June 2004

Cullen is almost a year!! He is pulling himself up, cruising, standing, etc. On the "Cullen's Progress" page I have included recent pictures of his feet and legs. He still spends a little time each day in his jumper to keep his tendons and calf muscles strong. He wears the bar and shoes pretty much only when he sleeps, which in his case is a lot!!! (12 hrs per night plus 2 two-hour naps!) We are in the second pair of shoes, which are easier to get on than the first pair since they are bigger now.  

 

Feb 2004

Still wearing the bar quite a bit, since he is not pulling himself up yet... Keep working at it buddy!!!

 

 

Dec 19, 2003...

Happy Birthday PaPa!

Cullen is in the last days of wearing the bar full time. We go to see the Dr in January and hope that we will be given the green light to only wear it when he sleeps!  

 

Oct 20...

No more casts! We are on to what we hope will be the last stage, which is the shoes with the bar (called a Dennis Browne bar, or a Dennis the Menace bar according to my friend Wendy). We wish we could say that he loves it, but that is not the case. He screamed a lot at first (and right at the orthotic guy) but seems to be slowly getting back to normal. We stretch his feet and try to give him breaks often, but he needs to wear the shoes about 23 hrs per day for the next three months.

 

Sept 26....

Cullen had surgery on Sept 25 to lengthen the Achilles tendon on both feet. This was after 7 casts (it would have been 8, but one set he wore for 2 weeks), the first set when he was only 9 days old! Cullen has done very well, and we are thankful we are finished with plaster casts!

 

We are very thankful for Children's Hospital in Columbus for the great way that we were treated. It is a blessing to have access to this type of care.