Anyone sick of hearing me saying, "DUMP YOUR THERAPIST IF YOUR THERAPIST ISNT AMAZING?"
I know. I'm kind of sick of me writing it. But again I am on this topic.
I thought that losing Todd was the end of great therapy as we know it. Seriously, the end. Feel free to pop over and read my post after finding out.
I posted today over at Raising Toby about our amazing therapy appointment. (its worth the read) : )
I wanted to post over here too. Today I had a long hard talk with Toby's therapist Selina regarding outcome charts with Spina Bifida Kids. Now let me preface this with the fact that Selina is actually an expert on Spinal Injuries and travels around the US on the weekends to teach workshops to other therapist. Don't ask me how we ended up with her, except to say that God is really amazing and is taking care of us and Toby.
So really, this post wont make sense if you havent read the other one. So if you dont have the time, go skim it really quickly. : )
So anyways, she basically said that those charts are JUNK!! and she actually teaches that in her workshops. She explained that the problem is that some therapist will stop pushing a child because textbooks tell them that the child has reached its potential or that the child will be a fulltime wheelchair user so to not push to hard for walking. The text books tell them what muscles will be able to be used and what sensations they will have and some therapist will just stop right there.
So after therapy and finding out all of this information. I stopped and thought about all of you. I thought about your children and your therapists and your situations. And I'll be honest, I dont truly know you. I dont really know your children and their therapists But I wanted to just encourage you all to really evaluate what your child is working on and what your child is being pushed to do. I didnt end up with an amazing Selina till Toby was four years old. We didnt get Todd till Toby was 3. That's 3 years of lost time. 3 years of no pushing, no amazing sessions. 3 years of textbook work. Did we get some stuff done in 3 years, absolutely. but looking back we could have done so much more. I thought of your children because I thought oh I hope that have selina's out there. I hope that have amazing therapists. I hope these children will be pushed and not just left for a textbook result. I know as a mom sometimes we trust our extincts but sometimes we just have to trust the medical professionals, but sometimes those medical professionals just really dont know. They arent trying to hurt our children or anything, they really just dont know. I hope you all understand where I am coming from.
So I'll say it again...maybe this will be the last time. Maybe not.
DUMP YOUR THERAPIST IF YOUR THERAPIST ISNT AMAZING!!
or at least have a deep heart to heart : )
Kari
1 comment:
Hi Kari,
I first of all want to say that I love this blog and I get so much hope and inspiration from reading everyone's posts. I also appreciate how everyone is so real about how they feel and about what they think. I read the post that goes with this on your blog and I just wanted to say something on the topic of wheelchairs. My daughter is almost two and she will be getting her first wheelchair in a week. I am personally really excited for her to have an opportunity for some added mobility. She can not move her legs at all. So her only mobility so far has been dragging herself on the floor. It hasn't been so good for the outdoors. I want to push my daughter to her fullest potential, but I also don't want my own "issues" to get in the way of her living life. I think that a lot of your readers may have a child in a wheelchair or know someone in a wheelchair and don't see it as such a "dead-end." Having said that, I don't think you should feel any other way about your son possibly having to use a wheelchair. I know that a lot of mothers out there relate to your feelings. At the heart of what you are saying is basically, all our children have so much potential and no chart or "professional" can put a limit on that. Thank you again for all that you are doing.
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