It is difficult for me to comprehend that almost 8 weeks has passed since my last blog. I feel as though it were just yesterday when I wrote my last entry. Time has passed but not the passion for what I do. In essence, the passions of raising three incredible children have just grown stronger. In this blog I will catch you up on all that has been going on for Ethan. Mostly the 'ins' and 'outs' of his last four weeks of summer and the first three weeks of his new school year. Then if you would like to read on about the great changes that have been happening in my life I will have to redirect you to the blogs entitled "Jen's Web". Which can be found on this very same site. But first here is Ethan's stuff (and then later, Jen's Web will come).
The summer seemed to be over before we knew it. School was just around the corner. Some of you may have seen the video of Ethan walking with his bobath poles, which I will try to post on this blog very soon. By the end of the summer he became very good at walking with the poles instead of his arm crutches. This serves the purpose of keeping him in a more upright position and allows him to use his legs naturally in a reciprocal pattern instead of his forward posture he had been so accustomed to using with his arm crutches. He still needs one:one support with the bobath poles and is unable to do these independently, yet. But the time that we spend using the poles has been steadily increasing as he becomes stronger and stronger. Look for the video on this site soon.
Up until about two weeks ago we were still driving about 40 minutes away to go to the best physical therapists in the Detroit area, Heather and Kevin. As the summer progressed and school began the desire and the energy to keep this kind of schedule up was wearing us out. The roses that I had been accustomed to seeing that helped to confirm that we were on the path to meet the goals we had set out began to dwindle until we could no longer see any roses as we traveled back and forth to therapy several days a week. I knew that something was up and that therapy would soon be coming to an end. Ethan had made some incredible strides this summer and he was beginning to show the need for a break. His desire and motivation was beginning to run dry and no matter how much I enticed him to press on he still could not see or feel the benefits of his sessions for himself. This was a difficult process to go through as a mother and a son. As a mother, I wanted so badly to continue to press on thinking that if we could just get over this hurdle then he would see and feel the incredible progress he was making. I finally realised that I was doing all I could and it was not up to me. So, one day two weeks ago I felt the push inside of me to call Heather on the phone and tell her that this would be out last week in therapy. Of course she understood because she had been feeling this for several weeks now. So, we made our next session our last session for awhile. This is our temporary break in time to relish all the accomplishments we have made and celebrate our summer victories.
So what do we have to be victorious about? Ethan is walking stronger and taller. He has muscles working where they were not working before. He is stronger in areas where he was weak before. He knows and is confident that he will walk and run without his arm crutches one day soon and he feels the support of the people that believe this will happen for him. If we had not taken the time to go to therapy this summer then we would not have all that we have now. We have a vision that is being answered. We have a miraculous miracle in progress. Just because we do not go to therapy several days a week does not mean we will not progress. In actuality, we gained the physical knowledge we needed to allow our visions to become reality. We are incredibly thankful for our experience and the hard work that Heather and Ethan did together in order to take several important steps closer to our dream. So now, instead we are on to more adventures.
Ethan has started school. This has been another accomplishment. Every morning he gets dressed, eats breakfast, completes his exercises, and gets ready to go to school. Every day, he not only achieves academic goals, but he gets to socialize and deepen his roots into who he is. There have been many mornings when he has a hard time understanding why we must do all that we do in the while other kids are watching TV. Ultimately, we set our eyes on the prize and the doubts quickly fade away. There is no time for TV at our house. And through the absence of electronics we have gained a better understanding of who we all are and how we connect. School has brought us closer together. We have received reports of the great successes that Ethan is having at school. He has acclimated very well into his classroom and is taking on leadership roles that he would have never tried before. He continues to become more and more independent and the extra services he needed in years past are beginning to take a backseat to his new light shining brightly. Ethan is in the forefront and he is shining brightly every day. Time and time again, I am approached by people who used to be heavily involved in helping Ethan to progress in academic, physical, and social areas who are excited and surprised to see how much he has grown and how 'easy' things are coming to him now. They are delighted that he is showing such incredible strength and will to be independent in all areas of his life. I am constantly receiving confirmation that our choices we made last year were the 'right' choices to be made and that this is Ethan's year to brightly burn.
Lastly, we have hooked up with one of the nation's top chiropractors who just happens to have his office 30 minutes from where we live. The coincidences that lead us to his office will be talked about in greater detail in "Jen's Web". As for now, we are going to his office once a week to work on straightening out Ethan's spine so that he has optimal use of every muscle in his body. After walking with arm crutches for so long Ethan has developed a curve in his back much like that of a gorilla that walks partially on his arms. The chiropractor is helping us put Ethan's spine back into alignment through a series of simple weights and exercises termed 'The Pettibon System'. For ten minutes, twice a day we strap on weights to Ethan's body strategically placed in order to realign his anatomical structure into a normal alignment. Thus when Ethan is aligned the muscles that he does have working can work optimally and we never know what muscles could have been hiding out and not had the opportunity to work due to being miss aligned from a poorly aligned spine. This gives us more hope and another step closer to walking on the plane to China. Which brings us to our next thought. When are we going to China????? Well, we still do not know. But, I know that we will be going and when we do it will be an incredibly huge healing event. I have recently been given links to stem cell research that has only been done in China and we are looking into this possibility in conjunction with the bowel and bladder nerve rerouting surgery.
I will keep you updated more often now that the kids are back at school and our life seems to be on some sort of conducive schedule that allows me to invest the time in doing what I love to do; writing to inspire you to see what an awesome world we have and life that you have to live! No matter what the cause of our frustrations seems to be we must take the time to see and perceive our lives differently. Nothing is impossible and joy is every where around us no matter where you are or what your situation is. I can say this, because I know. I have walked a life of misery and if you choose to walk a life of joy everything will change for you; I promise. I welcome you to go on and read "Jen's Web" sometime in the near future. There you will begin to have an understanding of who I am and why I have chosen to see joy in my life, finally, after all these years. To you, I send love and sheer joy, because we are one and connected. I love you. Yes, you.
Oh, and here is the video...
No comments:
Post a Comment