1 hour therapy is a 3 hour ordeal!

I sometimes dread therapy. Some weeks it is at 4 and others 5pm. There are positives and negatives to both times. Therapy is 40 minutes away in the city so if it starts at 4pm I have to pick up both kids from school early. I leave at 2:40pm grab Chloe and head to Brendan's school for 3pm. We get to therapy about 3:45 and get in and settled. Therapy is until 5pm and we get home at 5:45 just in time for dinner. I try to cook ahead of time on therapy days. If it is at 5pm I get to stay home until they get home from school and leave at 4:15 but we don't get home until basically 7 PM due to traffic or if he has aquatherapy. We still have to eat dinner and I am beyond exhausted. Today is a 4pm day and I was sitting here dreading leaving in 9 minutes for a 3 hour ordeal so he can get one (if we are lucky one full hour) of therapy. Some days I wonder why I bother since 30 minutes is just stretching and if he is in a bad mood we almost get nothing accomplished. What 9 year old wants to go do physical work after being in school all day???

And yet again this is a reminder of how different lives can be with a disabled child. I think I would much rather take him to soccer right down the street!!!! Thank goodness I love him with all my heart and will do anything and everything I can for him because some days I just don't want to!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life has been non stop... SPML AGAIN and NAPA has begun

Image
I always want to come here yet never have the time. I honestly do not get any time for myself. Having 5 kids and their sports and therapy all while running a business leave very little time for me. Brendan joined Drama this year as well as basketball. Some days he had both! He was in a school play (very small part) but it was so great to see him part of something like that. He absolutely loved it. They did Little Shop of Horrors and it was an excellent play. His siblings wanted to watch it multiple times and then we had to rent the movie. Brendan's challenger basketball team won the state champs! They rode the bus back to school with a police escort. HOW COOL?! Brendan has been growing like a weed. He hit 5' tall which means he is catching up to me! His knees became crouched so badly again that I knew he needed SPML, again. This was his 3rd round. Although his spasticity is gone he still has some tone issues and his tendons don't grow properly due to having spasticity for 1...
Read more

Let's talk braces. AFO, DAFO, SMO

Image
Brendan has worn leg braces since he was just 2 years old! He was always put into AFO's. AFO is short for Ankle Foot Orthosis. I never knew any better. I thought the orthopedics and doctors knew what they were doing and that was the brace he needed. 12 years later I realize I completely disagree with putting your child into AFO's. It completely limits them and does NOT allow them to gain any muscle mass. I was told to have Brendan wear them all day long. Always while walking, always while in his stander, basically he shouldn't do anything without them on. I wasn't as internet savy then as I am now. I did try to research and belonged to some support groups but honestly life raising a disabled child was so different 12 years ago. I am sure you learn as you go but often we just listen to these professionals and truley believe they know best. 12 years ago Brendan had zero muscle mass in his legs. He serioulsy had chicken legs. His thighs were the almost the same size as his...
Read more

Oh these boys and their speech!

Image
What to do with these boys. Andrew has had some issues with his speech since preschool. He was boarder line at age 4 and they did not feel he needed therapy at that time. His teachers said they often couldn't understand him so they brought a team in to evaluate him. They said he could just outgrow his speech issues because the sounds he had issues with were normal for many at his age. They informed his school and asked for an eval to be done at age 6. Fast forward and here we are. Andrew is 6 and in the 1st grade. he had an eval in Kindergarten but they wanted to have one again at age 6. This year he failed his evaluation. I don't seem to notice his speech issues. We understand him and he self teaches if he pronounces words wrong. He even taught himself to stop saying stoon but rather spoon. He practiced in his bed one night and ran upstairs the next morning to tell me he can now say spoon correctly! This was months ago and I feel his speech has improved so much from his own do...
Read more