His first 4-5 months of therapy were a complete wash. No pun intended. We'd get him in the pool and all he'd do was arch away from us, stare at the surface of the water, and try to put his face in it. Attempting any type of therapy routine was completely out of the question. He'd missed entire months of therapy due to his rampant seizure activity, often causing him to be admitted to Floating for several days at a time.
In November, Kathy, his therapist, and I discussed that this was just not the right type of therapy for James. It wasn't an entire loss. Any splashing or kicking did help strengthen his muscles, but there was no proof of improvement. Improvement which the doctors and insurance companies would want to see to add additional visits. We had visits running until the end of 2011 so we decided to use them since we had them, even though we weren't seeing much change in James.
Then, the first visit in December it happened. I once again heard "Who is this kid?!" James was enjoying the pool! He was keeping his head up and interacting with Kathy. He was kicking his feet and moving his arms in an intentional way. He was laughing and smiling and cooing and yelling! He noticed his feet under the water, the noodles hanging on the wall, the other patients in the pool, the windows up high where the wall meets the ceiling, and the bright light squiggles on the ceiling caused from the sunlight reflecting off the water. He noticed it all - and liked it!
He had three magical, for lack of a more appropriate term, sessions to finish out the calendar year. Due to his marked improvement, Kathy and I decided that we will touch base in May. On May 26th, James will turn 3, thus aging out of Early Intervention programs (heartbreaking). So, having additional types of therapy lined up and ready to go starting in June will be essential. Kathy will do another review and submit a request for more pool sessions and possibly land sessions as well. This will depend on James' therapy routine at the new school he'll be starting in June. I'd personally like to see him have 1 pool session and 1 "dry" or "land" session with Kathy per week. I think she understands what makes James, James, and will help push him even closer to being self sufficient.
Lots of good things to come. Progress is being made!
No comments:
Post a Comment