Talipes Information and Parental Support Group
Date: 24 August 1998
From: Daniel Elzinga
<elzingad@vianet.on.ca>
I am not the
parent of a child born with club feet, but I thought it might be nice for parents to read
a story from someone born with it and learn that it is not all that bad. I was born on
December 13, 1959. With talipes equinus in both feet. I don’t remember when I had the
first operation, or how many it took to correct the problem. My parents tell me I went
through 5 separate operations and I have the scars and photos with me in casts to prove it
(see attached file). As a child I suffered
the ridicule of the school yard and was teased quite a bit. That I remember! Mobility was
the real problem. This was endured though and my only memories are good. For example,
playing with friends when I was on crutches; the popular game we played as children was
cowboys and Indians or war, of course my crutches became my rifle. My grandmother still
tells me the story of me climbing up on her roof when I was in casts, and it being
near impossible for her to get me down. I also remember
destroying my casts through my active youth. This is something to consider if your child
is in casts and is as active as I was. I have no fond memories of hospitals but in
retrospect it seems quite humorous. You see, most of the other children I saw in the
hospital when I was there were in to have their tonsils out. Gee, that looked like a
painful thing. Personally I have no memories of pain when I was in the hospital.
There is one scary memory though. I remember when I went to have my casts removed. The
nurse brought out what looked like a power saw and I thought he were going to cut me.
“Vivid memory of me screaming, and then him showing me that the machine could not
hurt me, allowing me to touch it while it was running!”
As I mentioned earlier, mobility was a problem. When I was about nine years old I was out
with my brothers one day and exploring the city. It was very difficult to get home. We had
walked a long distance and my feet began to ache. Eventually I had to sit and rest while
my one brother went ahead and got my parents to get the car to bring me home. This is
still something that plagues me to this day, but I have a bike, so it is of little
consequence. I can get anywhere, even distance.
Over the years I came to learn my limitations and was even able to participate in sports
while in high school. I got into gymnastics and boy could I point my toes. A lousy
dismount and broken wrist put an end to that. As I have said, I have no fond memory of
hospitals and after being in a cast for 5 weeks for the broken wrist I decided to give up
all sports involving any possibility of injury.
Now I am grown and happy and have little if any limitations in my life. Sometimes my feet
still bother me, aching if I’m on my feet for too long. I am a professional artist,
writer publisher and this does not require that I be on my feet all the time.
I know this is a simple story. The real point is that club feet are not something that
will distroy a child’s life. I had what I think was a pretty severe case. My
younger brother, born in 1967, has one club foot. He only went through 2 operations.
Sometimes I feel better off then him. His one foot is a full shoe size different then the
other. (Snicker, snicker) We used to go buy shoes and he would get his pair by putting two
different shoe sizes into on box! He is an honest man and does not do this any more. I
think procedures have changed over the years and it must be quite a bit easier now for
all.
Thank you for allowing me to share my story.
The image is a colourized photo of my grandmother and I on my
front porch in 1965.