Saturday, September 5, 2009

PT 3 & 4

We've been to two more sessions of PT since the last update. At our third appointment, the physical therapist took Luke in the back and worked with him for about an hour while I waited in the waiting room. When the session was over, she brought my boy back - red faced and teary eyed. She said that he basically cried and fussed the entire time!

On the bright side though, she said that she wanted to go back on her original assessment of him. She said that she didn't think that he was having any issues with sensitivity/pressure, but that it was purely behavioral. My first thought was "behavioral? meaning that he's bad? or we are bad parents?" and she was quick to say that that was not the case at all. She said that it is behavioral because he just chooses not to get up on all fours, pull up, etc. He totally CAN do it, he is just comfortable in his way of doing things and does not want to try a new way. She said that it is most likely just a (stubborn) personality thing.

The physical therapist said that she's not adamant that he HAS to crawl on all fours - it is just the natural progression of things, so it wasn't a bad idea to keep pushing it.

So, that was the third appointment. That night after the appointment, he started going over to his little "Luke" armchair and using it as a prop to get from tummy to sitting! YAY! Then, the next day, he was able to get into a sitting position straight from his tummy (without the use of any props). We were so proud of the little guy (and he was equally proud of himself and clapped every time he did it).

Fourth appointment was a nightmare - as soon as we walked back to the room in the back, Luke started gripping my shoulder and crying. He knew what was coming. Poor little guy! Andie and I stayed in the room while she worked with him. Luke was just so upset during the whole session - he kept looking over at Andie and I, reaching for us, and sobbing! The physical therapist worked with him on pulling up and trying to get him to "cruise" across a little table. He did ok, I guess - but it got to the point where he was just so upset that he didn't really seem to be learning anything anymore.

We decided to set our next appointment for a month out to check in and see how he's progressing. The physical therapist gave us an instruction sheet with exercises for us to work on with him. She said if he masters those really quickly (pulling up and cruising), we can move up our appointment and she'll give us new exercises to do with him. This method will probably work a lot better since Luke was getting so upset at his appointments and we are able to work with him at home a lot more easily.

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Ok, picture time. No blog entry is complete without some photos.

We got a wagon for Luke, but he seemed to be much more excited about the big box that it came in.


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