Oranges and Walkers

I am hoping that with the Holidays mostly over I will get back into the swing of things. It has been a struggle to balance things and to keep our spirits up. We made it through the Christmas parties and family events. Each one helped raise our spirits but was also somewhat bittersweet. It was fun to laugh and visit but there was and is a deep longing and desire to have all of my family in the same place laughing and talking too.

That being said, I am sure you are wondering about the title of this post. Let's talk oranges first. Today, I was sitting next to Maddi and I was peeling an orange. Of course, I put some under her nose to stimulate smell. She was very interested. When I was at Primary's they told me to rub different tastes on her lips so today it was oranges. She definitely began using her mouth in an eating way. I told her to open her mouth and pushed down her chin just a little to facilitate that action. She not only opened but pushed her tongue forward a little bit. It was slight but I noticed.

So being the risk taker I am, I put the orange segment on her tongue. She really liked it! She began sucking the juice out of the piece. She did eventually take a bite out of it but I had to fish it out of her mouth. She isn't "certified" to take food in by mouth. Some of you might be wondering why I couldn't just let her eat it. Well, we have to be careful that she doesn't end up with food in her lungs. If her muscles aren't strong enough then it could cause an aspiration in the lungs and it can be a very serious thing. It was encouraging to see her use the sucking reflex to take in the juice though.

I have known her ability to swallow is good, while brushing her teeth she swallows the toothpaste instead of spitting in out. She loves to suck the water off the toothbrush as well. So, yes, I am willing to try new things but I already knew she could handle it. Now, you have the oranges side of things.

As for the walkers;
PT/OT went well today. I was a little disappointed because she seemed very sleepy. She is fidgeting all the time now and I think it is interfering with her sleep. It takes so much energy for her to do all that moving. I am not a Neuro Doctor but that is what seems to be happening right now. All of her moving and shaking makes her tired. So, she wasn't as responsive with the smaller movements they were asking from her. She was stuck in her right eye gaze most of the time too. I get discouraged when she doesn't track as well with her eyes. I see the eyes as the window to the soul and it is hard when her soul seems stuck!

Well, when they got to the walking part she was all over it! She was so confident and standing tall. She is still struggling with keeping her head upright when she is doing something else. She did so well though that the Physical Therapist (Matthew) got out a walker for her to use. She did great! She grabbed onto the walker without any prompting and just started walking. We were still providing support to her trunk so this wasn't a solo event.

As we were walking across the room for the second time to go back to her chair she took a detour. She decided she wanted to go out of the gym and walk down the hall! She was completely purposeful while doing that. Even when she hit the wall with the walker she would adjust and move forward. She needed some resting throughout the therapy time but I felt like it was very productive even if she didn't repeat some of the things she had done before. Just to see my beautiful girl walking using her best runway walk with her head up for a while was fabulous!

I guess we will take a lesson from Maddi today. As we are walking down this detour in life even when we hit the wall even with our support, we can always adjust and move forward.