https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/NoahGodfrey/streak-for-pediatric-stroke-2013
Next week Noah has an appointment scheduled for an OT evaluation a Children's Hospital. I was looking back at some old blog posts and it was about this time two years ago that he was scheduled for the very same appointment. It was our first experience with OT, the first time he had a brace made for his hand, and our first experience with constraint therapy. Wow how far we have come! It's kind of funny to think that since then he has gone through 3 nighttime braces, he had his first ankle foot orthotic made (AFO-1 year ago and helped him walk!), then went through 2 more, and was recently fit for a daytime hand brace for his right hand. We are regulars at the brace shop and I have to say that since last year I have become quite good at finding shoes that fit over the bulky things (flash back to post from last year-New Balance has been amazing!). We have also gone from a Patriot's design, to a sports theme, to dinosaurs on the AFOs. Noah has to be stylish! These are just second nature to us and putting them on is a regular part of the morning routine. Although he doesn't need the AFO as much as he did last year it still helps keep his foot in line and I think he feels more comfortable with it on. He has been running like crazy and I think the brace gives him a little extra support and confidence. We're headed into shorts season so I'm reminded more that he has to wear it and will need to start prepping for the questions.
Noah has been seeing an OT twice a week through EI and we actually haven't seen anyone at Children's since the Fall. He had a therapist that we absolutely loved that he had been seeing monthly but unfortunately she left at the end of the summer. We weren't happy with the new therapist so kind of put things on hold for private OT. As we get closer to Noah turning 3 though I think it's important to have him established with a private OT. We have no idea what kind of services he will be offered through the town starting in October and want to make sure we have a smooth transition without any lapses in therapy. He also has totally outgrown his constraint and nighttime braces so we need to have new ones made. I'm hoping that he will tolerate going back to a nighttime brace-will have to see. It will also be good to get connected back with Children's as there is talk again this year of them possibly doing a constraint camp in September. Depending on how things go in July I think we would definitely want to be a part of this. We've mentioned the July camp in a couple of posts but haven't gone into much detail. For the month of July Noah will be attending a constraint induced movement day camp in NJ. It is designed for children 18 months to around 12 who have had a stroke or have weakness on one side of their body. At the camp the children will all wear casts on their "good arms" for up to 6 hours a day. The children will be in groups based on their ages and do activities during the day to help strengthen their weak arms/hands. The staff try to make the camp as fun as possible with daily themes and activities. Reading this description I don't think I'm doing the best job of describing it. We went and visited in March and it looks like an absolutely wonderful place. They showed us some videos of the camp from the last two years and I had to do everything in my power to not start crying uncontrollably. It was so touching to see all the kids like Noah working so hard but at the same time having so much fun. The staff seemed amazing and we are really hoping it will be good for Noah. He is such a social little man and I think that doing fun therapy in a group setting will be so good for him. The name of the camp is Helping Hands and if you google it you can check out their website. We will definitely need to continue to blog so that we can fill you all in on his camp experience. Should be interesting for all of us. That's all for tonight-hope you like the pictures of his brace progression!
No comments:
Post a Comment