Private Physical Therapy

So, Ben's birthday was on Wednesday. We celebrated by going to All Aboard Diner and then opening his present at home. He loves seeing all the trains there. So much so, that he didn't really eat anything except ice cream ;)

Watching the food come

Waiting for the ice cream to come

Opening his presents

Ice cream time

The next day, Thursday, was his first private clinic visit for Physical Therapy. I was a little worried because of germs. And people. And people with germs. But, it all worked out. We were the only people in their when we arrived and there were two women sanitizing toys in the room we would be playing in when we got there. We went right back when got in. Now, the thing with this PT is, insurance thinks he is all good. He doesn't need PT anymore. They said they are not going to cover his PT anymore because his condition is chronic and he should have been recovered by Nov 2013. Which, he had barely been walking by then. He was only 2 at that point and only started walking at 17 months and was only proficient at walking by the time he was 2. I explained all of this to his PT and she was shocked! She is going to write a new letter to the insurance explaining all of his falling and balance issues due to his low tone in his lower body and upper body weakness. For now, we are doing private pay. Hopefully with our second appeal the insurance will start paying. Our PT did a lot of work on going up and down the stairs. She would pretend to leave something downstairs and tell Ben "Oh, I forgot this downstairs, lets go get it and bring it back up." By the 4th time, he said "you go get it. I stay up here and cook." She just had to laugh at him. He is persistent ;) They also did a lot of jumping to work on his quadriceps strength. He was exhausted by the end of it all! Here are just a few pics from that day

Doing a little work on the treadmill, or "walking machine"

Sliding down the slide out of the tree house

Walking down the stairs from the tree house

Sitting down, a little tired

The end of EI

 For Ben that is. Not me. I work in EI, and plan to for as long as I can. But, tomorrow is Ben's last EI appointment with his PT. We will switch over next week to private therapy. I have to say, I am a little worried about it. I mean, I love his therapist. I have loved having her come to our home for the past 3 years. She has helped him in so many ways. He has come so far because of her and I can not believe he is aging out of Early Intervention already! He will be 3 next week and EI only goes to age 3. So, we will switch to clinic based therapy next Thursday. Our last session in the home is tomorrow. We have already set it up with the therapist and the front desk that due to his condition, we will check in at the front and she will escort us back to the room Ben will be using. Unfortunately, we can not be the first patient of the day. I believe they open for patients at 8 am, and I drop the girls off for school on Thursdays at 8:30. So, I will be getting to the clinic around 9:30. BUT, his PT said they have some college students there that she is going to use to clean off all the toys an items that she thinks she will need to use for that session, before we get there. So, at least I can be reassured that everything is being done to keep it as germ free as possible.We do want to make sure he is doing as well as possible. And, his PT said that he has come SO far. But, he is still having trouble with things that require quad strength, such as going down the stairs, jumping and pedaling a tricycle (which he did a few times 2 weeks ago. But just those few times.) He also has some low tone in his lower body which needs to be monitored. So we will still continue on with PT. And hopefully he will continue to make great progress.

Climbing up the "rocks"

He pushed the pedals a couple of times! Yay PT!