Monday, March 7, 2011

Physical Therapy Update

Well, it has been far to long since I updated the blog.  I plan to do better.  So here goes!

Claire currently receives various therapies five times a week.  She seems to enjoy them and doesn't really know that is different than the norm.  As someone said to me at church yesterday: she is so laid back.  And that is really true.  While we do have our occasional two year old tantrum, for the most part she is very easy going.  I am thankful to have one more laid back.....

Claire has physical therapy twice a week.  Unfortunately, she will change physical therapists today as her previous one has moved on to another job.  There is just not alot of money in pediatric therapy, I have learned.  She has progressed well with her sessions and has progressed to the point where she can do many age appropriate activities.  Despite this, it appears she will need physical therapy for the foreseeable future.  With the loss of a therapist, there is a list made of who needs to continue therapy and who can wait until another is hired.  Claire was at the top of the list, which is good on one hand as she will continue therapy; however the flip side is that despite her gains there is much work left to be done. 
We have learned that she needs shoe inserts as her left foot turns inward.  We are hopeful this will help her gaite.  We are still looking into this as she may need bigger shoes, etc.  I will keep you updated as this progresses.  I am interested to see if she likes them....
We have also learned Claire has low muscle tone throughout her body.  This effects her physical abilities and helps explain some of her speech/feeding issues.  Here is the way the low muscle tone was explained to us: Picture a muscle as five hoses tied together.  In normal muscle tone the water is running through the hoses at full strength; think of how heavy and stiff those hoses would be.  Claire still has the five hoses, but the water is only trickling through hers resulting in the "low muscle tone".
When you put her in a room of her "peers" you can tell she is slower and is working very hard to try to keep up.  She doesn't let it stop her though.  I will be honest that it can be hard to watch, but I just remember what a fun little girl she is and how much fun she is having and don't let it get me down.  We don't know if this will ever be cured; however, it should not effect her daily life to a large degree.  Many people move slowly and deliberately so although she will most likely not be a star athlete, she will still get into as much trouble as the next gal.
Soon we will be off to another fun therapy session full of workouts on the stairs and exercise ball. 

1 comment:

  1. My dad was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease at 57.his symptoms were shuffling of feet,slurred speech, low volume speech, degradation of hand writing, horrible driving skills, right arm held at 45 degree angle, but now he finally free from the disease with the help of total cure from ULTIMATE LIFE CLINIC, he now walks properly and all symptoms has reversed, he had trouble with balance especially at night, getting into the shower and exiting it is difficult,getting into bed is also another thing he finds impossible.we had to find a better solution for his condition which has really helped him a lot,the biggest helped we had was ultimate life clinic they walked us through the proper steps,am highly recommended this www.ultimatelifeclinic.com to anyone who needs help.

    ReplyDelete