Thursday, March 17, 2016

Sorry, it's been 4 years!

I didn’t write in this blog for so many years and March 2012 was the last one. My version is very much different from Kak Ina because Adam was reluctant to wear FAB, DB Bar, we faced so many challenges resulting discontinuation of treatment at hospital since he was 4 years old! Click here to read the post. Wow that means it’s been 4 years since my last post.

My Adam now is 8 years old. He went to school like normal kids, he walks, he runs, he climbs, he jumps like any other kids as well, it just that his both feet still turn inwards whenever he does the activities. He is getting used to it even though he can still correct his feet while standing whenever I asked him to. As a mother, I never stop worrying. Deep inside, it hurt so much thinking I am not able to give him treatment that he deserved and I wonder whether it is too late now? I made some research recently and I think I found “something” that might be able to help Adam. I’ll share with you later, maybe in next post – no, it’s not going to take another few years, lol. Before that let me share what we’ve gone through after my last post in 2012. If you have read the post, it was my intention to continue treatment, it just that I do not know where to go whether to Singapore or Bangkok (which is actually not into our consideration due to cost and time factor).

We went to KK hospital in Singapore to seek treatment from one of Ponseti method certified doctor (not sure whether he is still certified Ponseti doctor), Dr Kevin Lim on May 9, 2012. I sent an email to the Doctor and after that receive appointment schedule to choose. During treatment the doctor said Adam has mild residual metatarsus adductus which personally I do not know what was that and we just follow doctor advise to apply casting. I was shocked at the moment when the Doctor said he wants to apply fibre glass casting instead of plaster casting which is not accordance to Ponseti method. It costs us about MYR1000 (after currency conversion from SGD) for both feet casting BELOW KNEE LENGTH. He said my kid already 4 years old and would be difficult to walk around, etc, and I just nod my head dumbly because my mind was flying somewhere else, thinking that I made a wrong decision by seeking treatment here. We never come back for follow up treatment and the casts were removed by my husband at home.

In August 2012, I discussed with my husband to bring Adam to Bangkok so that we can get treatment from Dr Amnuay. He seems reluctant to agree at the first place and later agreed when I said I need 2nd opinion to treat our son. At least we try not to let him left untreated. I made an appointment through Bumrungrad website, we chose appointment date on November 6, 2012 @ 0720hrs and received appointment confirmation. I purchased flight tickets for 4 of us. Few days after that I received an email from the hospital saying that Dr Amnuay would not available on the date of appointment and I replied them saying that I’ve bought flight ticket after received their appointment schedule confirmation.  The next day it was a reply from Dr Amnuay forwarded by the hospital Email Management, asked us to come.  So I arranged all the necessities until suddenly I was inform via text message that Dr Amnuay has taken leave (if I’m not mistaken) and other Doctor will replace him to examine Adam. I still remembered I just checked in to the hotel (a day before appointment) and was walking down the street towards BTS Nana and I can see clearly Bumrungrad hospital when I received the text message (international roaming) from the hospital. I was so frustrated and my husband decided not to go for the appointment so we just sightseeing Bangkok, did a little shopping, find a good meal + halal place, went to Pattaya for a night and our total stay are  4 days + 3 nights. J At least it was not so stressful over our disappointment.. Consider myself not lucky as most of you, who managed to get Dr Amnuay, ya..



Back to Malaysia, I dare not tell my husband about going to Bumrungrad again. I just bought new Markell shoes for Adam and we put on him while he sleeps at night. It can lasts on him for about an hour only before he cried and struggled to get the shoes off from his feet. Since then there’s no more treatment until now..

So it's now 2016 and I want to see an improvement on Adam's feet! 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,

Thank you for the helpful blog. Our first son has a club foot and we are looking for the best place for his treatment. Could you please point us to the right direction? where is the best place to seek help? Currently my son is under "ponseti cast" for the 2nd time which was put up by Putrajaya Hospital. Last Tuesday, they had referred us to Serdang Hospital because they don't have the expertise to treat such case (baby). It is disappointing because we have to wait until August for his first appointment. Then we decided to go to Prince Court to meet Dr. Azli. Judging from his CV, it stated that he has the expertise in treating a club foot. BTW, my son now is 20 days and I hope it's not too late for us to get the best treatment for him. Thank you very much.

Ina said...

Hi..

Thank you for visiting this blog.
You have done the right thing.
Ponseti treatment can treat >90% clubfoot cases.
However we must ensure the treatment obtained as per Ponseti protocol.
Btw, I do not know about Putrajaya GH.
Please avoid Serdang as there are 2 clubfoot cases that I knew end up with surgery.
Mr Azli is one of the paed ortho in HKL during our days getting treatment for Dania.
Other than him, you can go to hukm n ppum.

All the best to you.
Join us at Facebook Clubfoot Malaysia.

Thanks