The Splint

Ethan has been living with pain in his heels for about 9 months or so. I took him to a podiatrist who told us it was Severs Disease (not really a disease but a dis-at-ease). The growth plates in his heels have become inflamed and they hurt really badly. The doctor told us to buy some heel cups and have him discontinue all physical activities. The doctor wasn't impressive and didn't spend any time with us. I wasn't very happy but Ethan loved him because Ethan was playing soccer at the time and wasn't enjoying it too much. So the doctor had just given him an excuse to stop playing when the season ended.

The cups didn't work at all and actually made the pain a lot worse. We tried to get him to stretch but he wouldn't listen to us and things weren't getting any better. After watching him limp all over on Wednesday, I called a different podiatrist who got us right in.

I took Ethan in on Friday and the doctor spent a ton of time with us. The new doctor confirmed that Ethan does have Severs Disease but said that he should be able to become pain free and still play in activities and do what he would like to.

The doctor showed Ethan some stretches to do, gave us a new insert into his shoes, and then gave us a night-time stretching splint for Ethan to wear while he sleeps. The doctor told us that the pain should be quite a bit less in 2 weeks and that he should be feeling great in a month.

Ethan has been stretching and he has been wearing the splint at night (which hasn't bothered him at all) and his pain has gone down considerably!! Bryan always asks him to rate his pain on a scale of 1-10 and it was always a 7 or 8. This morning it was a 1, so I think things are looking up...which is good because basketball season starts next month.