Elijah and Physical Therapy

On Tuesday morning, I finally summoned up the courage to ask our physical therapist, Ms. Jenny, how long Elijah would be in physical therapy for his head/neck issues. Ms. Jenny kindly informed me that they would be seeing him until he was at least one year old! One year?! I quickly calculated in my head. He's five months old. That's another seven months getting out of the house every Tuesday morning with both boys and entertaining Isaac for the duration of the thirty minute appointment. Really? She made me feel a little bit better when she told me that the appointments would become less frequent, eventually getting to every other week and then once a month, but holy cow! That's a lot of work for one little baby's head.

Many of you have asked me about Elijah's physical therapy. I know I explained it on the blog in a previous post, but if you missed it, let me quickly recap.

Elijah's neck muscles on the left side of his body are very tight. This causes him to favor his right. He doesn't like to look left, roll left, or do anything to the left. This also caused his head to become oddly shaped in the back which can be rectified through the physical therapy. This condition has a fancy name that I can never remember. Elijah's case is fairly minor, but if left untreated, things could get worse. He could lose the ability to do anything to the left which could cause developmental delays as he moves into sitting up, crawling, walking, etc. It therefore has to be worked on and evaluated regularly. Ms. Jenny does all kinds of exercises and stretches with Elijah and as a result gets spit up on a lot. She then gives me homework for the next week -- things I need to try and do with him as home. I can really see the improvement -- which is why I was hoping for a graduation ceremony in the near future. I can see why she said baby appointments are only thirty minutes long. That's all Elijah can handle. By the end he is sweating, exhausted, and is asleep before we even get to the car!

While waiting for Elijah's appointment, Isaac plays with the toys in the waiting room (or sits on my lap a bit scared if there is a child in there screaming at the top of his lungs which there was last week) and I get to meet some wonderful people and amazing children. Some of these children are living with very difficult disabilities, but they always have huge smiles on their faces and great stories to tell you. While some of these children are mentally delayed as well, many are simply dealing with physical difficulties. This week a teenage boy who appeared to have severe cerebral palsy, emerged from his appointment to tell his Dad who was in the waiting room that there was a basketball league for kids like him. He was ecstatic! I was ecstatic for him. I went home and began researching the Special Olympics online. I'd love to get involved in that organization. We'll see what opportunities may come up.

As for how Elijah "got this", there are various possibilities. It could have been in the womb. It could also have been that we always faced him this way when we set him down in his crib, chair, the floor etc. No one is really sure. As I said, Elijah's case is minor but these type of things can lead to unevenness in the front of the face, ears, etc. So it's important to stay on top of it.

When I told JB we would be there until Elijah was a year he said, "I figured that." Figured that? Why didn't he tell me that? He said a year is pretty typical. Ugh. I didn't even need to ask Ms. Jenny if he already knew! Geesh. At least JB was home for me to have this conversation with him. He meandered through the door at about 9:15 last night. He figured that he had been in the hospital 29 of the previous 36 hours! No wonder I was feeling a little weary. Hopefully the next few days will be much quieter as we prep for our upcoming trip.