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Writer's pictureCaitlin McConnell

Adult With Cerebral Palsy Schedules Her Life Changing Surgery

Before I share all of the details about the surgery and what my plan is for after the surgery, I wanted to share the history of my right foot and why I am getting the surgery done. I wore AFO leg braces up until I was in 3red Grade witch was when I was 8 years old. I stopped wearing my braces because when I was in the lunch line at School, a boy came up to me and asked me if I had broken my legs and I started to get very upset. After this situation I refused to wear my braces because I was afraid of what other people were going to think or say.

Over the years of me not wearing my braces, my right ankle is turned. I will insert a photo of my foot and a video of me walking so you can see what I mean. As you can see in the video of me walking I literally walk on my ankle and it causes me pain, even when I am not walking on it and the reason why my left foot is fine is because the right side of my body is tighter than my left side of my body.

So what the doctor is going to do is break my foot and reset my ankle bone and he is also going to do muscle lengthening in my right ankle, so that it won’t be so tight. I actually just did some research on the surgery itself and it is actually a very intense surgery. The surgery itself is called a fibula and tibia osteotomy and it involves intentionally cracking the tibia witch is your shin bone and the fibula witch is a smaller bone in your lower leg, usually just above the ankle. This is then followed by rotating the bone into the proper alignment. The plan for my recovery is I will be in a cast for 4 to 6 weeks but I can walk on it within a week, if I feel comfortable. Once I get my cast off, I will be in a walking boot until my AFO leg brace is made then I have to wear an AFO brace for 3 to 6 months after the surgery but after the 3 to 6 months is up I would like to wear the when I work out and when I dress up, so that I can wear heels because dressing up and wearing heels has always been a dream of mine. Even though I am having surgery on my foot, I would like to retrain my whole entire body and what I mean by that is I would like to come out of this recovery stronger than I was before. The message that I would like to share with you all is never make the mistake that I did and don’t be afraid of what other people are going to think or say about you.


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