This morning Lidie wanted to stay home, relax and watch television. I didn't blame her. It was cold, and rainy. A perfect day to snuggle up on the couch. But we had an early therapy session so we had to get going. Amaya wore the ankle weight to help her leg stretch and prepare to get 130 degrees today. I also played the Eye of The Tiger for her. We got to Loma Linda with about twenty minutes to spare so I treated the girls to a donut. I figure it was a good pick me up for Lidie and good motivation for Amaya. On our way to therapy I asked Amaya what she was going to shoot for today, 130 or 131. She asked Lidie what she should go for and Lidie said "four cause I'm four." So Amaya changed it to 134. Which is close to Melissa's long term goal of 135. I reminded Amaya to do her best and then we headed in. Amaya gave Melissa the donut Lidie picked out for her.
Melissa tied a band around Amaya's legs and had her walk side ways several times. Amaya said her legs felt a little bit sore when she did it.
Then Melissa had Amaya hold two three pound weights while she walked around the perimeter of the adult gym. The weights help keep her arms and shoulders down. Towards the end she was getting tired so Melissa asked Lidie to help cheer her on. Lidie did some jumps, cheers, and dance moves to motivate Amaya. Lidie is a great motivator and distraction at therapy.
Back in the gym Amaya climbed up and down the ladder then stated some cone work. Melissa had her lean down to set the cones down then lean over to pick them up. This is called the golfers lift because its similar to how golfers bend down to pick up balls. While Amaya did it she leaned in the opposite direction of where she was bending which threw off her balance. Melissa said is a compensation technique to avoid pain, discomfort and putting pressure on the leg. After awhile it becomes habit. Melissa is working on helping Amaya break those habits.
Melissa helped spot her and support her leg while she leaned in the direction she was leaning. This second set was much better than the first.
Amaya did thirty side leg lifts. While she did them Melissa told her that if she got at least 130 degrees during her knee bends today we could drop down our therapy to twice a week. She got 129 degrees yesterday so I knew it was definitely a possibility, but its been such a long awaited thing that I was nervous.
Amaya walked forward and backward on the balance beam today. Melissa said that she had excellent balance on there today.
After that Amaya started her knee bends. Her starting number was 119 degrees. That's two degrees higher than yesterday and our highest starting number yet. I asked Melissa if she remembered if Amaya was ever in the 120's or 130's when she started therapy last March. She couldn't remember exact numbers off the top of her head but she did remember that in the early days there were some days were Amaya was able to get to 120's or maybe 130's a couple of times. That was last March nearly eleven months ago. It'd definitely been a long time. I vividly remember all the painful, tear filled therapy sessions we had trying to make it to 90 degrees. Being so close to 130 yesterday and today was pretty surreal for me. Eight weeks ago when we started therapy back up after her fixator was removed we started in the high 90's. So in eight weeks Amaya and Melissa have worked to get her knee to bend an extra forty degrees! This is all pretty amazing.
Amaya kept scooting and got her knee closer to her goal. At 129 degrees she was in a lot of pain. I could hear her breathing deeply to help with the pain. I felt so bad for her. She endures so much and works so hard for each degree that she gets. Melissa asked her if she could do a little more to get that last degree. Amaya gave it her all and got two more degrees. She was able to get 131 degrees! Wow!
While Amaya did her knee bends Lidie worked on her one handed push ups. She bought and watched Soul Surfer yesterday and wanted to "do them like Bethany Hamilton does."
After bends Melissa had her work on the elliptical for three minutes. While she was on there I over heard Melissa congratulate Amaya on a job well done. She told her that she was "getting closer to being completely done. You're doing awesome! You're in the home stretch now." Then added, "now go tell everyone you know that you got 131!" As soon as we walked outside that's what I did. I texted Josh, wrote a post on facebook then texted family. I told the secretaries at Amaya's school, and her teacher. I wanted to shout it out to everyone I saw.
Melissa said that there's only a few things Amaya needs to work on then she'll be all done. Wow. All done. The thought of that is kind of crazy. Its quite emotional for me to realize that we're almost done with therapy. We've been going for almost eleven months. Most of the time was Monday through Friday. Not to mention our daily physical therapy at home that we do. I remember how exciting it was to drop down to three days a week. Two days seems almost unreal. I feel like we have so much "free time." Now hopefully Lidie and I can do more of the things we've been postponing. Like dance class, library story times, play groups, play dates, painting at home, and just letting her be four. All the things we've had to put on hold. These are the small Lidie has had to sacrifice for her sister. This is how she helps. This is definitely a team effort. So we're all sharing in the joy!
I took this picture of the girls outside of therapy. I gave them both high fives and congratulated them on all their hard work and sacrifices. Then Amaya said, "don't forget to give yourself a high five for all the support you give." That made my day.
After school we met a very pregnant Tia Amanda for frozen yogurt. She treated us to help celebrate reaching 131. While we were getting our yogurt the woman who works there talked to Amaya and asked her how she was doing and told her she looked great. Amaya told her we were there to celebrate reaching 131 degrees and dropping down our therapy days. This woman (whom we don't even know by name) knows us since before Amaya's surgery. She is kind and always says hello to the girls. After Amaya got her fixator put on she talked with Amaya and let her know that she had been in a car accident and knew about pain and recovering. She's seen Amaya with and without a fixator, using a wheelchair and walker and was so happy to see Amaya walking in on her own today. Its nice to see the joy in other people's eyes as they recognize all that Amaya has gone through this past year.
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