We are so excited to be having my brother and his family over for dinner tonight. The cousins haven't hung out together since Brady's treatment began due to his counts being low. Now that they are back up, we wanted to get together knowing that next week they will go down again.
We are noticing Brady using his legs in new ways everyday. These aren't major changes, but in our eyes they are amazing! Brady has certainly regained all of the movement he had before surgery, and in many ways seems to have increased movement. He is crawling, pulling to stand, and cruising. Right before his diagnosis we noticed him dragging his legs when crawling and falling over from time to time when sitting on his knees. We have not noticed this at all since the surgery...praise God! Some people ask if he will just be able to walk now that the tumor isn't compressing his spinal cord. He is not able to just get up and walk at this point. For many months he has developed "bad habits" to support himself when cruising. In order to maintain balance he relied on his knees for stability which has caused him to have bad hyperextension in his knees. This is a very bad position for his knee joints. His leg muscles are very underdeveloped due to lack of use. He has poor balance and proprioception. All of these deficits will need to be addressed with intense physical therapy before walking will be possible. Also it is very likely that Brady will have additional spinal surgery after chemotherapy, so we will have to keep reevaluating his progress.
We asked Strong what type of therapy would be available to Brady now that he has a spinal cord injury. I still need to do more research on this, but it seems as though there is not a lot available that is covered by insurance. So we are still looking into some intensive programs that we originally considered when we thought Brady had CP. One program involves Therasuit therapy. There is even a chance that Matt could get trained in this so we could do it at home. So in the midst of cancer treatment we are also keeping our options open for helping Brady learn to walk.
We wish a safe and happy weekend to all of you:)
Meg, you and Matt are amazing! I don't know how you keep so many things in mind at once. It's very impressive and encouraging to see how capable you both are of seeing the full, long-range picture. That can be really hard to do, and not everyong has that ability. Enjoy your dinner tonight! Tell Andy and Kristen I said hello.
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Megan,
ReplyDeleteI am a friend of Jocelyn's who told me about what is going on. Know that I pray for you ALL and am reading your blog pretty regularly these days. Your outlook is amazing and it is apparent your faith is strong! Your kiddos are beautiful!!! I look forward to hearing more positive updates;o)
Kara
Megan,
ReplyDeleteBy the time Brady is healthy, you are going to have a wealth of knowledge for other families. I am so amazed at the amount of information and knowledge you have acquired. What a blessing it would be if Matt could do the therapy. I know he is good at what he does. He has helped me many times.
Have fun with Andy and his family. You know he holds a special place in my heart.
God Bless,
Deb R.
Wowee! a mustard seed of faith is all it takes to reep a harvest of great blessings!! 1. he tolerated chemo and even slept all night 2. his counts went way up 3. his appetite returned 4. playing, and giggling 5. now new movements! our god is an awesome god, he reigns in heaven above with wisdom, power, and might!! love to you brady you're gonna beat this!
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