Clubfoot affects an average of 1 in 1000 live births¹. Clubfoot is found mostly in males sometimes either one or both limbs affected. And with several methods of treatment clubfoot babies can grow and lead a somewhat normal life often filled with pain and misery. Without foot problems one may not be able to understand what it is like to live with what I call a terrible birth defect. In school and other activities with children a youngster with clubfoot is ridiculed and made fun of as well as bullied. In this article I describe my own life and how clubfoot affected my growing up and physical and mental wellbeing with remarks about others with clubfoot learned through many tears going to Shiners’ Hospital. Within where possible Clubfoot facts are given with reference to the source or solely my own facts from memories of 55 years with clubfoot.
Clubfoot people who have lived a few years into their teens or later often are affected by severe arthritis and or bone spurs. With clubfoot the limb is generally shorter than the normal limb and the club foot is shorter by 1/2 to 1 shoe size.
As with my case no special shoes was used to correct this difference. Even with correction made the leg is never the same as the normal unaffected limb.. A limp is seen with the affected leg with a smaller calf which in my case is small and week from muscle apathy caused form the ankle being fused to limit movement almost completely in my 16th year because of severe crippling arthritis.
I must back up to my birth in 1954 to give more fully my condition and how I was treated and include some information which you may find not only informative but amusing.
I was born in 1954 in Atlanta Georgia which luckily has a Shrine’s Hospital for Children. As I understand admittance to the hospital was on a system of nomination by Masons or Shiners.
My dad worked with two gentlemen that got me into the Scottish Rite Hospital for crippled children. My first and all time favorite doctor was the famous Dr. Hiram Kite₃ and about age 13 to 16 by . Without whose care I may have actually never walked. At age 16 surgery to fuse my right ankle corrected the problem or degenerative joint disease and arthritis which had been a source of pain and general discomfort and difficulty in performing any walking and running generally performed all through a young person’s life.
In younger years if walking from school or playing football when I sat for a few minutes like on the bench in a baseball game my right ankle swollen and hurt severely. But as most kids pain did not keep me down. Only after swelling did I have to rest due to its severity. It was hell to be crippled. Kids do not seem to have any remorse for what they can put you through. Never being able to wear modern and popular styles of shoes limping and just not being normal was something to live with. Not only did I myself have it rough life but my mother had to carry me wearing old plaster cast to the hospital everyday for a time. Not being able to afford a stroller my older sister helped carry me my weight being a few pounds heavier with cast on both legs contributed to her being a tom boy. And when casting a popular method of treatment had to return to the hospital every two days then once a week then every two weeks as babies grow causing a new cast to be used.
In the casting method a doctor will twist and pull the foot (something I remember as god awful) then apply cast. Remembering cast on at 3 years old being removed by an orderly with a carpenter’s hand saw. Then several years of wearing a brace at night which could not be walked in. During that time my foot was pulled and twisted which never felt good. After surgery at age 16 I was dismissed from Scottish Rite Hospital no longer being a child.
It was 4 years later at 20 years old until I went to another podiatrist only after almost fainting from pain working as a machinist. The doctor did make some inserts for my work boots. A new pair of boots which I wore out in 6 months putting a hole completely through the sole of my left boot required a new pair of inserts. After making the second pair of inserts which worked very well to relieve pain when standing the doctor refused to make a third pair. His desire was to break all the bones in my feet reconstruction them which if worked would require six months in bed and a year or more out of work. Well I didn’t go for it. I did not return and the next podiatrist I saw was in 2004. I had a brace made for my right ankle to support the arthritis ridden ankle joint. My ankle is still much better than before fusing but very week from arthritis and hurts some, more than a few years ago.
I wish not to alarm but inform clubfoot patients and parents. In my experience doctors will sometimes say the affected limb will not be a problem. I have never met or heard of a clubfoot victim that did not have some life of pain from treatments and or results of bone spurs and arthritis or other problems. Knees and hips and back are all affected by clubfoot. Be sure to ask your doctor about problems from clubfoot. If you know anyone with a clubfoot baby please urge them to get treatment as soon as possible.
₁Wikipedia
₂Clubfoot club org
₃Children’s Orthopaedics of Atlanta
