Flashback Friday Last week we left off at that time that tested us. Finding the balance! After a while it did become second nature to be in a few places at once. It wasnt without help from the grandmas and friends and we will forever be grateful for that help. Without them things like school assemblys and house inspections would have been left undone and unattended, it certainly took a village. There was no rest though thats for sure... Ari was pushed straight into a rigorous therapy schedule that rotated weekly. At the beginning all the therapy was done bedside as Ari was often not alert enough to travel outside of his comfort zone. They were still weaning Ari off some of the medications that kept him quite snowed plus that first year is an incredible healing process for the brain. Aris brain and body was very busy but he was still so distant. We barely saw those smiles we saw in America, he stared into space and never made eye contact. I thought this was to stay like this forever... Slowly though Ari started to participate in his therapy sessions; he would push buttons on command every now and then and he would try really hard to raise up his head from his chest, He had no head control like an infant. The assault on the brain from near drowning essentially wiped ALL skills at first. Remember I had written in earlier flashbacks that Ari learned to breathe on his own and then swallow, well head control and everything else that we do without thinking was a skill we hoped Ari could regain. Ari had gorgeous therapists and they always thought positively and pushed him for more. Lisa our physio had a wonderful touch with Ari, he really responded to her well. We had been working on raising his head the entire time as this is the building block to build everything else and slowly we started to see some progress. Ari had to have serial casting done on his feet which is where they put plaster cast on the feet to help them come back to neutral. Feet need to be at neutral for standing and walking.The brain injury had left him with pointed feet and serial casting is the first thing they try before the last resort of surgery...I had promised Ari that if he was well behaved and brave at his first serial casting that I would reward him with an orang-utan toy. Well this orang-Utah turned out to be the saving grace when it came to Ari raising his head for the first time...watch the video attached to see that first glimpse of what our superstar could do. We were all crying and cheering and so excited that he finally raised his head, for the first time in a while I felt like things were going to get better for Ari. That we had a chance for a good quality of life and that my baby was definitely still in there... Well just a short one for today, we are off to athletics carnivals and school in a minute. Great news and update on the van; she will be ready VERY soon and then trucked over here to Perth to have the rest of the modifications completed. We will hopefully have her by the end of September woo hoo Hope everyone has a lovely weekend planned, stay safe and see you next week X Simone
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 06:36:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015