Therapy

One of the most common questions we get asked is about what type of therapy we have done with Abby over the past three years. We knew before birth that Abby would have some struggles in life. We had no idea what kind of struggles they would be but we always knew that balance would be a big issue. With this in mind we armed ourselves with as much information as we could get before the girls were born.

As soon as it was obvious that Abby wasn't hitting any milestones (couldn't hold up her head or tolerate any tummy time) we got her in to see a physical therapist. She saw Renee every other week for an hour. At 9 months her neurologist felt that Early Intervention would be more appropriate as Abby was not progressing as he would have liked. So at that point we contacted EI for an evaluation. She immediately qualified for PT and started seeing Yemi every week for an hour in our house.

When Abby was about two her ataxia (flapping, head rolling, spasticity) started to get worse so Yemi suggested we get an OT evaluation to be sure. It was obvious right away that her sensory and fine motor issues were enough to warrant once weekly OT as well.

At about 2 and a half it seemed that Yemi had gone as far as she could go with Abby and we decided to begin with a new PT. At that point we started to see Maureen, our 3rd PT.

So Abby has been in intensive therapy for most of her life. Sometimes I feel bad that her life has been so full of hard work but I also know that because of that hard work it is going to make her life easier in the long run. If we "get it out of the way" at this age (before she has real memory) it won't be a huge part of who she becomes.