Every hub, in one place

Eight hubs, each covering one stretch of the clubfoot (talipes equinovarus outside the United States) story. A hub here is a signpost, not an article. Enough to work out which page you need, then it gets out of the way.

Written by Heath, who has lived it: casts from birth, years of bracing, the US Army, and distance running.

Narrow it down

Pick whatever describes you. Or ignore the chips entirely. The whole list is below either way.

All eight hubs

Diagnosis and causes → What clubfoot is, how it is found, and the questions that arrive in the first week. Early treatment → Casting, the tenotomy, boots and bar. What the first months actually involve. Relapse → The question every parent reaches eventually: is this coming back, and how would I know? Adult life → Pain, arthritis, footwear, stiffness and getting assessed after decades of no follow-up. Gait and compensation → Why the knee, hip and back end up paying for a foot, and which link is yours. Altered mechanics → The umbrella beyond clubfoot. What any differently-loaded leg has in common. Surgery decisions → What gets offered, what it trades, and the questions worth asking first. Military service → Eligibility, waivers, MEPS and load carriage. Shriners and clubfoot care → What the Shriners network covers, who it is for, and how families reach it.

Nothing matches that combination. Clear the filters to see all eight, or start with where it hurts, which routes onward better than anything else here.

How the site is put together

Each page owns one question. A page about stiffness does not also explain pain; a page about the calf does not also cover the whole exercise program. Where a neighboring topic comes up, the page links to whichever page owns it instead of restating it.

That produces more pages and much shorter ones. It also means there is no reading order. Almost nobody arrives at the beginning of a clubfoot story, so every page is written to work on its own.

A hub is a signpost. If a hub is answering your question, it has overstepped.

Not a hub

The rest of the site

Research → Patient-led studies into the adult questions the literature leaves alone. Guides → Longer, downloadable material for the moments a web page is not enough. FAQ → The cross-cutting questions that do not belong to any single topic page.

Finding your way

What is a hub on this site?

A short routing page and not a long article. A hub gives just enough orientation to work out which page you actually need, then sends you there. It deliberately does not try to answer the questions itself.

Which hub should I start with?

New parents start with early treatment, parents mid-treatment with relapse, and adults with the adult life hub. If pain is the reason you are here, not a life stage, start with pain by location instead.

Why are there so many pages?

Because each page owns one question and hands neighboring ones to whichever page owns those. It means more pages and much shorter ones, and not a handful of articles that each try to cover everything.

Is there a reading order?

No, and that is deliberate. Almost nobody arrives at the beginning of a clubfoot story, so every page is written to be readable on its own and to link to what sits either side of it.

How current is this?

Every page carries a review date, and it is only updated when the page has actually been re-read. If a page looks stale or contradicts something you have been told, that is worth reporting through the contact page.

What is the difference between clubfoot and altered mechanics?

Clubfoot is the condition. Altered mechanics is the wider idea that any leg loading differently produces similar downstream effects, which is why some pages here apply to people who do not have clubfoot at all.