There is an awesomely awesome therapy pool here in town. It's equipped with a stretcher lift, entry ramps and is kept at 92 degrees. It's a salt water pool. I was told this provides better buoyancy while in the water, sure, whatev. I've been meaning to take Colby for months now, finally got around to it. Mom and I accepted the challenge and took Colby swimming Thursday. Trust me, getting a 75-pound, 4'6" immobile, trach and vent-dependent child in the pool is no easy task. It was quite the adventure! The lady who works at the pool met us there and showed me the best way to position Colby and exercises to do while in the water. Colby loved it! Absolutely loved it, and I'm so glad. We had to rig up his tubing and had to get creative keeping his trach out of the water, but we all handled it. Colby was able to move his legs and arms, something he is unable to do when out of the water. Mom said her back was aching, and my right shoulder if freakin' killing me because I had Colby's head/neck leaned up against me. However, I can't wait to take him again. Hoping to take him a couple more times before his surgery. Just have to find some poor soul brave enough to go on another swimming adventure.
Colby has done better with his power chair driving lately. Same rules, he has to work for 15 minutes at driving to a target and stopping when he reaches the target. If he does it correctly, he gets a treat/reward/bribe, whatever you wish to call it. We have a bag filled with plastic eggs with appropriate-behavior-seeking items - candy and money. Yesterday he stopped 3 times. That's progress! Once he saves up enough money, I'll take him shopping and he can pick out a new movie or book or something. Then he gets free time to do whatever he wants in his chair - drive, spin in circles, play with the seat functions, etc. The only rule during play time is if he drives toward and almost hits a parked vehicle, he gets a timeout. Yesterday he was hilarious. He was driving toward his grandpa, going straight ahead. He stopped, turned the chair around in a perfect 180, and started driving backwards. Dad and I just shook our heads and laughed. It was classic Colby.
Colby has been all over his eye gaze, exploring and learning all kinds of new words. He has a medical page that has various body parts, so hopefully one day he could tell us if something hurt, or his feet were cold, etc. He keeps saying "feet" and "nose" although I really don't think he has an ache or problem with either. Lord help us when he discovers the word "penis" on there. The other day he said "ache, ache, terrible." I knew darn good and well he did not have a terrible ache, but I played into him anyway. Hoping he would go to his medical page and pick a body part, I said oh Colby where is your ache? He answered, "there." I said well kid, you're going to have to be a little more specific than that before I can help you. That kid is a crazy nut.
Another funny eye gaze story. On his answer page, his choices are Yes, No, Maybe and Duh. I added duh several weeks ago because I thought it was something a 10-year-old might say, especially a witty, smart aleck 10-year-old of mine. The other night I went to his answer page and said hey Colby, are you done doing eye gaze for now, yes or no. His response? "Duh, yes!" Oh boy, good thing he's cute.
I've got laundry to fold and Colby needs some intensive mama PT. I've been told by another SMA mom to stretch the crap out of his shoulders and hips before surgery, so that's exactly what I'm doing. That's all for now. More Colby stories in the near future as they develop.
No comments:
Post a Comment