First follow-up appt

Sam had his first follow-up appt with Dr. Taniguchi today, where he told us he's very happy with Sam's progress and decided Sam doesn't have to wear the knee immobilizers at night any more - we're just going to add some ham string stretches at night instead. Dr. T said there is virtually no spasticity remaining for Sam, but the hips are still causing his legs to turn in somewhat. It is possible there may be some self-correction before his 1-year gait lab check-up, but it is likely he'll need hip surgery, but it will be a 5-day stay instead of the 5-week stay from the rhizotomy! In the meantime, his p/t ordered some derotation straps for Sam to wear at home and in therapy. They are basically nylon stretchy straps on a velcro waist band that wrap around his legs and hook onto his AFOs. They immediately correct the toeing-in and Sam tolerates them fairly well.

Another thing that's new is starting electrical stimulation in physical therapy next week. Apparently some Sam's muscles aren't all working when they're supposed to, so electrical stimulation (e-stim) is supposed to help activate the muscle at the appropriate time. We talked to Dr. Taniguchi about it and he said it would be fine for Sam.

Sam is currently just using the wheelchair for getting back and forth to school. At school he's walking in the classroom, but uses the wheelchair in the hall. I will find out when he's going to transition to a walker at his parent/teacher conferences this afternoon (his therapists are going to attend also).

Sam is definitely walking better, and it's easy to tell when he's getting tired, because he reverts back to some of his crouched gait pattern. He has full knee extension now, but over-extension is something that we're watching now.

Sam is almost running, and his p/t (he is in p/t four times a week - 1x at school and 3x with private p/t at Children's Therapy) listed that as one of his goals she expects him to achieve by September! Sam is going to play in his first team sport this summer- t-ball twice a week at the park near our house. He wanted to try soccer first, but we convinced him to start with t-ball and consider soccer for the fall. He loves his weekly yoga class with his p/t (I do, too!) and it's made stretching more fun at home.

Sam is currently in o/t twice a week - once at school and once privately at Children's Therapy - but we're going to bump up the private o/t to twice a week to help Sam master some of the self-help skills that will be really important for kindergarten - getting shoes, AFOs, socks on and off, and more.

Miss Lisa (special ed. teacher from Gillette Children's) teaches an adapted swimming class at the Hastings YMCA, so we're going to sign up for that, freeing up one of Sam's p/t sessions for clinic time.

We got out to play in the snow on Saturday - Sam's second time out this season (first was at the playground at school). Sam and Gabe were great helpers shoveling and playing in the snow - mostly playing in the snow :) I'll post cute kid pictures shortly.