Today's Lecture: LACK OF COOPERATION

LACK OF COOPERATION:

We hit a bad patch for a few months not too long ago - lots and lots of complaining and tears and "why did I have to have a stroke?" Also, she was doing lousy work and I was spending most of the session telling her to cut it out and do her work. It took a while but I figured out a way to deal with her and it has been working for more than two months. It might work for you too.

I figured out how many exercise sets a week she must do. I know she complains about all of them so I broke them into their functions. We have two. She does her four sets of walks, and she does three different strengths. I figured, including known times off and making allowances for a missed set or two, she does something like 80 a month. I give her one point for each function she does that she does according to expectations and without complaining. So, theoretically, she can earn four points per day. She keeps track on a whiteboard we have at home. You can do stickers or whatever.

Each time she finishes a function she gets to mark the board. When she has 80 pts (about a month's worth of work), she can get a prize - something inexpensive that I normally wouldnt give her. Lately its been a month's membership in Club Penguin. But she is also interested in small jewelry from Claire's Generally I keep it at around $6 or $7.

So as not to put her sister at a disadvantage, I instituted this point system for her as well. At the same time we do our exercises, she will practice violin (if its a practice day) or perform a chore. This has been pretty nice too as we have a fixed time for her violin practice and I get some smallish chores done (put away the dishes, straighten out the kitchen, fix my bed, etc etc etc. She uses her points for the same things.

I also let them suggest prizes within the price range that make sense. They were the ones to suggest Claires.

Lecture for today is over!

Long time, no see!

Due to personal family problems, I have been unable to update this blog for almost a year! (Time sure flies! Even when you are definitely NOT having fun!)

So here is where we are in Readers' Digest form.

Since our last post, we have been to Childrens in October 2006, January 2007, March 2007 and July 18 2007 (yesterday).

October and March were just shoe checks.

January was a 3 month or so checkup. Gracie, due to stress at home, had become tight but not lost range sufficiently to be concerned. We continued with our regular exercises.

Important observations before going in there:

1. She still felt tight to me but it seems to walk out with exercises.
2. Her supination on her left arm is absolutely phenomenal!
3. When she is out of her AFOs (which is only when we are sitting at nite watching our "20 minutes" of TV) and she has to walk somewhere, I noticed she falls into a practice walk sometimes without my reminding her.
4. At the ocean, while on vacation, she spent all her time playing in the waves - getting knocked over, running away from them, that kind of stuff - and as a result she pulled some muscles in the front of her foot and was in a lot of pain for almost a week.

SO ...

Yesterday we went in for Gracie's checkup.

ALL good news!

First, her range had recovered. So no worries there.

Second, her walk with and without the AFOs was wonderful. (Don't be mistaken tho - she still automatically goes to her hiked arm and tiptoed speciality BUT she doeswalk pretty nicely barefooted once told to walk her practice walk.)

NOTE: Its been almost two years since we started the program and she still has wonderful range! Compare that to botox and its six-month - at the most - effect!

Mary added an additional exercise. She has to bend over and hold her ankles and lift each foot to the side for 100 times a day. And, Mary changed her "plank" walk to sliding each foot forward instead of walking. Easy changes.

The best news - the hopeful news. Mary thinks if Gracie keeps her range or gets better when we return in three months that she will start to move her out of the left AFO. It begins with a 30 min free time - I guess they must have two pairs of shoes the. But we are all VERY EXCITED about the possibility.

Now to keep that range ...


At the beach in Santa Barbara