What can and cannot be answered here

Messages are welcome and they get read. Some questions have a genuinely useful answer, and some do not have one that anybody could give by email. So this page is honest about which is which before you spend time writing.

Is email the right route?

Two questions. Not a filter to put you off. It is so you get an answer, not a polite deflection.

What is your message about?

Pick the closest one.

It is about

Corrections are the most valuable messages this site gets. Please send them.

Genuinely wanted. Adult clubfoot is thinly documented and other people’s decades shape what gets written.

Usually answerable, though often the fastest answer is a link to the page that covers it.

This is the category no email can serve, however it is phrased.

Have you looked for it on the site?

No judgment. There are a lot of pages and the navigation is not perfect.

So far

Then it is a gap worth knowing about, whatever else comes of it.

Say which page you were on and where it stopped being useful. That is a correction as much as a question.

Worth two minutes first. The answer is often already written and more thorough than a reply would be.

The honest answer What brings you here?

Answer the two questions and this will tell you whether an email is the right move, or whether something else on the site or in a clinic will serve you better.

Gets a proper reply

Corrections and factual errors
Broken links and pages that will not load
Your own experience, at any length
Gaps — things the site should cover and does not
Questions about the guides or the research
Correspondence from clinicians

Cannot be answered

Anything about your specific foot
Photographs, however clear
Whether a child is relapsing
Whether to have surgery
Which surgeon or clinic to use
Second opinions on a treatment plan

The right-hand column is not caution for its own sake. A confident-sounding answer from someone who has not examined the foot is actively dangerous, and it is the single easiest way for a site like this to do harm. The limits are set out plainly here.

If what you actually need is to work out whether something warrants an appointment, that is a real question with a real answer, and there is a page built for it.

An emailed opinion about a foot nobody has examined is worse than no opinion, because it sounds like one.

Getting in touch

Will you look at a photo of my foot?

No. Photographs cannot show what matters (how a foot moves, how stiff it is, and how it behaves under weight) and an opinion based on one would be worse than useless because it would sound authoritative.

Can you tell me if my child is relapsing?

No, and nobody can from a description. What the site can do is help you work out whether what you are seeing is worth a call to your clinic, which is a genuinely useful and quite different question.

How long does a reply take?

Usually within a few days. This is one person doing it around a life, so it is sometimes longer, and messages that need a considered answer take longer than short ones.

Can you recommend a surgeon?

No. Referral routes, availability and expertise vary enormously by country and region, and a recommendation from someone who has never met your clinicians would do more harm than good.

I found an error. Do you want to know?

Yes, very much. Corrections of fact are made promptly and the review date is updated, and if a correction materially changes what a page advised, the change is noted on the page and not made quietly.

Can I share my story?

Yes, and it is genuinely valued. Adult clubfoot is so thinly documented that hearing what other people’s decades have looked like shapes what gets written, even when nothing is quoted directly.

Do you work with clinicians or organizations?

Correspondence with clinicians is welcome, particularly corrections. Commercial approaches from manufacturers, clinics and brands are declined, because the site’s independence is the thing that makes it worth reading.

Over to you

The form is below

Tell me which page you were on if it is about a page, and take as much space as you need if it is about your own experience. Long messages are welcome and there is no prize for brevity.