Doctor, Doctor…

The pediatrician spent a long time listening to baby J’s heart, and when he was done he said that our boy has a heart murmur. Hmm. This is interesting to me, because when we started this adoption process, I had thought that we would get another heart baby. As it turned out, God had baby J for us, and even though I knew very little about club foot, I knew it was meant to be.
Now our little guy has a heart murmur, and will be seeing little M’s cardiologist next month (along with little M, for her yearly exam).

The pediatrician was concerned about baby J’s smaller leg, and was worried that the muscles there were atrophied, his hips are most likely dislocated from the awkward way he has to walk, and of course, the primary concern for baby J is his foot, specifically the bones in the front of his foot by his toes. He walks on the front outer side of his foot, and this has put pressure on the bones so much that they, and his toes, are severely bent inward. We will see what the orthopedist says, but no matter what is done to fix this, once it is fixed, baby J will have to relearn how to walk, and that will require a LOT of physical therapy. I will be glad to have a plan in place to help our boy, but I feel badly that something that could have easily been repaired shortly after birth was left, and is causing him so much trouble now. Club foot is an extremely minor special need, easily fixed right after birth, and after that is a non-issue. But left to grow, with nothing done to repair it, it has multiplied into many more needs and is quite uncomfortable. Poor baby J!