After a rough night Amaya had a good day, she only had pain meds before PT and before bed. We had therapy in the morning so we didn't do much before then. At therapy we gave Melissa a weekend update (a Monday tradition), where we let her know about what fun things we did (lavender festival, zoo), about Amaya's pain (in her hip and knee), and how Amaya was feeling, how the pins are doing (they had a lot of bloody drainage this weekend), etc. Then Melissa offers her input and advice. After her work Amaya started her bends. Her knee was at 50 degrees to start then jumped to 60 quickly. Before Amaya started her big pushes Melissa let her know about a gymnast that she saw this weekend who when doing her routine on the double bars fell flat on her face, but then got up and finished her routine. Melissa told Amaya that the gymnast reminded her of Amaya and how she's a hard worker and doesn't give up. After that Amaya started her bends; she did four sets of 15 then moving her foot back. After those 60 pulls/bends Melissa asked Amaya to do ten more to see how high she could do today. Amaya's goal for today was 100, and she was able to get just above it at 101. Melissa was impressed not only because it was a Monday but because her knee was so stiff today. Amaya asked Melissa if she would measure her arm to see what she could bend the elbow to (she's been so curios about that). It was 146.
The first thing Amaya did at therapy today was ride the scooter. Melissa thought it would be a good idea to start on something easy since Amaya had a lot of hip and knee pain yesterday and when she moved her leg she could tell it was tight. Melissa had to add that non slip "stuff" on there so Amaya's foot wouldn't' keep slipping off. After that she rode the bi-scooter up and down the hall a few times. Then Amaya lunged to pick up balls out of the ball pit and throw them. After that Melissa had her stand up on her tip-pie toes ten times. That was the first time that she's done that with her fixator on, and she did great.
I caught Lidie smiling at Amaya as she was doing her lunges.
Here's Lidie showing me her new trick.
Next Amaya pulled herself on the red scooter. As she did it Melissa commented on how stiff Amaya's knee was today. Amaya said "ow" a couple of times, but kept going.
Amaya did some work with the stretchy band today too. You can see how she can straighten it and bend it. She still has a hard time making a fluid movement going from straight to a bend and back, but we're working on it.
After therapy we had lunch with Amaya's uncle, aunt, and grandparents at Souplantation. The girls enjoyed seeing them all, especially their aunt Arooj and uncle Cody who live in Sacramento. As we approached a table to sit a little girl turned and looked at Amaya then looked at her wheelchair and leg then said, "you look so pretty today." Amaya smiled and thanked the girl. It's nice seeing kids be kind to others. I forgot to mention in the post from yesterday that while we were watching the puppet show a girl stared at Amaya then finally asked her, "what happened?" Amaya replied, "I was born with a short leg and they lengthened it." The girl smiled then her mother called her back. Later she came up to Amaya again, stared some more then asked/told Amaya "so you can't dance." Amaya smiled and said, "I guess not." But proved to herself and to all watching that she can indeed dance with a fixator. And she told me today that once her fixator on she'll be dancing just like those people were yesterday (the fast Irish dances).
While we were eating we ran into Amaya's kindergarten teacher. She said that she finally got a chance to go back and read Amaya's blog and catch up. She said that she appreciated seeing what Amaya was doing at therapy and how well documented her journey is. I appreciated her kind words and encouragement. We got to meet her mother as well, whom she had mentioned Amaya to before. Later they came back to the table because she said that as they went back to their table, Mrs.Griessbach's mother said that she could tell that Amaya was special and would accomplish what she wanted to. She said that she could see her as an orthopedic surgeon and that she would be fine. Mrs.Griessbach said that she got teary eyed when her mother said that, because she's always felt that Amaya was different, special and unique. It was very nice to hear such kind words spoken about Amaya. It was such a nice surprise running into her and her family. As we left Tanuko (I hope I'm spelling that correctly) hugged me and said, "stay strong, a mothers love is strong. She'll be fine and do great." It was very kind and sweet and I appreciated it. I told her that it is definitely tough, but we're getting thru it. She said, that yes a mothers love is strong enough to get through it.
Later we went to our friends house to watch Totoro and play. The girls had a great time. I overheard Richard telling his daughter that Amaya and Lidie were two of the kindest souls you can meet and I just smiled again at how the world sees my girls.
No comments:
Post a Comment