these shoes AREN'T made for walking!

5.18.10

apparently they're made for causing pain and discomfort. let me explain. (above are sample pictures of the shoes that isabela wears all the time)

a couple of weeks ago we noticed that isabela would start crying out of nowhere. and man would she cry...and cry, and cry. more than your typical toddler cry of- i want something now, or i can't get this huge stuffed animal i jam packed into this tiny basket- kind of cry. when we asked her what hurt her she would grab onto her ankle, or hold onto her knee. we examined her foot to make sure she hadn't stepped on something and i would give her feet a squeeze to see if i got some kind of reaction out of her, but nothing. to double check i would ask her to show momma where it "oww" and again, she would point to said parts.

to be honest, i didn't really think anything was wrong, because she would go days and days without complaining about them; you know, it wasn't like a constant complaint, so i kind of just brushed it off. jaccob on the other hand, freaks out about every little thing when it comes to the girls, so he insisted that i make an appointment with her doctor. finally on sunday i called. we had an appointment on monday at 9 a.m. and so there we went, laddie, daddie, everybody.

the doctor asked me a couple of questions like- when did she start complaining about the pain, did she often jump on a trampoline or anything of that sort, what kind of shoes i let her wear- and i very cautiously answered her questions. i say cautiously because i was somewhat scared to think that something i had done or allowed had caused her to have this pain and i didn't want to hear that i had done something wrong. well, rest easy everyone, it wasn't any fault of mine!

the doctor had me roll isabela's jeans up over her knees and had me place her on the ground without shoes, facing me. she began to tell me that she noticed isabela was heavy footed on the inner part of her feet, in clinical terms, that she was over-pronating in both feet. she said that because of this over-pronation it was actually causing pain in her feet, ankles and consequently, her knees. turns out there really was something wrong with my poor baby!!! i felt so bad that i hadn't taken her seriously and that as her mother i hadn't really seen anything wrong. then again i'm not a doctor, but man, what a blow to my mothers intuition (or lack thereof) :( <----this would be my sad face here.

she also said that if it wasn't corrected she could become flat footed and maybe get ACL tears during her teenage years (if she was in sports). i definitely don't want any of that happening, so we'll do what we can now to correct the problem.

oh yeah and turns out that this can be genetic as well, and guess, just guess who has this situation going on with their feet?! yes, you guessed it...me! i've always noticed that when i buy flip flops from old navy or target that over time the inside part of the shoes are WAY more worn down than the outside of my shoes, and if you look carefully, especially if you're a doctor, you can notice it right away. who would've thought?? i'm an over-pronator as well...it just took me almost 29 years to be diagnosed!!! fortunately for me though, i've never once had a problem with this, no pain, no nothing. leave it up to me to pass this on to my child, geez. i'm kidding. i know there is no way possible i can blame myself, it's all in the genes.

the good thing about all this is that this over-pronation can be corrected without surgery!!! all we have to do is take her to a specialist so that they can make custom inserts for her shoes, so that they equal out the pressure she is putting on her feet. the bad thing though is that she'll have to have inserts made for her different shoes, because as well all know, every pair fits differently. she also has to have new ones made when she outgrows those particular shoes they were custom made to fit. so basically, there's going to be a whole lot of inserts made! here's to insurance! yay!

a little tidbit i should mention, for those of you who aren't aware of this, isabela was born with bilateral clubfeet (clubfoot is a congenital deformity of the foot that occurs in about 150,000-200,000 babies each year worldwide. clubfoot results from the abnormal development of the muscles, tendons, and bones in the foot while the fetus is forming during pregnancy--- this definition comes directly from the ponseti international association found here). so yeah, basically, it can be caused by the way a baby is positioned in the womb, or by genetics. in her case, however, i've never had a clear, cut consensus from doctors as to which one it is.

isabela a couple of days old, you can kind of see her feet turned in

isabela with her special shoes

her doctor in san antonio at the wilford hall medical center (where isabela was born) seemed to think it was genetic, but her orthopaedic pediatric specialist here thinks that it was a result of her positioning...she was of course 9 lbs. 9 oz.!!!!!! not a lot of room in the womb, wouldn't you say?! besides, her feet were "corrected" in such a short period of time, with a minimal of 2 weeks of full leg casts versus the typical 4 week period, along with the daily wearing of her special ponseti shoes with the bar, that he didn't think it was genetic. i like to think that it was the latter of the two also, but regardless of which one it was, she still has to wear her special shoes at night until she is 3 years of age.

since isabela was born with clubfeet, the doctor put in a referral with her orthopaedic doctor and not with a podiatrist. if it turns out her ortho doctor says this isn't a matter for them, then they will let my doctor know and she can put in the correct referral with a podiatrist. she said that with her previous condition though she felt like ortho would deal with it, so i'm hoping she's right. we only have a month left here in VA and i want this all taken care of before we leave, and before jaccob gets out of the navy in august. i definitely don't want to have to deal with this when we're no longer covered by tricare. God only knows what our insurance is going to look like outside of the navy.

i'll keep y'all posted on how she does at this next appointment. right now we have it set for june 8th at 2:45 p.m. at naval hospital. i really hope they can take care of this.

so yeah, these shoes may not be made for walking, but they very soon will be!