Tuesday, February 06, 2007

As Promised, Update on Darsie




So Darsie is doing well. We are currently doing one hour of hydrotherapy, two sessions of developmental preschool through our local EI center, and one hour of PT weekly. We kind of have a speech session mixed in with one of our weekly sessions of preschool.

Besides growing bigger everyday it seems, Darsie is getting more and more physical. She is running and walking over all surfaces, can climb stairs going up (but not down), walk on uneven surfaces, and is gaining new words everyday. I think I need to start a list of words for when her therapists ask me how her speech is coming. She doesn't talk a lot but does when necessary (like the teacher isn't looking at her during snack and she wants more COOKIES!). She is an incredible singer and is starting to dance. She loves to kiss herself in the armoir mirror and is absolutely in love with any babies (bebe!) that we see.

Recently we got Darsie a new hand splint. We had been using homemade, or rather OT made, neoprene splints but she has such an thumb abduction that we needed to get her something she could not pull through. We went through a local company named Benik to get her a new neoprene splint. The difference is that this one has a piece of plastic in the web space so she can't pull her thumb in. It is moldeable when heated. We also ordered her one that has a bit more velcro on it because she could weasle her way out of the other ones. This one has one big flap that velcros and then three small flaps that velcro over that one. So far we have had great success with it!

I've had this post written for two days and I hit save as draft instead of publish. UGH, pregnancy brain!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I applaud you for your patience and encouragement that you provide for all moms that read your story. Darsie is truly blessed. My Cheyanne has cerebral Paly too so I can relate with what you have to do everyday. Take care!

Lisa - Mum to Mitch,Harry and Jack said...

Thanks you for sharing your story. As the mum of prem twin boys born at 24.6 weeks we have been on a steep learning curve. It is wonderful to be able to read stories from other parents of premmies.

Hugs,
Lisa
mum to Mitch & Harry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eON0x7pn0ds

http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/mum2mh/web/mum2MH.html

WriterGrrl said...

I don't know how relevant this is, but one of the things I really, really wished someone had bothered to tell me, oh, two years ago was that my kid needed to be evaluated by a true speech-language pathologist, someone with AT LEAST a master's degree. The ECI therapists are great for kids who have articulation issues, but not for kids who have a true speech delay. You may have already done this, but I only figured out this critical piece of info a few months ago. My son is 3.5, so it's not horrifically late to start the proper work, but it's still frustrating.