Physical Therapy: Session 1

Last Thursday was Brody's first real physical therapy session. (I mentioned before that he went once but it was just an evaluation.)  When he had physical therapy when he was about 2 years old, I felt it was pointless. The therapist didn't seem to know how to work with children, plus Brody was young and didn't seem to understand what to do. So I partly blame the fact that we left weeks of therapy with no progress on his age. So I was a little leery going into this first session. I didn't know if we would be heading down the same road as before. Let's just say I was highly impressed. Chelli did some fun games and exercises with him that I could totally tell were working him exactly as he needed to be worked. And for the most part, he seemed to really enjoy everything she asked him to do. She also was very good about explaining to me why she was doing each exercise and what muscles it was working. She did seem a little annoyed that I kept getting on to Brody when he would disobey what she asked him to do. We discussed this and I think we may be on the same page now. She wants him to learn to trust her and she also doesn't want him bored with an exercise and unwilling to cooperate fully. So she said that if he is disinterested, he's not going to get the full benefit. So if he walks away in the middle of it, she is ok with that and they will move on. (Matt and I on the other hand expect obedience. So it is going to be a struggle to just let him walk away after being told to complete a task such as balancing on the trampoline while catching a ball, etc just because he doesn't like it.) But its only been one session...we'll work through this part of it.

I brought my camera and captured a few of the games/exercises they were doing. I didn't get all of them so here's a quick run down of what I can remember.
-Climbing up and down stairs, alternating which legs he used to take the next step. Also worked on taking the stairs only using one foot on each stair. Currently, he steps up and puts both feet on one step before taking the next stair.
-Jumping on the trampoline, which he loved. And then standing still on the trampoline while trying to catch a ball. This works on balance and strengthens his mid-section.
-Tying his legs together with an elastic band and trying to walk around. Also, try to pull legs apart as well as up and down. (See photos)
-Holding on to the parallel bars while standing on a piece of foam with a rounded bottom. It was quite funny watching him try to keep his balance as the foam rolled back and forth.
-He is old enough to use one of the machines, which he was thrilled about. He laid flat on his back at what look like a leg press. When he pushed off, the part he was laying on slid up. The harder he pushed, the higher up he would go. He couldn't go very far, but it was fun for him for sure!
-Standing on a round disk with a ball on the bottom. She held it stable and then moved it back and forth as he played with some toys. He had to adjust his legs to keep from falling. (see photo since my description is not very clear.)
-And lastly, a ball pit. What little 4 year old doesn't love a ball pit! He was told to kick as many balls out as he could while sitting on his bottom. He went to town with this of course!

I'm so excited to watch him grow and get stronger through this therapy program. I think it is going to be very beneficial for him. We'll get to work with him and do some of the exercises at home as well, in order to keep his legs loose and help him stay strong. I'll try to document the sessions every few weeks so you can see new things he's doing and how he's strengthening. Thanks for joining us in this!

Physical Therapy: Day 1

Image from google.com

Today was Brody's first physical therapy session since being diagnosed with CMT. The rehab center has a new therapist who works with children so we were excited to get it started up again. Matt and I both attended this first session so we could share with her our concerns for Brody and also both learn whatever we could about how to work with him at home. We're hoping that most of his future sessions can be first thing in the morning so Matt could take him and just go into work a little late that day. It will be quite hard for me to try to bring all 3 kids and keep our middle child from trying to join in on the therapy haha. Fortunately, if I do have to bring him myself, we have friends and family who are so great about helping out with the kids.

This first session actually ended up being an evaluation, which makes sense. She did a Peabody test on him where she evaluated him walking, jumping on one leg, hopping, climbing stairs, pushing, pulling, running, throwing a ball, etc. She tested just about every physical developmental milestone possible. And of course, the results came back as we expected...above average upper body strength and weak lower body. She actually told us that he is about a year behind his peers in lower body ability..jumping, hopping on one leg, climbing, bending, squatting, etc.


I was impressed that she was familiar with CMT. I didn't know if therapists were taught about these conditions or not. So she knew he would have foot drop and tight achilles tendons. She knew that he needed AFOs and that his problem was not going to be "fixed" with therapy, but that the work she does will hopefully slow the progression. She also told us our end goal is still for him to graduate from therapy. Although that's good news, I have to admit I'm still skeptical of that. From everything the doctors have told us, we don't see how NOT being in therapy is going to be beneficial. But I guess her point is that after 6 months of therapy, hopefully she will have trained us to where we can do all the proper exercises and playful activities with him at home ourselves. She did say that if we aren't ready for him to "graduate" after 6 months or if he takes some time off but needs to come back, that's no problem. So I guess we'll just see how we feel he's doing when the time comes.

She's going to take the next couple of weeks to put together an exercise program for him and submit it to his doctor for approval. So we'll start our scheduled visits in the next couple of weeks. I plan to bring the camera (or send it with Matt) so that we can document for ourselves, as well as share with you.

Coming up next...Should be picking up the AFOs (leg braces) either this week or next!! I will definitely bring the camera to that appointment!