Lucky (Un)Break

It was a lively day 2, I can say that, at least.

Well, maybe not so much lively as it was somewhat stressful.

It's a weird combination of many thoughts and feelings I have going on right now and I'm trying to save all of them until the end of the first week to get an accurate summary.

I write this blog for 1) updates on Christian and 2) to help other families.

So for families thinking about possibly doing an intensive therapy program for their child, this will now make two different intensive therapy programs at two different companies in two different areas of the country at the end of our stay so I want to give a comparison between the two.

For now I can just make comparisons based on all of two days of therapy.

Euro-Peds is in more of a hospital setting. As such, they are a little more careful with who they allow to do suit therapy, the kinds of therapy they'll do, and overall care of the child. So with Christian they are a little more careful. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing at this point. I mention it because of what happened next.

Yesterday while going to a kneeling position Christian screamed out in pain. He started crying and it was a "hurt" cry because he doesn't just all of the sudden go into a hysterical crying fit for no reason. For the rest of the day his left leg was sensitive and he whined every time it was moved or touched. Never a good sign.

So today we started therapy, which always starts out with massage and stimulation of the extremities. His leg was still sensitive so the PT thought it would be best we just take a look in radiology. We went to get x-rays, which was surprisingly fast - all of a 20 minute process - and good news! No break! He did mention that Christian has very thin bones.

That's not surprising. With kids like Christian, who don't bear weight on their legs regularly, muscle mass decreases and so does bone density. Breaks and fractures are very common. That's why we have a stander and try to make sure it and weight bearing exercises are a regular part of his routine.

At this time we just assume it was a big stretch or pulled muscle. It was such a relief to find out there wasn't a fracture. Can you imagine? On day 2? Seriously???

And the irony of it all is that Euro-Peds, if anything, has been gentler with Christian (not saying that's a good or bad thing yet) and something like this happens, but he's been to NAPA, where it's a little more aggressive and intense with therapy (not saying that's a good thing or bad thing yet, either). But, of course, it would go that way just to keep things interesting, right?