8 year old with tight achilies tendons Surgery or not?

Lasonda - posted on 07/12/2012

LyRanda,



My child was born at 24 weeks and is about to undergo the surgery. We were told around age three that we would go through at least two surgeries. Botox, which was originally produced for medical reasons such as this, was not an option for us because my child has some muscle weakness and the Botox would relax the muscles more. We went through PT for several years and it seems to prolong the surgery, but there is damage caused to the toes that is only repairable by surgery.



You should get a 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinion.

The least invasive treatment.

Be sure to ask the number of surgeries performed.

The success rate of those surgeries.



Good luck!

Caroline - posted on 07/04/2012

My daughter was born 9 weeks premmie, weighed 3 pounds & 11 ounces, she had many challenges. She was not able to walk un-assisted, she needed support to sit up, drooled constantly, developmentally delayed, frequent body tremors, some seizure like episodes, kind of in a daze all the time, clenched left hand, choking on her food, speach problems, left side weakness etc. She was elevated on her toes when holding her to walk, she was splinted for a leg brace & they wanted to give her botox, but after researching botox and discovering how it’s made and there were no long term studies I decided against it. Her life was restricted & so was mine ...and it looked this way for the rest of her life ... & mine. I felt hopeless.

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LyRanda - posted on 05/10/2011

Thanks Saska, We have now been doing PT for the last couple of months and it seems to help if we remember to do it. We are supposed to do the stretches 2x a day but we have really been having a hard time remembering the last month or so to do the night time ones. We go see the PT again on friday so I am sure she will see he hasn't been stretching like he should be. She said it took along time for them to get this tight and it will take along time to make them stretch back out. So for now we will just keep stretching. Thanks for the help!

Saska - posted on 05/10/2011

I had a similar experience when I was a kid, I couldn't walk on my heals and had my legs in plaster to stretch the tendons for 2 months, then was supposed to have surgery. See if you can see a specialist who can try the plaster cast therapy first, you may find after this treatment and exercises following the cast removal you could avoid surgery depending on the severity of the tendon tightness.
Hope this is helpful for you