On a Roll....

Lets keep the good news coming. Emma is doing good with her new shoes no bruises or red marks. Our Physical Therapist showed me some things to help her when her shoes are off. She will be wearing her shoes 23 hours a day for 3 months then we move to just at night and nap times until she is about 4 or 5 years old. The doctor did say that this is the most important part she needs to wear her shoes or this problem will come back and we will have to start all over again.


So last Friday she had her Urology appointment and ultrasound. Which I will admit I was a little apprehensive about it because I was afraid something unexpecting would come up. Well turns out the appointment went great. The doctor was confused as to why we are cathing her based off the information he read from her appointment in San Francisco. He thinks she doesn't need to be cathed, so he wants to do more testing (which is the same testing they did in SF) to see where she is at. Nick and I already talked about this before she was born if we know she will need cathing later in life then it only makes sense to do it from the very beginning. So if the doctor still thinks she will need it later then I will continue cathing her.



So one of the Spina Bifida Moms I am friends with on facebook had posted about her two year old son starting Hippotherapy. Now I had heard of this therapy but had no idea what it was called. So I was able to do some research. For those who do not know what Hippotherapy is its a physical, occupational, and speech-language therapy treatment strategy that utilizes equine movement as part of an integrated intervention program to achieve functional outcomes by ridding a horse or mule.



How it works is the horse's walk provides sensory input through movement, which is variable, rhythmic, and repetitive. The movement responses a similar movement to humans and patterns of the pelvis while walking. The variability of the horse's gait enables the therapist to grade the degree of sensory input to the patient, and then utilize this movement in combination with other treatment strategies to achieve desired results. This therapy has huge results with all sorts of medical conditions and especially people with Spina bifida. I talked to Emma's physical therapist about it and he said its great and highly recommend it. So From what I found there is only two places in the valley that provides the treatment and I will have to find out if our insurance covers it. At least I have plenty of time to figure out how we can get this for her.

Heres a video I found of a little girl using the therapy for her Spina Bifida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxXsbiRBqNg
PS THIS IS OLDER POST I FORGOT TO POST....