The Road to Recovery

Alex is on the mend. Strangely, the seizures, or perhaps the medicines he took while in the hospital, have relaxed his left leg and allowed him to run with a smoother gait. I don't think I'm dreaming this, because Erik noticed it independently of me. We don't know if it will last, but it is allowing him to build some muscle strength in his lefty leg. His left hand is weaker than it was before the seizures, or maybe it's also just very relaxed. CP by definition is where the muscles are constantly engaged, and can't relax. So, with some relaxation, Alex's CP has decreased.

Rather than cast his right arm this spring (which is inconvenient, because we still have ski season and lots of swimming we like to do, and we are keep into our hand writing exercises in Mommy School), we using a glove for an hour at time, several times a day. I don't necessarily try to do therapy during that hour, just let Alex go through the normal activities of his day. The minute we glove rightly, lefty comes to life. He is definitely making a left brain to right brain switch, kind of like when you go from thinking in your native language to thinking in a foreign language--your brain does a shift. Alex is finally at an age where he understands he must wear the glove, and an hour is just short enough that he tolerates it. Anything longer would not work. Half hours work better when he's tired.

He is slowly regaining his strength and building stamina after the trauma of his seizures. And so am I. Adrenaline must actually do cell damage because my muscles continue to ache, and I have been knocked back about 2 months in my training. I don't think this is all mental. So, as Alex must do, so must I...be patient and slowly rebuild, physically and mentally. The weather is improving and on warm days we head to the trails, our favorite place to run. We also went back to the pool yesterday for our first swim session. Baby steps. That's what I always tell the kids, and now it applies to all of us. Baby steps, small incremental progress toward a larger goal.