UVA Constraint Therapy Take 3

Wow, amazing how many memories come flooding back walking through the doors at the Kluge Children's Research Center (KCRC)!  Two full months last year with so many tears and so much amazing progress.

We made it down to Charlottesville Sunday night and got settled into the hotel.  Unfortunately I forgot to pack pajamas so we had to take a quick trip to the store before we got to the hotel…which meant new PJs for everyone!  Reagan picked My Little Pony and Cole picked Ninja Turtles.  Both were pretty excited about another hotel stay!

Monday we started the day with an 8am pre-treatment evaluation at the old KCRC building where we've had therapy in the past.  The session went very well and it was great to see how well Reagan responded to the therapist knowing how hard this intake has been in the past.  Her assessment included activities such as coloring, stacking blocks, and throwing/kicking balls.  Many of the assessments involved having Reagan do an activity with her right hand followed by doing the same activity with her left hand to see how the two compare.  This is always the hardest part of being her mom.  She handles it very well, but you can see the disappointment when she does really well with right and then really struggles with her left.  The person doing the evaluation was super positive, however, and I think that really helped Reagan not get discouraged.  I think she also sees how much progress she has made and that helps encourage her to keep working hard!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the hospital/therapy facility where we've had treatment is closing and all appointments/treatments are now in the new UVA Children's Hospital downtown on Main Street.  Although all new appointments moved to the new facility three weeks ago, Reagan had her assessment at the old facility.  She was literally the last patient - after 57 years - to walk through those doors.  It was rather sad to walk away knowing how many patients have been treated there  But as with all good things, change must happen and we must move on.

While Reagan was at the KCRC in her assessment, I ran back to pick up my niece Emily and we took Cole to his therapy appointment at the new UVA Children's Hospital that opened three weeks ago.  I was very lucky to have Emily join me to help with Cole while I'm in sessions with Reagan.  And the juggle between two appointments at the same time in two different buildings today already proved beneficial!!

The new building is absolutely beautiful beautiful!  Cole will see Alan a few times while we are in Charlottesville since we had to cancel all his appointments back home while we are here.  Alan worked very well with Cole and I was very impressed with how quickly he was able to get to know Cole and understand the type of challenges he faces.

Given he only has a few sessions with him, we decided to specifically work on cutting and coloring since Cole has such a hard time holding and pressing any writing utensils and can't use scissors very well.  One other area we talked about was potty training.  I have been rather discouraged that Cole hasn't been receptive to it and Alan made a very good point.  He said Cole is still at about 2-2.5 years developmentally.  So although he is catching up, he should not be compared to other typically developing almost 4 years old (in two months).  So essentially, he is just now getting to the age where he would be ready to tackle potty training.  Although discouraging, it makes a lot of sense and it made me hopeful that perhaps over the next few months we will be able to encourage him to start learning to use the bathroom.

After therapy we decided to head back to the hotel and have a quick lunch before heading to a local watering hole called Meade Park.  It was a really fun pool with water slides, dumping buckets, spraying mushrooms and squirting geysers. Although it was a little chilly today, the kids had a lot of fun and it tired them out!  After heading back to the hotel for showers we decided to head to the mall for dinner at Red Robin.  And of course I got suckered into Build-A-Bear stuffed animals to match their PJs!

Hopefully we are all ready for the fun to start tomorrow!