Today E said she wanted to ride her scooter. And I had to work...so, Scooter at the Hospital it was!
Here is E rounding the corner to The Life Less Ordinary Hallway. She has trouble with her right knee collapsing, but she is trying very hard to keep it in-line with her foot. This is a HUGE improvement from the first time she was on the scooter.
Scooting, right leg push--LOOK OUT, she's fast!
Clip showing right and left leads
After all that scooting and a cool drink, she's on the move after chatting with The Coffee Ladies.
Showing posts with label kick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kick. Show all posts
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Hallway Walking
At PT today E was all over the place. We started before the PT session:
E has been wearing Kiniseo (?) Tape at the last two sessions.
I think it "differentiates" her right and left leg. She moves better when wearing the tape. I think it makes her more aware of how she is moving.
She did lots of moves while wearing ankle weights today. Here she is walking with them. Overall, looking pretty good!
We played "Candyland" where I hid cards and E had to walk to find them and take them back to the board to move her piece. Great idea, Emily!
The session ended with Elena trying to kick objects off her feet. If she's not on a pedestal, she walks right along after kicking. She did it ONE TIME, on the right, and steadied herself afterwards without any help!
E has been wearing Kiniseo (?) Tape at the last two sessions.
I think it "differentiates" her right and left leg. She moves better when wearing the tape. I think it makes her more aware of how she is moving.
She did lots of moves while wearing ankle weights today. Here she is walking with them. Overall, looking pretty good!
We played "Candyland" where I hid cards and E had to walk to find them and take them back to the board to move her piece. Great idea, Emily!
The session ended with Elena trying to kick objects off her feet. If she's not on a pedestal, she walks right along after kicking. She did it ONE TIME, on the right, and steadied herself afterwards without any help!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tap Dancing
We had our weekly PT at Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center (KCRC) last week. E was awesome.
They were mainly working on weight shifts/extension, focusing on the right side, trying to make Elena aware that she can keep her right knee "out" when bearing weight.
Half-kneel (right), with help. Note she rounds her back to try to "lean" into the movement rather than shift through the hips to bear weight over the knee. Left side (not shown) does this much better.
Half-kneel (right), with not as much help. Knee caves in.
Next they tried to make E aware of her movements by using play-doh. Emily asked E to squish the play-doh with her knee. It worked, a little (squishing not shown).
Dorsiflex practice with play-doh--Elena is supposed to collect the pieces on her toes to make a big ball. She has to lift her leg up, then try to flex her toes to get the pieces.
Left is okay...I think the beans and rice bin worked better...
Right...hmm. Knee lift is good, but the isolated movement in the ankle just isn't there.
The big activity of the session was tap "dancing"! Emily took shoe taps and affixed them to E's shoe heels using sticky tape. The idea was that she would only tap if she landed heel-first as she walked. It worked beautifully...but it is EXTREMELY labor-intensive for the operator(s). Emily would cradle Elena's hips, trying to get her to move the upper part of the leg and then kick the leg straight, aiming for the second Megan's hand. Then she can drop the heel and tap. She did it on both legs, but it was slow going. Elena was much better at it by the end of the session.
Kicking to meet Megan's hand (done every step, shown close-up here):
Zoomout pics
Whew. My back hurts just looking at those pictures.
They were mainly working on weight shifts/extension, focusing on the right side, trying to make Elena aware that she can keep her right knee "out" when bearing weight.
Half-kneel (right), with help. Note she rounds her back to try to "lean" into the movement rather than shift through the hips to bear weight over the knee. Left side (not shown) does this much better.
Half-kneel (right), with not as much help. Knee caves in.
Next they tried to make E aware of her movements by using play-doh. Emily asked E to squish the play-doh with her knee. It worked, a little (squishing not shown).
Dorsiflex practice with play-doh--Elena is supposed to collect the pieces on her toes to make a big ball. She has to lift her leg up, then try to flex her toes to get the pieces.
Left is okay...I think the beans and rice bin worked better...
Right...hmm. Knee lift is good, but the isolated movement in the ankle just isn't there.
The big activity of the session was tap "dancing"! Emily took shoe taps and affixed them to E's shoe heels using sticky tape. The idea was that she would only tap if she landed heel-first as she walked. It worked beautifully...but it is EXTREMELY labor-intensive for the operator(s). Emily would cradle Elena's hips, trying to get her to move the upper part of the leg and then kick the leg straight, aiming for the second Megan's hand. Then she can drop the heel and tap. She did it on both legs, but it was slow going. Elena was much better at it by the end of the session.
Kicking to meet Megan's hand (done every step, shown close-up here):
Zoomout pics
Whew. My back hurts just looking at those pictures.
Friday, March 20, 2009
4 weeks post-op
Elena is doing GREAT. Cruising, pushing her walker, using her loftstrands (very little, but some), jumping (while holding on to something), and some (a few) independent steps. Overall she is doing very very well, with her main issues being her right heel creeping up (for whatever reason, probably tendon shortness?) and overall weakness.
Soccer is a big motivator for E. I play soccer, and she ALWAYS wants to play too. We walk and hold both hands while she kicks (or, more likely, runs into) the ball. She wants to "do it herself". So, I told her she could-but as soon as I told her that meant standing up alone and moving, she didn't want to anymore. So I set it up so she could kick the ball a few paces (2 or 3) while walking to the back of the couch. It was a RAVING success--she did this, steadying herself to walk and kick, sometimes even stopping to steady herself or kick with her stronger leg--10 or more times, with a "speedway break", which is the small walkspace between the couch and the wall (she can steady herself with both hands to the sides). Jason and I both believe the Speedway (we also call it The Track) has really helped Elena's speed and confidence. She can move around the couch area pretty quickly--almost as fast as pre-SDR.
The used the soccer reference at KCRC, trying to get E to kick from only the knee down (normally she just runs into balls with her legs, trying to make contact with her feet). The motion of kicking (knee-down) was successful, albeit very very small.
Kick Left (note how hard she grips the walker in these pics)
Kick Right
She also tried flexing her feet (ankle only is the goal) out of a tray of rice/lentils. This time--I still can't believe it--SHE DID IT. BOTH FEET. The PT would put a penny on the tops of her toes, and cover them with rice and ask her to move her feet to find the penny. She flexed her feet between a centimeter and an inch, more on the left side (typical)--but even on the right, the degree of isolated movement was unmistakable. I was SHOCKED. These pics are from where she did it with her legs "straighter" rather than bent. Pictures probably don't do it justice, but here's what I have.
Dorsiflex left
Dorsiflex right
Shooting baskets, bare feet (keeping that right foot down!)
She also got to use the therapeutic trike. She loves this tricycle! This time was a huge improvement from last week--not only did she propel it herself for part of the time, she also steered it (at the same time). Like the previous post about swinging--before the surgery, it was nearly impossible for Elena to do different, concentrated movements with the upper and lower parts of her body. Now she surprises us all the time!
OH. One more important thing. The PT checked after I asked about leg length differences--and she said she can see that her right leg IS PHYSICALLY longer than her left. Not by much, but enough for her to notice. We've had a lift on her left shoe since the end of 2008 to accommodate what we thought was a FUNCTIONAL length difference. Either way, she'll need this lift in all her footwear, I guess.
Soccer is a big motivator for E. I play soccer, and she ALWAYS wants to play too. We walk and hold both hands while she kicks (or, more likely, runs into) the ball. She wants to "do it herself". So, I told her she could-but as soon as I told her that meant standing up alone and moving, she didn't want to anymore. So I set it up so she could kick the ball a few paces (2 or 3) while walking to the back of the couch. It was a RAVING success--she did this, steadying herself to walk and kick, sometimes even stopping to steady herself or kick with her stronger leg--10 or more times, with a "speedway break", which is the small walkspace between the couch and the wall (she can steady herself with both hands to the sides). Jason and I both believe the Speedway (we also call it The Track) has really helped Elena's speed and confidence. She can move around the couch area pretty quickly--almost as fast as pre-SDR.
The used the soccer reference at KCRC, trying to get E to kick from only the knee down (normally she just runs into balls with her legs, trying to make contact with her feet). The motion of kicking (knee-down) was successful, albeit very very small.
Kick Left (note how hard she grips the walker in these pics)
Kick Right
She also tried flexing her feet (ankle only is the goal) out of a tray of rice/lentils. This time--I still can't believe it--SHE DID IT. BOTH FEET. The PT would put a penny on the tops of her toes, and cover them with rice and ask her to move her feet to find the penny. She flexed her feet between a centimeter and an inch, more on the left side (typical)--but even on the right, the degree of isolated movement was unmistakable. I was SHOCKED. These pics are from where she did it with her legs "straighter" rather than bent. Pictures probably don't do it justice, but here's what I have.
Dorsiflex left
Dorsiflex right
Shooting baskets, bare feet (keeping that right foot down!)
She also got to use the therapeutic trike. She loves this tricycle! This time was a huge improvement from last week--not only did she propel it herself for part of the time, she also steered it (at the same time). Like the previous post about swinging--before the surgery, it was nearly impossible for Elena to do different, concentrated movements with the upper and lower parts of her body. Now she surprises us all the time!
OH. One more important thing. The PT checked after I asked about leg length differences--and she said she can see that her right leg IS PHYSICALLY longer than her left. Not by much, but enough for her to notice. We've had a lift on her left shoe since the end of 2008 to accommodate what we thought was a FUNCTIONAL length difference. Either way, she'll need this lift in all her footwear, I guess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
