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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Pushing Forward

Today's gift is pushing forward.

Lately my daughter has developed some walking issues.  She is still able to walk; however, her walk is funky and she is leaning forward more and more.

It must be so painful for her to walk like this....if only she could tell me where it hurts.

I,  along with everyone else who works with my daughter, have been trying to rack our brains...why....why the change.  These are the answers we have come up with...


  • she is having another growth spurt (happens all the time when she has one AND my other two children are having one right now too!)
  • she is tiring more easily now (she does ALOT of walking at school....I mean ALOT)
  • she is extremely tight in her hips and this is adding to the problem (they stretch her at PT, but she DOES NOT like it...but they still do it because of how tight she is...and it needs to be done)
  • her scolosis
  • the progression of Rett (she had a regression stage years ago...I think this option is highly unlikely)
Whatever the reason, we need to figure it out so we can help her push forward....and not regress backwards.

Well, today at PT (physical therapy) they stretched her....and I mean stretched her to the point, where she usually doesn't like it and will let them know it!    The part where it is uncomfortable for her because it hurts.  The part that has to happen to avoid future problems.  

She pushed forward.

She let them massage her till she was so relaxed she was drooling!  This massage was more of a deep deep tissue massage....the kind that hurts, but feels good.

She let me them stretch her sides and hips over a huge ball...you could see the stretching and knew it must be painful as she is so tight.

She let them do it all...without any problems.....without any whimpers....without any fuss.

She pushed forward.

And it paid off.

Today her walking was better.   After her bath I massaged her back and it was not as tight.  For the first time in months, her back was flat on her left side when she is lying down, where usually it is a little raised!  When we walked up the stairs tonight to go to bed, she did something she hasn't done- in a long time.  For the first six steps we have railings on both sides of the steps.  Tonight she held onto both railings...hands apart...and walked up the first six steps-ALL-BY-HERSELF!  Immediately, I thought....should we continue the railing on the right all the way up?!?!?!

I wish I could stretch her like they did today at therapy...every day.  However, I would need to grow another two arms, as it truly takes two people.  One is holding her on the ball with all their might and the other is getting her to reach for things to get a good stretch.  Looks like my husband and I have our homework cut out for ourselves on the weekends!  The extra stretching is going to help her AND make it easier at PT too!

It is amazing what one good physical therapy session will do!  I am so excited that she pushed forward today, when I know she wanted to pull back.  I think tonight she saw and felt a difference too!  I hope she remembers how good she felt tonight and will understand when we ask her to do it again...and again...and again.  She was in a great mood....and I know she just "felt" good too!  Sweet dreams little lady, you deserve it!

Here is a quote for today....

You are going to want to give up.  Don't.- Author Unknown








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