Drop Foot due to Tethered Cord

[ecjoann]

My daughter was born 8/92. They thought she had spina bifida, because she had an indentation & fatty patch. She had an ultrasound & x-ray. They told me everything was fine. Well, fast forward to summer of '94, I noticed when running for cheerleading her foot was flopping. It didn't bother her. I took her to ortho dr. he did an MRI. She had tethered cord at L-5. I took her to an neurosurgeon and surgery was within 1 wk. He said no further damage, but what was gone couldn't come back. She had a tendon transfer to straighten her foot and release her toes from curling under. That worked fine. She went to P/T her foot still can't lift. She had an EMG her peroneal nerve is "0". She cheers on a competition team. She practices 12-15 hours/wk. She also does gymnastics 2x/wk. They said it would take 1"/month for her nerve to grow and to continue with what she's doing. She started to flicker her foot. She also was told to take B-6. Good for the lower extremeties. Could it come back completely?

[ecjoann]

Hi All, I wanted to give an update on my daughter. Well, Feb. 2006, she had a tendon split. The doctor split the nerve that goes to her big toe and attached it to her 4th toe bone, hoping that her foot wouldn't turn in. It still dropped, but cosmetically it looked better. She refused to wear the AFO brace. She used to hip throw her foot. Well I still wasn't happy with that surgery. I did see Dr. Nath near Philly that summer. He said "too long since the nerve damage". So I took her to CHoP. The doctor there suggested a posterior tibial tendon transfer. What he did was take the muscle or tendon that makes your foot go down and make it pull up. She had the operation Feb. 2007, she was in the cast for 6 wks. Took the cast off and her foot was able to lift. We're in PT now. It's going real well. She now needs to learn how to retrain her mind to walk in a normal gait.