Background

• When my daughter was 5 months old we realized her left leg was shorter than her right leg and her left foot was smaller than her right foot.

photo at 6 months old- 1.3 cm. difference

•  We saw an orthopedic surgeon who diagnosed her immediately and told us when she was about 10 we would do a leg lengthening procedure to help her legs be more even. We saw him every six months to annually after that.

 


X-ray of right leg at 5 months





X-ray of left leg at 5 months: you can tell the Fibula is shorter, causing the Tibia to bow, also the "circle" above the Tibia is much smaller than the one one the right (love my medical terminology)

   

• Luckily she has all of her bones and toes, and her ankle is relatively stable so weather or not to amputate wasn't a decision we had to make. 
• At 5 mos. when she was diagnosed she had a 1.3 cm. difference. The difference did grow through the years and at 9 years old it is 6 cm. different. It s projected to be 7.5 cm. different if we didn't do anything.





Age 9: 6 cm. difference

CT scan at 9 yrs. old- solid white lines are taking the measurements





• She wore an AFO (ankle foot orthotic) while sleeping from 6 mo. to 3 years old, then switched to wearing it during the day from 3 yrs. to 8 1/2 years old. She went back to wearing it only during the night from 8 1/2 to 9 yrs. old and was just told she doesn't have to wear it at all since we will be doing the leg lengthening procedure in 2 months.



AFO's: 1st one at 6 mo. (too cute!), sample of the one she wore during the day, and the last one she had to wear (worn at night only)

• In Kindergarten she explained it was hard for her to do things at PE and her legs would get tired from either bending the long leg to get her short leg on the ground or standing on the long leg only so she began to wear a 2 cm lift on her shoe. We kept it at 2 cm. even though the difference was greater because it gave her some relief while not affecting her balance.

Basketball shoes: shows 2cm lift and shoe size difference

Close up of lift

• Originally her shoe difference was 1 size but it has grown to 3 sizes different through the years. Luckily when she wore the the AFO during the day it made her feet the same size so we didn't need to buy different size shoes.