Day 13 - Oh... you know....

IT'S HUMPDAY!

Today was another good day at therapy!  We got started, pretty much, right at 8.  We spent the first part of our morning working on a variety of hand manipulations, doing key grasps, tripod grabs, and occasionally working on our pincer grasp.  Ben is really making strides with the key and tripod grasps and is developing a significant amount of strength all along the way.  When he hits with his left hand, it actually hurts! (Should he be hitting??? Yeah, yeah... but frankly people, I don't give a damn.) I'm so happy to see that Ben is developing an amount of strength sufficient to demonstrate force; its been an amazing development!

Some excellent "tripod" grasping...

We were lucky enough to get to play with M again, playing with a parachute.  M was a good sport and both he and Ben did a great job of sharing and demonstrating some awesome age-appropriate behaviors.  We also met another little boy, B.  He was younger than Ben, but was all too happy to partake in the parachute festivities.  Like yesterday, we were too busy in the moment to take any pictures, but rest assured that all involved had a great time!

We also did yogurt again today.  This is one hellacious mess, but Ben gets a chance to put both his gross motor, as well as fine motor skills to good use! Take a look!

We also have some sweet video evidence... if it loads properly...

Tonight we ate pasta at Guisseppe's Cafe in Homewood and we had a great time.  Tomorrow night, we are headed to Steel City Pops as part of our last night in Alabama.  

For those of you who watch the video and wonder if there is progress, consider the following... 

 

Reanna and I were are given a questionnaire regarding the usage of Ben's left arm.  Reanna reported, prior to therapy, on 22 questions. The questionnaire was Lickert in style.  Tasks that Ben could accomplish independently are scored at a minimum of 3 - he can do it, but very slowly and with great difficulty - up to a 5 (which would indicate that he can do tasks just as well as he does with his dominant hand).  Scores of 0.5-2.5 indicated varying degrees of dependence that Ben placed on an adult. Zeros were those items that remained unattempted, despite adult assistance.  

Reanna reported at the outset of therapy that Ben would not attempt 21 of 22 tasks when offered assistance - aka - a zero.

As of yesterday, upon completion of therapy, I was responsible for the assessment.  Despite issues of interrater reliability, which I expect to get a pass on, Ben had attempted all 22 activities, scoring at least a 1.5 in all areas.  In 13 of 22 categories, he scored a 3 or better, indicating that on more than half of the activities, Ben acted with varying degrees of independence.  Truly impressive!

That's all for today! Happy Humpday!

Day 12

Today started off much better for the entire Yenger family.  Ainsley got her mother to herself all morning.  I suspect that make up was "applied" at home, prior to leaving for daycare.  I suspect that Ains was happy to be the lone apple of her mother's eye.  Reanna's day started off by NOT having the smoke alarms go off, and by NOT getting stuck in the snow.  This marked a vast improvement over yesterday!

Ben had a fantastic day at therapy, marked by two high points.  First, Chivas, the therapy dog from Hand in Paw was nice enough to come back and visit.  Ben is usually a bit slow to warm, but on this visit with Chivas, he was awesome.  He saw Chivas at the door and asked Ms. Tina - his human assistant - to bring him in.  Ben and Chivas played hide-and-seek. (Ben hid the food in a dog toy and Chivas found it and ate it.)  Ben acted like the gentle boy that he is, softly petting Chivas while he just laid there, all too happy to take the loving.

In addition to providing Ben with a positive and rewarding experience, Ms. Tina also brought along a photo album of Chivas.  Ben did even better here.  First, Ben was a champ at turning the pages of the photo album. Second, Ben did an excellent job of show Ms. Jane hie ability to "point" to stuff.  While the pointing was "whole hand" and opposed to a single finger making the motion, the behavior is the precursor to traditional pointing.  Ms Jane was quite excited!

After Chivas left, we did a few more activities, then it was time for a snack.  Today, we skipped yogurt and opted for string cheese.  It was really cool to watch Ben eat string cheese just about as "normal" as any kid not affected by a stroke.  Really, it was boss.  To demonstrate the point, here is Ben eating... you're welcome...

Enough close-ups of Ben eating for you? Nah... I suspect you'll deal.  The second highlight of the day was Ben's playing with another little boy, M.  M was probably 6 and obviously much bigger than Ben.  That said, M was nice enough to share his air hockey game and man did we have fun!  No pictures attest to this awesome event, as dad was sent chasing errant hockey pucks!  A good little work out, I don't mind saying. We played for about a half hour.  Both of the boys seemed to enjoy it, and Ms. Jane found it beneficial to Ben in a number of ways, so we just let them have at it!

After therapy, we came back to the room.  Grandma made some chicken and rice so we ate and then laid down for a nap.  After nap, Ben did his "homework," which consisted of puddy pulls, puppy crawls, a supination exercise, and some more puddy pulls for good measure.  We also spent some time playing with cars, essentially doing an  adduction exercise with his left hand.  He was having a blast, so we played until supper time. 

Supper tonight was at a place called "Cantina," a Mexican grill that was once an old warehouse in downtown Birmingham.  Ben enjoyed some chicken enchiladas and beans.  We'll see just how magical those beans are tonight...

Anyway, tomorrow is Wednesday, hump day... We are all looking forward to being reunited with the girls, soon!

Peace!

Day 3

We are getting into the routine of therapy.  We know what to do when we arrive and what to expect.  Ben usually tells Miss Jane he wants to do puzzles first, she calls it child directed therapy - ha!  Miss Jane has tons and TONS of awesome toys and therapy games and objects.  Today we built a robot with all kinds of magnetic objects.

We did puzzles, read a book where Ben turned the pages with his left hand, and made a card for Grandma Barb using lefty and co-flex tape to assist holding the markers. We got to take theraputty home to play with tonight and we practiced holding a ball in lefty for 5 seconds.  We also got to take home Miss Jane's "magic wand" which is a magnetic wand that we used to practice picking up small magnetic objects by flexing and turning our wrist.  

We had our picnic at the park and played and then stopped for cupcakes to eat later.  These are from Dreamcakes and they were just as good as they look!  Caramel Sea Salt Mocha...I die. 

For dinner we tried Saw's BBQ which has been featured in Paula Deen's magazine.  Ah-mazing.  I had a stuffed tater which is a gigantic baked potato stuffed with BBQ chicken, bacon and green onions.  Oh my Lawd. 

So...I'll just be looking at real estate down here ;)  Have a good night y'all!