CIT: Week 2

Friday marked Ryder’s second full week with his cast on.  Week 2 was eventful since the cast fell off and a new one had to be put back on the same day.  Then Saturday he came down with a fever and was feeling pretty bad all day and night.  Other than those mishaps, he has been doing so well with the constraint therapy…having the cast on is completely normal to him and he’s doing great using Lefty for most tasks. 

We’ve worked a lot on stability with Lefty this week, getting him to be able to pick things up and carry them without losing his grip, and trying to strengthen his arm and shoulder.  We know that once the cast comes off he will go back to using his right arm/hand for everything, but if we can get his muscles stronger and more coordinated then he’ll be more likely to atleast try things with 2 hands.

Some challenges he is having are using his pincer grasp, picking up flat or small objects and keeping a grip on something he is holding.

Last Friday during therapy we worked on eating with a fork.  We had to hold his elbow, pulling it up so that the fork could point straight down to poke something, then pushing it down to get his wrist towards his mouth to take a bite.  This was something I honestly didn’t think he’d get on his own…buuuttttt…Sunday morning when he was up and feeling better from being sick the day before, what do ya know, he wanted to eat his scrambled eggs (with ketchup, gross!) all by himself, and he wanted me to get it on video!

He’s working so hard, I couldn’t be more proud of him.  The cast comes off this Friday, we’re taking a week break to see how he does and it might have to go back on for another 3 weeks.  We’ll cross that bridge when we get there!