their hard work showed! Reagan spent time most of her time with Nicole (OT), Erin (PT) and Jill (summer intern). Depending what order Reagan had her therapy and what other appointments they had during the day depended who I would see at the end of the day.
Monday
Reagan's week started with pajama day at therapy. The importance was to ensure she is able to get ready in the morning by herself. So the activities included brushing teeth, brushing hair, putting on clothes and shoes. It's amazing to see her asking to be more independent. They also played volleyball, soccer, and came home very tired from all the outdoor play. After dropping Reagan off and finishing up Cole's therapy we got a call and were accepted into the Ronald McDonald House. After waiting for 4 weeks we were ELATED! 
After getting checked in and picking Reagan up we headed back to the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) and spent the afternoon on the playground there. We had to prepare the kids for the transition - their first question, "do they serve fries there?" They were very disappointed they didn't. But we did have a snack in the kitchen. I was helping Cole with something and when I looked over Reagan was peeling an orange by herself! It was amazing to see her being able to rotate her left hand and grip the orange strong enough to peel it. Wow. Just wow.Late afternoon Reagan lost her second tooth! Luckily the tooth fairy came prepared - that tooth was loose for two weeks! RMH was the absolute best blessing and we had no idea. From the moment we walked in, people were happy and friendly. I will share more about RMH in my next post.
Tuesday
Tuesday started with Reagan waking up at 4am to see if the tooth fairy was able to find her in Baltimore. Luckily she did! Reagan was very excited to see a $1 gold coin.I had to work Tuesday so Megan took the kids on the shuttle. Reagan took another field trip to Michael's and practiced pushing carts and carrying bags. Believe it or not, these are hard activities for her so it's great! After I got back from work we played on the playground at RMH where Reagan and Cole made some new friends. After dinner there was a volunteer there who setup a Bingo game with prizes for the kids. All the kids had SO much fun. It was nice for all of them to avoid reality for an hour.
Wednesday
Wednesday I also had to work so Megan took the kids on the shuttle again. Cole hasn't stopped talking about it - they LOVE it! Reagan made a bird house at therapy in addition to paper chains. After work we decided to take the kids to the National Aquarium. One huge benefit of the RMH is free tickets to the local activities (based on availability). We had a great time and headed back to RMH for dinner. The volunteers that night were from Morgan Stanley and had painting activities. Reagan painted several wooden animals and another bird house!Thursday
Thursday - our last day! We had a busy morning getting the room packed up, getting breakfast and heading over to the hospital. The last day was focused on completing video evaluations (the after videos so they can compare to the before video) and surveys to compare before and after perception of abilities. We were done by 11am and were happy to get in the car and head home…for good.
Although there were times during our 5 week stint that I questioned whether all the effort and pain was worth the benefit, I have no doubt now. It was a LOT of work to make it happen, but to see Reagan so much more confident and able to try new activities is priceless. The team at Hopkins (Kennedy Krieger) think this should be her last constraint therapy. She met most of her goals and we took home a very extensive home program which we will be following on our own. Research and experience have shown that as kids get older and have more functionality it's more important to completely bimanual activities. Their recommendation is that she return next summer for either a Boost program (individual bimanual therapy) or a Bimanual Camp if they have enough candidates. It's overwhelming thinking about next summer already, but we will take it one day at a time and see what next year brings. The PT also suggested we talk to Reagan's physiatrist about a night splint. The first week of therapy she said she thought Reagan needed to be back in a leg brace but after seeing her Erin agreed that the brace may slow her down. A night splint is a good compromise to see if it will help loosen the tightness in her left leg. The concern is that as she goes through growth spurts it will get worse and cause tripping. We don't go back to see the physiatrist until December but I will call and see what she thinks. For now we need to focus on the next month getting back into our routine and getting ready for school to start in a week.
We were lucky enough to have NO therapy Friday for the first time in 5 weeks. YAHOO! So we packed up early Friday morning, picked up my nieces and headed to Hershey Park for the day. Unfortunately I had just picked up my nieces when Cole started complaining of a head ache. This was the first head ache since being hospitalized and after two blow outs Thursday I was pretty upset. With the theory that the head aches are from constipation, this put a huge hole in the theory. Luckily it went away within an hour and we had a great time riding rides.So it's back to life as usual. Headed to UVA tomorrow for Reagan's one year evaluation from the constraint program last August, a GI follow up in two weeks, a developmental pediatrician appointment the next week, and a follow up with the low vision specialist the week after that. We are also starting Cole in a music therapy session which he is very excited about. Although I have to work this week, we're hoping to have some pool time for our last week of summer!
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