We’re done…finally!
Today was the last day of Anna’s intensive therapy round. We drove down to Children’s today and met with her OT and the hand specialist who did Anna’s initial evaluation. Both were very pleased with Anna’s progress! When we started this on March 19th, Anna was not able to pick up anything with her left hand. Now she is able to pick up cheerios and puffs with her thumb and index finger! It is truly amazing what she has learned in such a short period of time.
Anna’s final day of wearing the cast was actually Saturday. Yesterday was a super-crazy day (Easter) so we ditched the cast and her OT wanted to see her without her cast today. As was expected, Anna reverted back to a lot of her old patterns when the cast was removed. She continues to play mostly with her right hand, but is using her left hand as a “helper hand” more and more. If food is placed on her tray, Anna will use her right hand to pick it up; however, if you present food to her left (i.e. hand it to her) - she will reach for it with her left every time. Remarkably, she still uses only her left hand to self feed with a spoon or fork. I guess we’ve never really given her right hand a chance to eat with a spoon or fork.
What’s next? Well, we aren’t rid of the cast yet. The OT recommended wearing the cast a minimum of 2 days per week for the full day. She also thought it would be a good idea to constrain Anna’s right hand/arm during one mealtime each day. So…we’ll be donning the cast on Fridays and Sundays and putting on the ski glove/sock for dinner each night. And much to Anna’s chagrin, we have already scheduled a 3-month follow-up evaluation and have signed up for another round of intensive therapy/casting to begin in October down at Children’s. The fun never ends! But we’ve seen how much progress Anna has made with this therapy and we are wiling to make the most of it!
We have some great pictures to download and post, but I left the camera in Anna’s room. She’s asleep now and we do not dare go in for fear of waking her. I’ll have post them later. Speaking of sleep…I think I’ll head that way myself. I figured it up yesterday, Anna and I made 14 trips either to Denver or Fort Collins in the last 3 weeks. That’s 45 minutes each way. Needless to say, we’re a little sick of driving.
Almost forgot to mention a couple of other milestones. Anna has almost cut all of her first year molars. The top left one is still not quite through yet. She now has 4 on bottom front, 3 plus the start of another on the top front and her first year molars. She’s missing her canines on top and bottom, though. Anna has also found a couple of new words: ball, dog and bye bye. Today at therapy she wouldn’t stop saying “ball” (there are a lot of big exercise balls in the therapy gym). For the past week or so, Anna has been standing on her own for a few seconds at a time. She’s getting braver and braver with each passing day. Walking here we come. Note to self…better get moving on that childproofing you’ve been putting off.
1 comment April 9th, 2007