Sitting and Walking

We really take for granted how much work is involved in just the restful position of sitting. It is something we do without thinking. I wish I had asked the Physical Therapist how many muscles it takes to do the simple task of sitting on the edge of the bed without assistance.

That is the new skill I saw Maddi do today. She sat on the edge of the therapy mat all by herself. She sat with her trunk upright and even tried to bring her legs up to sit with crossed legs. Gaining trunk control is huge! The therapist was thrilled with her performance. She maintained that upright positioning on the mat for at least 15 minutes! Amazing for the first attempt. She even had her head upright for most of that time too.

She repeated her walking performance with the walker only she held her core body much better today and she used that walker to go up an incline as well. She is one strong cookie! I was really excited to see her repeat the walking thing. It takes a little coordination to maneuver the walker. Both yesterday and today she used different walkers. She holds her head at a funny angle when she walks but we are wondering about her vision. Time will tell on that topic as well. Little by little.

I jokingly call yesterday's walker the front wheel drive model and today's walker was a quad control model. She made the transition so well between the two of them. That is considered amazing adaptability for the amount of injury she has endured and the fact that she has only had the two exposures to the walkers. It also indicates cognition and problem solving skills. The fact that the wheels maneuver differently is pretty significant in how her brain is doing things. She did fantastic!

Overall she did fabulous! One would think that rewiring your brain would take more time than doing the paperwork required for this situation. Based on Maddi's progress compared to our paperwork progress, rewiring must be easier.