On healing heels

Jack ran too hard, too far, on poor shoes, his strength and stamina outstripping his growth plates. Almost a year ago he began to run cross-country, enjoying the fellowship, the approving attention of the coach, the bonding with other boys. But he was young and big and growing rapidly and wearing hand-me-down shoes. He would occasionally complain of pain in his heels, but we did not stop him. A big mistake on our part. By Fall we did finally realize he needed rest, so we stopped the cross country, but he still occasionally mentioned the heel pain. The xray machine was broken in Bundibugyo, so it took a long time to get an answer. Before Christmas when I was finally in Kampala for a few days, I took him to get xrays. We sent them to a dear friend and supporter who is an orthopedic surgeon, and he looked at the films and listened to the story and diagnosed “calcaneal apophysitis” (Sever's disease) in January. An over-use injury, a sort of stress fracture. Rest was ordered, no bare feet on our unyielding cement floors. No sports. Now two months later, we see little improvement, in spite of the always-shoes and no-running rules. Jack has tried not to run, he really has, but he’s a whirlwind kind of kid, a storm of activity, not easily stilled. We are starting to worry. Our friend sent orthopedic heel pads that would have helped, if the package had not disappeared in the obscurity of Ugandan mail. So we decided yesterday to put one foot in a cast and give him crutches, thinking that would slow him down and give at least one of his feet time to heal. The only casting material here is good old-fashioned heavy damp plaster. 24 hours later we have given up. In spite of very functional crutches hand-made by Scott, Jack was tending to hop on the non-casted foot. And consequently, the non-casted heel was actually getting WORSE, probably faster than the casted one was getting better. We took the cast off. Tonight he’s very discouraged. He could use prayers for healing his heels. He’s a very athletic kid. He does not sit still easily. This is very, very discouraging for him, and my heart aches too.