Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June 20: Physical Therapy

Isla had a frustrating physical therapy session today.  It put me in a grumpy mood for the rest of the day, so here is my long rant about it.

Isla started fussing and crying as soon as we got there and Shannon started to talk to her.  She's old enough now that she can remember what happened last time and how much work it is to be in that room.  Except that last time she was happy and laughing the whole time, so I don't know what her deal was today.  (Well, she has been out of sorts lately.  I spotted two teeth peeking through her gums today, one molar and one other one, so that may be part of the problem).

Shannon just barely attempted to do a few exercises with her, but most of our time was spent trying to find something that would make her happy.  But nothing worked.  She was just not in the mood for any of it.

It's frustrating because it's not free to go to these physical therapy sessions.  Today was a complete waste of our time and money.

It's frustrating because I really want her to learn these skills and to develop normally.  There are times when I feel like she is doing okay.  She is starting to cruise all around the room, using only the walls for support sometimes.  That seems fairly normal development for her age.  But other times she seems so far behind.  We had a nine month old baby over to visit this week, and she was all over the place.  Crawling, rolling, pulling up, standing...and it all seemed so effortless for her.  Isla really has a hard time pulling herself up.  I'm not sure if she is just not strong enough, or if she just can't figure out how to do it.  And then there is the whole scooting thing, which in and of itself is not that big of a deal.   But because she scoots, she can't pull up, and she is probably not going to take off walking until she is able to get herself into a walking position.  So I really want physical therapy to go well, and I want her to learn how to do these things, and I am growing impatient, so I'm writing this long run-on sentence to complain about it all!

Working with her at home has not been going so well lately.  We were on vacation last week, so it was hard to work with her then.  And she has been Little Miss Crabby pants off and on since we've been home, which makes it hard for her to be cooperative.  I don't feel like she made any progress in the two weeks between physical therapy sessions.

Shannon seemed to be less optimistic about Isla as well today.  Last time, she thought Isla would take off crawling soon.  This time, she said it was okay if she didn't crawl.  There are a lot of benefits to crawling, but she admitted that some kids just don't do it and won't do it, and it's not the end of the world.  I think she thinks Isla is going to be one of those kids.

In the midst of all this, the question keeps floating through my mind:  Is all this really necessary?  If we just left her alone, would she figure this all out by herself in her own time?  It's hard to know, and I would hate to take a chance and then be wrong.

We'll just keep trying at home, and we will go back next week and hope for a better session.  For today, I'm just frustrated!!




1 comments:

Julie Davison said...

It's so hard when there are things that are just beyond our control. There's not an simple solution. I will continue to pray for good progress. You ARE doing the right things. Don't give up!

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