We are now officially booked to take Elizabeth for Medek. It is a trip that makes Disney look truly cheap but we hope it will pay off. We are booked for 12 days of twice daily sessions with Ramon Cuevas. We have done Medek in the past with a close colleague of his and do continue with the exercises at home. We are hoping that spending time with Ramon will teach us more exercises to do with Elizabeth and will give her a bit more stability with her walking. Elizabeth's walking has greatly improved and she is now beginning to step onto raised surfaces and is falling less but we have to be continuously at her side ready to catch her. We know that Elizabeth's walking will never be the same as her peers and that Ramon cannot cure her but we are hopeful he can help.
Elizabeth is now old enough to be in kindergarten but for many reason we are holding her back. Her safety in school is a big concern for me and I fear that once in school they will demand she use a walker for safety. A walker is not a huge deal but she chose to walk independently and I want to honour it. I have horrifying visions of her on the playground, being knocked over and breaking something and I know chances are it will happen, a change in wind is enough to tip her over. I know that the assistants will not stay by her side in the playground and she will be encouraged to play away from all the kids to avoid injury. I know this as I visit many schools through work and see it all the time.
We have been warned and discouraged by some not to do this type of therapy but we are willing to give it a try. We have met Ramon and he is kind and gentle with the children, Elizabeth immediately took to him and wanted to do more work on his boxes. Just mentioning this therapy to some of Elizabeth's Dr's would spark a very heated discussion but we know Elizabeth and if it is too much for her we will stop. Elizabeth's emotional state is more important to us than her mobility. We will spend our time not in therapy doing as many fun things that we can come up with so she will look back at this as a fun time as well as hard work.
To see a video of Ramon click here.
5 comments:
I watched the video, I sat here in amazement and tears watching how far she came, the end where she ditched her walker was awesome. I read your post and your fears of school are exactly what I have been thinking of! Kellar like Elizabeth has improved in walking but it still doesn't take much for him to topple over, running he's still a charging bull..ha! Good luck and I can't wait to read up on how well it's working! Mind if I add you to Kellars preemie friends?
Sure you can add us with Kellar's preemie friends. Elizabeth is still like a bull in a china shop, if she only took her time her falling would be less. They say they do this to accomodate for their lack of balance.
hi there, i "know you" from PreemieBlogMoms...where'd you get elizabeth's pedal straps for her trike? would you mind emailing me? AHHSTL@sbcglobal.net?
thanks so much,
ashley
I'm so excited for you guys and can't wait to hear how everything goes with Ramone. It is so difficult to know where to spend your money when it comes to these types of therapies. It seems like they are all expensive and we don't have that money tree yet. I was talking to a new CE mom this morning about the different types of non-traditional therapies and my conclusion thus far is that each child may respond differently to each type so while Medek or CE may not work for one it may be great for another. So far we are seeing great things from CE but hope to try Medek early next year. Do you think it would be better to try to go to Chile? Good luck and maybe we'll meet you in Canada soon :)
oh, and, I think you are making a great decision on the delaying school...for what that is worth ;)
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