is still pulling inwards.

We saw a marked improvement with this – until about 9 weeks, when it just seemed to not get any better. It felt like we’d hit a brick wall. I finally had my appointment with the Physio when Eli turned 10 weeks. I’d like to point out at this is appalling. It took 10 weeks to finally see someone and the Physiotherapist, although absolutely lovely, gave me the exact same exercises to do. She said that it’s the muscles and tendons on the insides of both feet that are tight; causing Eli to pull his feet inwards. She suggested that Eli might need plaster casts, and in her opinion, it would only be for a week. I already had another appointment organised with a leading Talipes Consultant at Broomfield for when Eli was 12 weeks old. Again, this is terrible – we should have had Eli seen by a Consultant WAY BEFORE he got to 3 months old. I’m extremely unhappy about how long it’s taken and the awful communication, or lack thereof, between departments.

10 weeks old feets 🙂 

Last week we finally saw the Consultant at Broomfield. He looked at Eli’s legs, hips, spine, neck and feet. Which we didn’t expect, but was really reassuring. He agreed that Eli has Positional Talipes and has advised a course of plaster cast treatments. The casts will go from his foot and up his thigh – to avoid him kicking the pot off! When the Consultant left I spoke with the Senior Nurse (who organised our first appointment for THIS week). The Nurse advised that Eli will wear the casts for up to a fortnight at a time and will then need to wear special boots inbetween plaster cast treatment, the Consultant did not mention this, so I’ll see on Wednesday of this week what the definite course of treatment will actually entail. This sounds like Eli would be undergoing the Ponseti Method, but like I say, we’ll find out this week.

I am SO SO pleased that our beautiful baby boy is finally getting his little feets sorted out. Better late than never I suppose.

I’d like to hear from you. Has your little one undergone treatment for Talipes? What was your experience? Can you offer any advice or tips?

MM.

PART TWO: Cramping, Spotting and an emergency ultrasound scan.

We have GOOD NEWS!!

We went for the second scan at the Early Pregnancy Unit today – just under two weeks since my first scan. (You can read what happened during our first scan, here: PART ONE: Cramping, Spotting and an emergency ultrasound scan.). We were so anxious for the re-scan, for obvious reasons. But the Sonographer was able to find the baby straight away, with a very very healthy  and strong heartbeat. My DP immediately had tears. I however, was just so relieved – I can’t even tell you. The heartbeat was this absolutely mesmerising flickering movement within the sac.

I was measured at around 7-8 weeks. Which by my dates works out right – infact according to my dates I’m 8 weeks +0 today.

So so happy!!

We just can’t wait until the 12 week scan now – to get more of a look at our developing baby!

MM.

 [EDIT – I also wanted to add that I have not had any further spotting or cramps since Week 6].

PART ONE: Cramping, Spotting and an emergency ultrasound scan.

So I have a few things to talk about since my last post. I had some cramping, that initially started mild. The type of pains you have when you feel AF just around the corner. Then on 30th November the cramping was getting much worse and was lasting around 5 minutes. The cramping was really low down, almost at my pubic bone. I googled the cramping and found that is was completely normal! PHEW! It’s just all your muscles stretching.

But then yesterday I went to the loo at around10:30am at work. I noticed a TINY amount of brown spotting. But the spotting mixed with my cramps (and still not knowing when my first Midwife appointment will be!) made me call the doctors. My doctor gave me a telephone appointment and referred me to the EPU (Early Pregnancy Unit) at Broomfield hospital, Chelmsford.

I was told to arrive at my 10:30am appointment with a relatively full bladder. We arrived at the hospital early, at 10:05am with the full bladder.  Time ticked on and I was eventually seen at 12noon! Needless to say I thought I was going to pass out with the pain of having to wait all that time with said full bladder. I had emptied my bladder, slightly, to relieve the pain, FOUR times whilst waiting to be seen. When I went in for the scan, I was told I was ‘too full’ for a normal scan and so had to empty my bladder completely (really pleased I sat there in agony for all that time and didn’t need to be!) and a Transvaginal Ultrasound Scan was used instead. The scan was uncomfortable, but wasn’t painful.

Unfortunately, the news we had this morning wasn’t good. The Sonographer was able to locate a small sac (dating me at 6 weeks) but could not find a heartbeat. We were told that it could either be too early to find the heartbeat or it could have been because my bladder was so full its altered the scanning capabilites. I have to go back for a further scan on Friday 15th December. We’re feeling really really hopeful. And I just have to make sure that my bladder is not as full next time!

Fingers crossed for us!

MM.