CIT Week 1

Well we made it through the first week of Constraint Therapy and we’re all still in one piece!  The first day was definitely the worst, but with each day it becomes more “normal” for him to have the cast on and he doesn’t even ask us to take it off anymore.  We’ve been amazed at how much function Lefty really has this time, I guess the combination of Botox plus the casting is really working! 

He got a huge can of playdoh for his Birthday that I purposely hid in his closet because I knew it would be perfect to take out once he got his cast on.  So each night after Maisy goes to bed we have our special playdoh time.  It’s great because Lefty has to work so hard but he’s still enjoying himself. 

 

I love that I have videos to compare this stuff to from one year ago when we did this therapy for the first time.  Here he was playing playdoh with lefty then…with all of his long-haired, tiny voice, cuteness!

 

He has gained so much strength and coordination with his left hand in just 1 year.  It’s a great feeling to see all of his hard work paying off.  Here he is throwing treats to Beasley out the window…it amazes me to see him grab for something and actually get his hand to land where he is aiming, this is something he used to struggle with big time!

Having Righty in a cast is most helpful during therapy, because during a normal session a lot of time is spent trying to convince him to try something with Lefty.  He knows how easy he can do everything with Righty so he only wants to do things one-handed.  Now that he doesn’t have that option, Abby is really getting Lefty to do some challenging things that he wouldn’t have even tried before.

Just to see him able to do a normal task like eating a popsicle with his left hand is enough confirmation for me that week 1 has been a huge success.  Challenging at times but SO worth it to see our boy making progress!

Maisy Movie

I have new footage of Ryder working hard with Lefty that I’ll try to get uploaded sometime in the next few days…but first I had to share some video’s of us following Maisy around trying so hard to get her to walk on camera.  Every day when I pick her up from Nana’s she’ll take about 3 steps to me, as Nana says she does throughout the day.  But once we get home and I get the camera out and have Daddy there to witness it, she stands there like “Who me???  I don’t take steps!!!”

 

I think before too long we’re going to have a walker! 

A Special Mother’s Day

Today was Mother’s Day, which was special in itself…but what made it even more special was that we dedicated Maisy at Church.  We made a promise to raise her in a Christian home and lead her to God.  Even Ryder agreed, so as a family we’ll do our best to teach her about Jesus, how much He loves her and the sacrifices He made to save her. 

I was showered with gifts first thing this morning AND coffee in bed!  I love my little family so much, they definitely know how to make me feel so special.

We do have another child, I just have no idea where he was when we were taking these pictures.  I’m determined to get a family picture of all 4 of us one of these days, hmmm maybe next Mother’s Day!  After Church we went to Alan’s Grandma’s to visit with the family.  We had lots of fun and lots of good food.  It was a great day in so many ways.

I can hardly even put into words what it means being a Mommy to these two beautiful children.  Sometimes when I look at them it takes my breath away.  Their hugs, kisses, laughter, and innocence fill my heart with pure joy.  It’s not always easy…in fact, we all know how hard it is to be a Mom!  But it’s worth every second of the hard times, because the reward is so much greater.  To have these little eyes look at me in love, their little arms reach out to me for comfort, and their little mouths call out my name in need is the most rewarding thing I’ll ever experience in my whole life.  I love being a “Momma”. 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Momma’s out there!  Hope you each had a fabulous day, you deserve it!!

Meet Street Glide!

Just over a year ago, we did our first round of Constraint Induced Therapy with Ryder, where his good arm is casted for a 3 week period of time to encourage him to use his arm that lost function when he had his stroke.  He cleverly named that cast “Sword Fight” because to him, he had his own personal sword attached.  Knowing that our next round of CIT was approaching, we have been asking Ryder if he’s ready to get Sword Fight back on.  If we were smart, we would not have carried the name over, because as soon as he got it on today he was swinging it around yelling Hi-Ya with a much bigger cast and much stronger,more powerful arm than we were up against last year! 

When Daddy got home, he got the marker out and asked Ryder what he should write.  Ryder said “Street Glide!”.  So we will no longer be referring to his cast as Sword Fight, it is now Street Glide.  We’re trying to encourage him to vroooom it along like a motorcycle instead of swinging it like a sword!

Friday mornings we have therapy at 7am (soooo early!) so today that meant getting casted at 7am.  Ryder was a good sport, as he always is.  He sat still, watching Blue’s Clue’s, asking questions, making us laugh, even stopping for a Hi-Five after the padding was on.

Once the cast was on, he tolerated it for all of I’d say…15 minutes, before he realized how much it SUCKS not having righty!  Sorry, but it does.  I know it sucks for him, and it sucks for me having to watch him struggle…no other word comes to mind.  All we can do is try to help him succeed to gain the strength and confidence he needs with Lefty.

On the ride home he began panicking because he couldn’t see his fingers.  He was really upset so I pulled over to comfort him and the only thing I could think to do was take a picture with the camera and show him that his fingers were in there and they were okay!  He was fine after that.

We’ve been trying to do things with him today that don’t really require any fine motor skills, to keep him from getting even more frustrated.  Like helping Daddy cut the grass!  And watching his favorite shows!

He’s having to use Lefty now to pick up his drinks (had to go back to cups with handles to make it easy for him) and to feed himself.  You can see in the picture above that he has associated movements, he lifts righty every time he drinks because his brain just doesn’t understand that Lefty is doing it. 

I’ve been pretty amazed today watching him eat.  If you can remember back to when we did the last casting, it took him almost the whole 3 weeks to be able to feed himself blueberries with lefty.  Even though an entire year has gone by that he resorted back to doing everything with Righty, he immediately picked that skill back up today.  If he’s picking up blueberries and feeding them to himself on day 1, I can’t wait to see what he’s capable of 3 weeks from now! 

 

Just for fun, this is him trying to eat blueberries with Lefty last year.  To say he has come a long way is an understatement!  Just the simple fact that he’s not eating them off the floor this year is a big deal!

 

We couldn’t believe the size difference from his cast last year to the one this year!  I don’t even remember his arm being that tiny only 1 year ago!

Miss Abby gave us homework, we had to fill up 2 bins with balls and for 20 minutes each day Ryder needs to stand there putting all of the balls from one bin to the next.  I got the bins set up and hadn’t planned to put him to work today, but when he asked to “play” of course I wasn’t going to say no!  He did SO good picking up each ball (or object) and getting it to the next bin. 

Day 1 has definitely been a roller coaster.  We had our moment in his room where we both just had to cry.  This year is a little different because he’s asking real questions and expecting real answers.  He’s starting to realize that something is different about him.  We’re having conversations with him we haven’t had yet, nor had we prepared what we would even say when the time came.  We’re just rolling with it though, he’s a smart boy and he’s also very brave, so I know he can handle all of this. 

1 day down, lots more to go.  Plan on seeing a lot of Street Glide around here in the weeks to come!

Ryder Funnies

I figure I better post some happy funny stuff this morning because in a few hours I don’t think the things coming out of Ryder’s mouth are going to be so pleasant :)

Lastnight as I was tucking Ryder into bed:

Me: can Mommy have a kiss?

Ryder: Nope, sorry, the kiss store is closed!

Me: ohhh mannnn, alright, well goodnight.

Ryder: Mooooommmmyyyy (as I’m walking away)

Me: Yessssss

Ryder:  There’s another store over here!

Me:  Really???  Do they have kisses???

Ryder: No, but they have hugs!

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Ryder has been making some pretty unrealistic requests lately, they are hilarious to me, but I don’t think he understands why I laugh, because he is serious!

We were at a friends house playing the other day, she had a huge playroom filled with all kinds of toys.  I walked in the playroom to check on him and he says “Mommy can you get me one of these??”  I don’t see a toy in his hand so I ask “One of what??”  To which he answers “A PLAYROOM!”  Duhhhh.  Yeah I’ll get right on that.

Lastnight watching Special Agent Oso…”Mommy, I really need something!!” he yells, which is usually followed by a request for a drink, snack, something easy.  “A Jet Pack!!!”  Coming right up.

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The other day Ryder walked up to Alan carrying a blown up balloon.

Alan: Hey buddy, do you want me to draw a face on your balloon??

Ryder:  Yeah!

Alan:  Okay we have eyes, a nose, a mouth, some ears, some hair…

Ryder:  Daddy, you’re forgetting something, he needs nose holes!

Alan:  Oh yeah, you’re right he does, so he can breathe.

Ryder:  No, so he has somewhere to stick his finger!

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Botox

Okay so everything went fine today…another case of Momma freaking out unnecessarily, SURPRISE!

Our day started early, we had to be at Children’s by 7:30.  We told Ryder he was going to Richmond to see Dr. Dillard’s office at the hospital and get his arm and leg checked.  One question leads the next these days so we decided to just be vague and not give him anything to worry about.  Since we didn’t give him much to work off of he asked funny questions, like if we were going there to get another baby like Maisy, or to bring Maisy back, and would he get to lay in a hospital bed.

The nurses were so sweet and took great care of our boy.  We got him changed into his hospital gown, met with his Doctor and the Anesthesiologist, then they wheeled out this cool car and let him drive it to his operating room.  Cue parents losing it.  Ugh.  Luckily the procedure didn’t take long at all.  They found the muscle group they wanted to inject and did the injections in his left arm, and his left calf.  Within 30 minutes they got us and took us to recovery where he was still asleep.  When he finally opened his eyes he sat straight up and wanted to know where that car was so he could drive it out of the hospital!  AND he wanted to make sure we stopped at the playground.  The nurse told him the playground probably wasn’t a good idea because he’d be wobbly.  He assured her “I’m not wobbly!  I can walk!  Watch!”  Sure enough, by the time we got to the playground he was walking.  Climbing.  Sliding.  Sliding on his tummy!  He never ceases to amaze me.

Usually people get amnesia from the anesthesia and can’t really remember what led up to them getting put to sleep, but not Ryder.  He told us everything that happened from the time he left us until he fell asleep.  He said they took him out of the car and he got to lay in the hospital bed then they put a mask on him and told him to blow up a green balloon but he didn’t want that stinking mask on his face so he was trying hard to get it off but nope.  LOL long sentence that abruptly ended, guess that’s when he fell asleep!

He played on the playground afterward then said he was starving, so we headed to Cracker Barrel.  Of course he wanted to go to Bass Pro Shop, so that was our next stop.  He hopped from boat to boat and four-wheeler to four-wheeler, he probably sat on every single one.  He almost has Daddy convinced to get a boat (I’m sure his arm doesn’t need too much twisting on that).  Every boat he got in he’d say “My life really needs this boat!” He also got to feed the fish at Bass Pro.  Fun times!

We got the oil changed in our truck and shopped at Kohl’s too…it was a long day, what a trooper he was!  The only time I got a little worried was when we were in Kohl’s and he said “Mommy I hurt”, I asked him where he hurt and he said EVERYWHERE!  So I asked him to point and he reached around and grabbed his spine.  I rubbed it for a second and he said it was better and hasn’t mentioned it since…so hopefully that was nothing.  He has also gotten tired from walking a lot easier today so we’ve carried him a lot.  They said to expect some weakness, plus he’s had a really long day.  We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on him in the weeks to come to make sure his body doesn’t have a bad reaction to the Botox.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have that done with.  I got myself into a huge panic Monday evening that even had Alan second guessing our decision.  We called our Pastor and heard exactly what we needed to “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”  God was working in this situation, He would not have allowed it to happen if it wasn’t in His will.  We had to let go and trust Him, a hard lesson to learn but always comes with the best outcomes.

Thanks for all the prayers!  It’s just another bump in this crazy road to recovery that lies ahead for Ryder, but he handled it like a champ, as always!  He gets his cast on Friday.  We’re hoping, praying, and TRUSTING GOD for the same smooth results with that!

Our day in cell phone pics:

On our way.

 

Cute little hospital gown and his cool ride to the OR.

Mommy & Daddy’s stress relief.  Yes, we played Mario Kart while we waited.

Visiting the playground right after the procedure…he wasn’t even phased!

 

Cracker Barrel french toast makes everything better!  Oh and so do bubbles!  Ryder sings this song “Bubbles make me happy, bubbles put a smile on my face” every time we blow bubbles, lol.

Talking this boat decision over with Daddy, even buttering him up with a sweet kiss!

Taking Mommy for a ride on a 4-wheeler.

  

Boys & their toys!

     

Yes, he got spoiled today.  Yes, he got a special treat every where we went.  Because yes, he deserves it.

Weekend Fun!

Friday morning Ryder had his pre-op physical at the Pediatrician’s office.  Everything looks good for him to get his Botox injections on Tuesday, so far anyway (you all know what happened last time he was supposed to get them).  Maisy got 2 shots while we were there, trying to get caught up on her vaccinations.

 

After getting the serious stuff out of the way, we were ready for lots of outdoor action and fun! 

Friday evening we had a surprise visit from Daniel, Ashley, and Bradley.  Ryder was excited to see his cousin and they wasted no time running around the yard, even getting their Daddy’s to join in on the fun.

Of course Maisy can never be left out of this type of fun, it’s totally her scene!

Ohhhh those booty shorts…can’t get enough of them.

Our best attempt at a group shot! 

Saturday we went to Owen’s Pirate Birthday party!  It was so fun, unfortunately I had not one but TWO children in and out of the bouncy houses, so I didn’t get to snap one single picture.  Ryder seriously amazed me at how well he was getting around and how fearless he was being.  Last year at this very party he took the safe route and stayed at the sand table the whole time.  This year, different story!  He was climbing, sliding, bouncing…and it didn’t take long for his baby sister to realize she was ready to join in on the fun.  Proof they had a blast:

Good thing they got a nice deep sleep on the ride home because we headed from one party to the next!  My friend/co-worker had us over to her house for a cookout and bonfire and to let the kids play.  All these girls:

And Ryder!  The kids had a blast and so did the adults.  Earlier in the day I got a text from a friend I haven’t talked to in way too long asking if me & the kids wanted to hang out, so I invited Madison & Lila to the cookout and I’m so glad they got to come! 

We kept the kids up way past their bedtimes, but they were troopers!  I’m sure the sugar high from the ice cream and s’mores helped with that!

We were all exhausted today from all of the excitement, but after Church the kids took a 3 hour nap, so that was nice.  I guess Maisy must have missed Ryder while she was sleeping, because when they woke up it was like attack of the baby sister!

 

This evening we rode back over to Sharon’s to get Alan’s work truck, so Ryder & Sophia decided to jump on the swings.  This is HUGE for Ryder because swings have always been such a huge fear of his (I hope you’re witnessing this Miss Abby!).

Tucking him in bed tonight and praying with him about the week ahead had me completely choked up.  I’m glad he had such a fun-filled weekend.  I wish all of his days could be this care-free.