Forty years on two clubfeet

Everything on this site carries my name and a review date, which only means something if you know what is behind the name. So: bilateral clubfoot (club foot, or talipes equinovarus), casts and surgery as an infant, years of bracing, a relapse, a fusion at sixteen, the Army, and a great deal of running.

The record

Decade by decade

Not a story arc. What my chart says happened, when, and the photographs that survived it.

Casts before I left the hospital

Bilateral clubfoot. Casting started before I left the hospital I was born in: three times a week at first, then weekly, about fifteen cast changes in four months.

At four months both feet had a posteromedial release, an extensive operation that frees tight ligaments and lengthens tendons along the inner and back side of the foot, with a pin in each foot and more casts afterward. That was ordinary for 1985. The Ponseti method existed and was not yet standard in most places.

How casting is scheduled now → What that era of surgery leaves behind →

Newborn Heath crying in a bassinet with casts on both legs, 1985 — **1985 · newborn**Both legs in plaster from the start. Casting began before I left the hospital I was born in: three times a week at first, then weekly, about fifteen casts before surgery at four months.

Braced twenty-three hours a day

After the casts, my chart lists straight laced shoes, derotation bars and twister cables, worn 23 of every 24 hours. In this portrait the shoes are bolted to a single bar underneath. The rest of the setup ran metal uprights from the shoes up both legs to a waistband.

I first walked at fifteen months. At twenty-three hours a day, that means I learned to walk in them. The twister cables came off in December 1986.

The bar design that dates to 1931 → What braces look like now → Walking and the brace →

Baby Heath sitting in a studio portrait with both shoes bolted to a metal bar — **1985 to 86**After surgery on both feet, shoes bolted to a single bar underneath. My chart lists straight laced shoes, derotation bars and twister cables, worn 23 hours out of every 24.

Toddler standing at an open pantry, a white harness around the hips over the diaper with a metal fitting at the side — **1986 · the author**The waistband itself: a harness around the hips with a metal fitting at the side, where the uprights attached. Standing on my own, so this is after fifteen months.

Grinning toddler in a studio portrait wearing a baseball ticket T-shirt — **1985 to 86 · the author**Same session as the photo of me in the uprights. At 23 hours a day, by my chart, most days looked like this one.

The left one came back

In January 1988 the left foot needed a second release. The pin placed that time worked its way out and was removed a month later.

From November 1988 to October 1989 I slept in a Miami brace, the red, yellow and blue one, for an inward twist of the shinbones called internal tibial torsion. It was judged corrected.

In 1994, at nine, the chart records “really no subtalar motion,” meaning the joint under the ankle that tilts the heel had essentially stopped moving, and raises a fusion for the first time. The same year’s note says I made the all-star team.

What relapse looks like, and when → How mine developed, stage by stage →

1994 youth baseball card showing Heath in a batting stance — **1994**Southeast All Stars. The same year my chart recorded “really no subtalar motion” and raised a fusion for the first time. It was put off for seven more years.

Fused at sixteen

The fusion was put off until I stopped growing. A stress fracture of the fourth metatarsal in October 2000, then six months of pain that limited everything, settled it.

In August 2001, the summer before junior year, my left foot had a triple arthrodesis: three hindfoot joints fused and held with staples. Twelve weeks in a cast, six of them non-weight-bearing, and the first half of that football season missed.

At five months I was released to full activity and playing baseball in a neoprene ankle support. The hardest thing to relearn was catching and squatting. I was discharged in March 2003, almost eighteen, with a closing note that the foot was “extremely functional and should serve him well as an adult.”

What a triple arthrodesis costs and returns → Twenty-five years later →

Heath in his high school football uniform, number 71, holding his helmet, October 2000 — **October 2000 · age 15**Number 71, on the day of the fracture that led to the fusion. The chart records a fourth metatarsal stress fracture that month, then six months of pain.

Turnout gear

Straight out of high school, around 2003 and 2004, I was firefighting. The left foot had been fused for about two years.

Physical work and long shifts → What carrying weight costs an altered leg →

Heath in a firefighter turnout coat and harness, at night — **About 2003 to 04**Firefighting straight out of high school, in turnout gear, on a left hindfoot that had been fused for about two years.

Standard-issue boots

I joined the US Army in 2007, six years after the fusion. No profile, no duty restriction and no accommodation for the foot. Standard-issue boots, unmodified, with no orthosis or insert, and the same physical standards as everyone else.

I was later medically retired for injuries sustained on deployment and their after-effects. Not the feet: they were not among the conditions evaluated, and they appear on no military or VA paperwork.

What carrying weight costs an altered leg →

Heath in US Army combat uniform with arms crossed — **US Army**Enlisted in 2007, six years after the fusion. Standard-issue boots, no insert or orthosis, and no profile for the foot. Medically retired later for deployment injuries, not the feet.

Twenty-five years on a fused foot

I run distance. Six years of Garmin data hold 2,147 miles across 652 runs, and nearly all of the recent miles are on a treadmill, because flat ground is unremarkable and uneven ground is where the fusion shows.

In September 2026 I filled out the FAOS, a standard foot and ankle questionnaire. Daily function scored 98.5 out of 100 and sport 90. Symptoms scored 50, and that is the operation doing its job: a fused hindfoot is not supposed to bend. Squatting is the one sport item I lose points on.

Barefoot walking hurts, in both feet, including the right one that was never fused. An X-ray in 2023, taken for a bruise, described osteoarthritis in the left hindfoot. One data point, not a promise.

The running numbers → The fused foot at twenty-five years →

Heath mid-stride on grass in a vest, cap and sunglasses, both feet in frame — **Now · 41**On grass in a weighted vest. Twenty-five years after the fusion I run distance, nearly all of it on a treadmill, because uneven ground is where the fusion shows.

Video · 14:24The long version, on camera: surgery, gait, service, running, and living in an adapted foot for decades. Watch on YouTube →

What this does and does not qualify me for

What I can offer

Four decades inside the condition, both feet
Experience of the surgical era most adults were treated in
A relapse on one side and not the other
Life after a triple arthrodesis
Military service and load carriage with it
The questions, in the order they actually arrive

What I cannot

Any medical qualification whatsoever
An opinion on your foot, or your child’s
Anything useful from a photograph
A judgment on your clinician’s plan
A prediction about how you will do
Advice on medication or on surgery for you

The right-hand column is not modesty. It is the actual boundary, and it is why every page ends with a line telling you what it is and is not. If a page ever reads like it is crossing that line, it is a fault in the writing and I would like to know.

Lived experience is a real credential and a narrow one. It is worth exactly as much as it is worth, and no more.

How this is paid for

Paid guides, readers who choose to chip in, Amazon affiliate commissions on some links, and the app, which is free, carries banner advertising, and has an optional subscription that removes it. The privacy policy details all of it.

What does not fund it: no manufacturer, clinic, brace maker, shoe brand or charity, and no page recommends a product that I sell.

It matters because clubfoot has an unusual amount of commerce attached to it (braces, shoes, insoles, private clinics) and a resource that takes money from any of them cannot be trusted on precisely the questions people most need answered. The editorial policy sets out the disclosure rules; the support page covers where reader money goes.

About the author

Is Heath a doctor?

No, and the site says so on every page. He is someone who has lived with bilateral clubfoot for about four decades, through surgery, relapse and fusion, and who writes about it from that position and not a clinical one.

What treatment did he have?

Casting from birth, a posteromedial release on both feet at four months, then shoes, bars and cables worn 23 hours a day. The left foot relapsed, had a second release in 1988 and a night brace after it, and was fused with a triple arthrodesis at sixteen.

Why does lived experience matter here?

Because adult clubfoot is poorly documented. Most published follow-up stops at skeletal maturity, so the questions adults actually ask have few written answers, and someone who has been through it can at least say what the questions are.

Did he really serve in the military with clubfoot?

Yes. He joined the US Army in 2007, six years after his triple arthrodesis, with no profile or duty restriction for the foot, in standard-issue boots with no orthosis. He was later medically retired for deployment injuries unrelated to his feet.

Can he still run?

Yes, distance, on a left hindfoot fused in 2001, with 2,147 miles logged over six years of device data. It is offered as one data point and not a promise, because outcomes vary enormously and nobody should be measured against a stranger’s feet.

How is the site funded?

By guides and optional support from readers. It takes no money from manufacturers, clinics or brands, and it does not recommend any product it also sells. Anything paid for is labeled on the page.

Can I contact him?

Yes, through the contact page. He cannot give medical advice, look at photographs of a foot, or say whether a particular child is relapsing, and the contact page is explicit about which questions are answerable.

What the site is for →The project instead of the person. How pages are made →Sourcing, review, corrections and disclosure. Get in touch →What can and cannot be answered by email.