Therapy, and More Therapy

A friend sent me an email today and asked if I was getting lazy because they've been checking for a recent update. Ha. Its nice to know people still care so much! Here's what we've been up to the past couple weeks...

Surgey to remove his tonsils, adenoids, and put in the ear tubes is scheduled for next Thursday, 2/12. It can't come soon enough, he struggles to breathe so much at night. When I wake him up at night to give him a bottle and he falls back asleep in my arms, I can immediately see the pauses he has in breathing. He just can't pull the breath through without a lot of effort. And he got another cold this weekend, so guess what... yes, another ear infection starting! I decided to use it as justification to cancel his eye doctor appointment today, I'm just not ready to go back there yet!

We had an appointment with an Osteopathic Doctor last week for our first Craniosacral Therapy session. This was recommended by our new ABM therapist. I am not even going to try to explain what this is or how it can help Lucas, but I found the best explanation on this website. It will be good for his nervous system and movement restrictions, and lends itself well to the type of movement treatment we are doing with ABM. He was a really nice & gentle doctor, and Lucas responded well to his "massage." This therapy is also good for the whole ENT system, as well, and should help him with the ear infections. Carla thought it was important for us to see him before and after his surgery, and she actually called in a favor to this well respected doctor to get us a quick appointment. He wants to see Lucas six times (every other week) and then we will reassess. He said Carla should be able to see shifts in Lucas from his therapy over time, and vice versa.

I've heard a lot about this type of therapy lately, so we're really excited to see if it helps. About a year ago, a colleague told me about it, that his son had been receiving the treatments for the last year, and they had seen some great results. His wife told me last summer to look into it for Lucas due to his neurological issues. But, at that time, I wasn't as tuned into all of this, so I never even looked it up. Recently I've read about several other preemies getting the treatment, and then Carla recommended it. I've become much more interested lately in learning about holistic approaches. There is so much that can be uncovered and corrected in our natural bodies without the use of drugs and equipment... and I am on a mission!

The ABM therapy is still going well. We are still seeing subtle changes, but I do get impatient sometimes, desparately wanting to see him sit up on his own or crawl, but we are still very far from that. I have no doubt he'll get there, we just have to keep charging ahead. He finally started standing in the last week or so (he never would before... he would jump but it was only a baby reflex and his high tone firing the muscles, he never would put his legs down to stand even for a second). Now he will hold it for several seconds and is starting to figure out how to initiate his legs to push up to a stand. He's still pretty wobbly and keeps his feet too close together, but its progress! Carla does a ton of work with his legs and torso, I have no doubt it is due to the therapy. He's become so much looser and has a LOT more range of motion than ever. He can now get his foot all the way up to his mouth (like a typical baby)... sounds simple, but two months ago, I would have to help him get his hand to even touch his foot, but he certainly couldn't raise it further than his mid-section. Until recently, he wasn't flexible enough to even grab it on his own. Last weekend, Nicholas was playing with him on the floor and yelled out, "Oh my gosh, you have to see this, Lucas just put his foot in his mouth! I've never seen him do that before!" Its a pretty cool feeling to watch him do these new things... if we had continued with the old therapy and all the stretching-stretching-stretching -- I am certain he would not be where he is now with flexibility.

We got an air splint last week and started using it on Saturday on his right arm for the "constraint therapy"... imagine a long water wing that keeps him from bending his elbow or using his hand (a $54 water wing, that's just crazy). This is to force him to use the left arm. It is known that if the body has one limb that is easy to use, and the other one is not, the brain can completely give up on the other limb. We've already seen that start to happen. Six months ago, if you restricted his right arm, he would at least clumsily attempt to grab something with the left. Now, his brain doesn't really register that he has this other arm to do so. He can open and close his left and to clap and to pass things back and forth, but the arm as a whole is not recognized. This is a huge issue for helping him move on the floor to a sit, or to push up and weight bear, and certainly crawling. The good news is, we can help this by making him find other ways to do things, which will enable the brain to make the necessay connections around the damaged area. We're starting with 30 minutes, twice a day and will build up to a few hours a day. You would think that he would really fuss by putting his only good arm in the splint, but he didn't... instead, he lifted this big arm up (lying on his back) and examined it up in the air... then quickly figured out that he could shake it and the zipper would make noise. Then he discovered that he could bang the valve onto a toy to make clicking noises. It was very cute, but not exactly the goal! Carla has another boy similar to Lucas' age that has been using one for 6 months, and now is functioning with both arms (and crawling)! She told me today that this will not be a quick thing, but it will work... another lesson in patience!

I guess that's it for the week... he sees the GI doctor tomorrow, and also his last appointment with the Developmental Clinic at Children's, since he's now 18 months corrected age. We agreed to let Lucas be part of an 18 month study, which is being conducted by the neonatologist that helped revive Lucas the night he was born. We're looking forward to seeing him, I remember Dr. El-Dib talking to me a few minutes before they took me in, telling me how they were going to handle trying to save Lucas at birth. He was trying to make me feel comfortable about everything, but I was so incredibly scared. Given his gestational age, the odds were stacked against him, Dr El-Dib lead the team of about seven people that were ready and waiting for him. I don't think I've ever shared his apgar scores before... if you're familiar with the scores at birth, he was a 1, 3, and 7. This means a score of 1 at one minute, 3 at five mintues, and 7 at 10 minutes after birth. Most babies score 7 within the first minute, and work up to 10. Basically, his heart rate was extremely low, he was not breathing or moving, and was blue well into the five minute mark. Its a true miracle that he's here. I feel indebted to them. Apgar Score

I'll get some pictures up this week!