Braced Up & Level 16

If any of you are out of the loop, a quick catch up - Jones had a difficult birth, it was precipitous, with meconium present, and the cord was wrapped around his neck so that he was not breathing. He was resuscitated and sent to the NICU. Once there he began having seizures, that were then controlled and stopped, he has been seizure-free since. We also found out that he had a lack of oxygen sometime before birth, either from the cord being compromised or placental detachment. When he was eleven months old he was diagnosed with moderate Cerebral Palsy - thus begins our journey! He is 17 months old now and doing well with lots of therapies and lots of hope that many milestones will be achieved :)

We had an appointment with Jones' Rehabilitation Doctor this week. She had many new suggestions to help improve his tone and mobility. He was fitted for a trunk brace, which like his thumb splits, will be neoprene with Velcro closures. This brace will help him sit up straighter so he can hopefully use his arms/hands more. Underneath the brace, he will wear two strips of kiniesiotape placed on either side of his spine, all the way up his back. The tape is like a muscle prompt, crazy! In several weeks he will receive lower leg braces, I'm not sure how they will look yet. These braces will help align his leg and feet muscles in the proper position for walking.

The most challenging aspect of the Dr.'s advice is to begin Botox injections which will decrease the high tone in Jones' muscles. We are pretty sure that we will do it, we just need a little time to mull it over. There are two major benefits, one is that it will help reduce the risk that confractures of the muscle and bone will form, causing irrevisible deformaties. The other is obviously, with decreased tone, he can move more. So more on that later...

Owen's teacher just retested him at reading level 16. Although I don't know what that specifically means, it's good! His whole reading group is now at a 15/16. He is still in a cluster group, which are students from different classrooms of the same reading level. It was started because Owen didn't have any similar readers in his class. For all of the last semester he was the highest level reader in the Kindergarten but now his cluster group has caught up, which is great. He is playing basketball and is fast! He has no idea what to do with the ball but, they are all learning. Offense and defensive are difficult concepts for 6 year olds to master.

Ames Street Cafe Special - Spinach burritos with grass-fed beef, topped with Organic Valley sour cream and a side of guacomole.

Reviews: "I don't like the green stuff. What is it this time, cilantro?"