Constraint Induced Therapy

Alex's left has has not progressed as fast as we had thought it would. He still has very limited control over it, despite our best efforts at yoga, strength training, karate, etc. Much to his frustration, we decided to cast his good hand and make that lefty work. When he was about three, we did this constraint induced therapy for about three weeks, with excellent results. The minute you cast the good hand, the brain switches and starts to focus on the weak hand. This is especially important because Alex's right hand has become very strong and capable of acting without his lefty, and so we need to take that side out of the picture for a while and encourage the right side of his brain to work. In the past, we have added a few shots of botox to the muscles most affected by the CP in his left arm. Botox incapacitates those muscles, which then relax and allow the other muscles to work harder and become stronger. After about three months, the botox wears off and the other muscles have had a chance to grow stronger, and the whole arm and hand function better. We did not do the botox this time, because we were not at the clinic that offers it, but may consider another round of botox before we head into the summer. Alex also got a brace for his left foot, which straightens it out as he walks and runs, and forces his heal down so that he walks heal-toe, which will lengthen that large muscle of the calf (the same one I ripped apart this fall), as it is not growing as fast as the other muscle of the calf. The tight calf muscle is therefore restricting his leg movement and makes the leg appear shorter. A long day for Alex yesterday (and for Mommy and Izzy). Fortunately, the cast on his arm is waterproof, and can be submerged in water-in fact, you can even swim in it-because around 9pm, Alex got hit with the stomach bug and threw up all over himself and right down into the hand of his cast. Yuck. Nothing like having a stiff, hot plaster around your hand and arm over slippery brown vomit. After a long bath, and much soaking, we finally got the cast clean. I tried to blow dry it to speed up the drying process. This morning it was dry. We may have to remove a bit earlier than planned.