She is 12...

Bai Hua is doing great in school and is learning to play the flute. She is starting to give us a bit of an attitude that is more like a 12 year old. For me, I get kind of cracked up by her little huffs. Chris takes it a bit more seriously. I am not all that concerned that they are out of the norm. Mostly, she is just testing the waters. She responds with an appropriate response when I place the responsibility back on her. To some degree, I think she is just bored and needs something to complain about. :-)

As far as her gait is concerned. We have made some strides there. We have our hospital visit follow up on the 26th with Dr. Bately. We have been going to PT sessions twice per week and things are going well. She is wearing her braces full time at school. We are working her into using her arm crutches rather than the walker so much. She has figured out ways that she doesn't have to walk using her walker. She rolls down hills and sits on the back of it. So, we are working on using the crutches instead. Eventually, we want her to walk unassisted.

Frustration is the feeling that I have when I am dealing with the issue of helping her with her gait. I tend to want to have a plan of action that has small obtainable goals that we reach for. In other words, I like to have a plan where each action builds to complete the end goal. Obviously, we are talking about the human body and we can't always predict the outcome of our efforts. BUT in the situation of her rehabilitation, I have not yet got a sense that any of the doctors we have seen have taken an interest in a comprehensive plan. This leads me to working on getting PT more integrated into home. I am working right now on a plan to acquire equipment to turn our basement into a PT gym of sorts where we can go to work out our legs and body. In many cases the equipment is the same equipment that Children's has and a few pieces of equipment are standard items that are used in work outs. I am in the process of gathering the initial cost and info to acquire this equipment. With some luck, we hope to start acquiring equipment in the next 6 months. Send your thoughts and prayers our way as this will be a very expensive endeavor.
Talk to you soon!
Tracy