This is Cesar.

Meet my little buddy Cesar. Cesar Cipriano. This is a picture of him from a few days ago, quite a different child from when I met him a few months ago.

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This is a picture that I took of Cesar the first day that he came to our clinic. He had bilateral clubfeet, but that didn't stop him from being able to run around. And run he did. He was probably the most out of control patient I have seen since being here for almost a year. He refused to take his hand out of his mouth, to look at anyone in the face, to smile, to come to his mother when she called him... he was totally doing his own thing, not wanting to be pinned down to have big uncomfortable casts put on him.

And really, that's understandable. It's scary and painful, and geez, if I can run around without any problem in my mind, why do I want to be immobilized? Cesar left that day not too happy. The poor little guy didn't understand what was happening, but he would soon find out, and it would change more than just his feet.

In the weeks that followed, he continued with his casting but was clearly not thrilled with the idea.

The first time that I remember seeing a smile on Cesar's face is when he was sitting on the bed in the ward with is mother the morning of his surgery. Something was changing, and I think he was beginning to realize what was happening to him. 

 

He toughed it through his surgery and recovery, and I was amazed to see him the next afternoon before he left, sitting outside happily playing with a toy truck and actually smiling when he saw me. He no longer had a temperament of anger but one of happiness and calm.

 

This is Cesar now. He is walking almost normally with two straight feet, and here he is showing us the special shoes that are connected with a bar that he wears at night to maintain the good position.

The stark contrast of his personality from the time he first came to now is shocking to me, and it still amazes me that this sweet boy is the same Cesar that I met just months ago. Healing is changing him from the inside out!