PT Progress

Yet another update on the process we are currently in with Eli's feet.

This week I did some extra research and confirmed my theory that Eli is likely experiencing some of these relapse symptoms because of a growth spurt. What that tells me is that we'll have to keep up some form of PT (at home anyway) until he's in college. Not a bad thing, but information that I wish I'd known earlier so we could have stayed more ahead of it.

This last week was our first week of doing the PT exercises at home every day. Eli has been a really good sport, having a pretty happy heart through most of the sessions. Each time we go through our exercises it takes about 30 minutes. And these are not easy for him; in fact, some of the stretches are painful for him. Getting and staying motivated to commit to voluntary pain for 30 minutes each day is not easy for anyone, let alone a 7-year-old, so I do try to cut him some slack in the attitude department. We've only had one 'bad' session, but we still got through it. What I've not cut him slack on is actually doing the exercises. One way or another, we get through each and every one of them (though the 'bad' day did take almost an hour.)

Yesterday Eli was rewarded for his hard work when we went to his weekly PT session with the therapist. Maddux and I stay in the waiting room for about 50 minutes while she works with Eli. When they returned she said that he did great and his progress with balance is already considerable. (He exceeded her expectations for a month of therapy in just one week in that area.) She even rewarded him at the end by letting him ride the zipline into a ball pit - he loved that! His therapist will measure his flexibility next week, but she did warn us that we may not see much of an improvement given that he is wearing the boots for such a limited time each night.

Our schedule has been crazier this last week, so his daytime boot-wearing has decreased, and unfortunately it has not improved overnight at all. His custom braces/boots will be in about ten days from now; I'm hoping they are drastically different for him.