Just when will I learn to trust my child? So my tension over constraint therapy has been building and building, while of course, she hears me discuss the concept but doesn't really know what is about to hit her, and I try to keep my conversation about it when around her all upbeat and light. She flailed and screamed while the cast was applied, had quite a good wail afterwards as she tried waving around an arm that was suddenly much heavier and bulkier than normal, then sat down to do OT with Tara, who had just applied the cast. As we left, Tara got a thank you, two hugs, kisses, and a wave bye-bye with Righty. Then we ate lunch at Shriners' cafeteria and she was doing so well, I took her to her day care so her day could be as normal as possible. What gives??
I wish they would have told me a few things of interest: have on hand shirts with bigger than average sleeves, or extra short sleeve t-shirts. Have on hand some larger than average pajama options, gives tips on how to convince a two year old that "no clubbing" means no hitting mommy in the head with the cast while sporting a smile on her face.
So these pix are from Friday and Saturday and tonight we finally caught her in her armchair, already I need to update and show off some more as we watch Hannah pick things up with her right hand. When she tires of using her hand, she just lies down on top of what she wants and grabs it with her mouth - whether it be a cookie, a binky, or a used Cheeto. She is obviously fatigued though, since I think we added ten percent to her body weight and stuck it all in one place, so she has to lie down a lot, and she is eating at least ten percent more food to carry that extra ten percent in weight.
As I said, I should just trust Hannah to rise to the occasion and not be so worried. Here she is about 48 hours into constraint therapy trying to get her balloon string with Righty - there are more successful attempts that I filmed but I don't have the patience to upload longer videos to YouTube. Obviously, once again, Hannah is a raging success at everything she puts her hand to.
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Oh girl, we've been there, done that... 2x! It's not fun. The screaming at casting and the bulky cast that seems like enough to lug around, let alone have the energy to do anything else. I get it. Oia was very tired the first couple of days too but like Hannah, she marched on. The results should be amazing and I bet at the end of all this, you'll already be thinking about when to do it all over again. Hang in there guys!
ReplyDeleteI know it must suck for you and Hannah, but what a cool idea... I hope she gets some benefit from it.
ReplyDeleteGo Righty!!!
Good luck with the therapy. My son's last round was back in the summer, and I did eventually learn to duck when he went at my nose with his cast. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot of work for the whole family, but we noticed a difference. I hope you have good luck too.
What a trooper!
ReplyDeleteYou're right. It is easy to forget to trust children. They are always stronger and wiser than we give them credit for.
Good luck with the rest of this bit!