Enssle Family

Week one

February 23rd, 2008

Our first week of therapy is behind us.

Anna’s doing much better, health-wise. The steroids took effect almost instantaneously, and while she still has a runny nose and cough, at least she’s not croupy.

More importantly, by Wednesday she was pretty much sleeping through the night. She’s working so incredibly hard in her therapy that sleep itself has become something of a reward. After working her little tail off for six straight hours between 7:00AM and 1:00PM, she really looks forward to her afternoon nap(s). And for the past three nights she’s been reluctant to read books and has flat out refused to have us sing songs before we put her to bed. “Do you want to read another book?” “No.” “Do you want Mamma to sing songs?” “No. Seep”, she says. “Seep”.

Therapy has been going very well, and we’ve accomplished a great deal in just one week. But it has not been an easy road. The therapists work the girl very hard, and during the first couple of days she put up quite a fight. I think Wednesday was our lowest point. Tara had to leave the therapy session for about an hour because Anna was having a total meltdown and refused to comply with even the simplest request. Tara and I and her therapists all agree that it’s incredibly important for us all to help Anna realize that she’s not going to get out of therapy just by throwing a fit, but knowing that doesn’t really make it any easier on anyone when the poor girl is throwing a tantrum because she’s exhausted and sick and frustrated and all we want to do is stop the damn therapy session and give her hugs.

But the perseverance has started to pay off. By the end of the week there were far fewer tantrums, and today (Saturday) she had an amazingly positive therapy session, with not a single tantrum and some real milestones. She’s now able to bear significant weight on her left arm independently for several minutes, she’s really improved her supination (turning her left hand over with her palm up and open), she’s doing amazingly well with her pincer grasp (thumb and pointer finger) with tasks such as turning pages of a book or picking up small objects, and she was successful, for the first time today, in independently stabbing a piece of food with her fork and bring it to her mouth. Almost as important: She’s now starting to grasp the concept of delayed gratification — that when we say “do X now and you’ll get Y later”, she understands enough to work through the difficult task at hand for the promise of a reward later. This is a Very Big Deal for someone not even two years of age, and extremely important to making forward progress in therapy sessions.

It’s been a very long, very tough week, though. Poor Tara’s now managed to catch a cold (due to lack of sleep and way too much stress), and nobody’s happy when Momma’s sick, let me tell you. I’ve been trying to keep up at work, but it’s honestly been much more difficult than I’d expected to be super-productive and engaged when I’m 1,300 miles and a time zone away and always a little bit exhausted from stress and lack of sleep. And while it’s been great to touch base with some family and friends by phone or video chats, it usually just reminds us how lonesome it can be here away from our home. We miss our family, our friends, and our usual routine. And of course we really miss Max.

After six straight days of therapy we get tomorrow off. We’re going to try and get out of the apartment and roam around a bit, though it’s also possible we’ll just relax at home. We’ll start our second week on Monday, with our therapists arriving extra early (to make up for lost time at the doctor’s on Tuesday) at 6:45AM! (Our therapists, it should be said, “kick ass” — to use the technical term — and we’re extremely happy with all they’ve done and are doing).

Entry Filed under: Family, Health, Alabama