Life in Davidtopia is very busy right now. He has physical therapy (PT) two times per week and water PT once a week. We are up before daylight to get him to the west side for his PT's and as always, there are hiccups with insurance, but he likes his therapy and so far, he seems to be gaining from it.
For those of you who may be just tuning in, David has cerebral palsy (CP). His particular type of CP was brought on by a premature birth which resulted in a grade 4 brain bleed and a host of other issues. His CP is both physical and mental, with the physical part affecting his lower extremities (hips, legs, ankles) much more than his upper body. Early on he was little and light and he walked really well with a walker, despite the tightness in his muscles. As he grew though, he began to have issues holding his own weight up and being able to have stability on his feet. When he was 12 years old, we learned about Shriners Hospital in St. Louis and David was sponsored by a local Shriner to go and get checked out. There we learned that Davids hips were really bad and that not "if" but "when" his hips gave out, he would be in constant pain for the rest of his life. The only thing to be done was a long and painful surgery to repair the hips and also to fix the muscles in his legs and knees. Everlasting pain vs. surgery? It was a no-brainer. He had the surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery over corrected the problem and within a year, he had a new problem. He couldn't even stand because his hips had spread out to the point that his feet crisscrossed. Strengthening PT was impossible because he simply couldn't stand. Now, nine almost ten months ago, David had the hip surgery again. This time they pulled the hips back to center. In April, he stood with straight legs for the very first time ever. In September, he was okayed for intense PT, as his hips had healed and his bones had strengthened to the point where he wouldn't hurt himself. And now you are up to speed!
David has the desire and the drive to walk, now he just needs the strength and as far as PT goes, we still have mountains to climb. What is the saying...."You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run." Well David is literally at the crawling stage. Now he is working on the walking. He is working on strengthening his legs, hips and his entire core. Even though his upper body is a thousand times better than his lower body, as he grows, there is more of him to support and the surgeries have weakened his upper body a bit. He is working to regain that strength and move forward. At PT, he works on supporting himself and doing fun things like playing ball, kicking the ball and reaching for things. He also constantly works on sitting/standing which for you and I would be similar to squats. The sit/stands help to build muscle and prepare him for walking.
The pool therapy is an amazing strengthening tool as he is constantly kicking in the water to keep himself moving. On his own in our pool he started getting stronger just being out there playing. It is because of the pool that he started kicking outside the pool. Before that, he couldn't lift his own legs to kick. With the targeted pool therapy, I am hoping that the change will be amazing.
When not at PT, David does daily routines at school of sitting on an exercise ball to learn trunk control and strengthen his core as well as he does stretches to keep his muscles in shape so he doesn't lose anything. He can actually take off and walk with his walker, but because the strength isn't there yet, he tires easily and his muscles will begin to shake. Sometimes it is hard to watch, but then I put it into the perspective that David is like an athlete training for a marathon. There is a lot of hard work, pain and effort that goes into that training, but when the finish line is crossed, it is worth every second of that painful journey. I feel that when David crosses the finish line, we aren't going to remember the surgeries, the long and hard recoveries, the sleepless nights, the pain or the endless PT. All he or I will be thinking about is that he did it!!!! He is walking!!!! It will all have been worth it for both of us.
And speaking of growing.....David turned 14 years old on Sunday. He is about 4'8" tall and he weighs about 80 lbs and he is all teenage boy. He got several gifts, mostly cars as he is in love with cars, but his favorite gifts were the Mylar balloons he got. Three guesses why. They have Spongebob on them of course. So far they are holding up under his constant handling but I fear they are not long for this world.
Life continues on here in our humble abode. We keep doing our best to move forward and kicking the obstacles out of the way and so far, David appears to be on track...... for a truly amazing life.
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