Camp Day 1

It was a great day. Lots of hard work and James and I are both super tired but it was great. As I said last night, I didnt even bring James wheelchair down with us. About 8am I was questioning my decision when I looked at everything I had to bring with us to Camp today. I had James in his bike, his walker, a set of quade canes, my purse and James backpack! It was a lots for the trek, but we did it and I thing the fresh air and motion of the bike really gave James a great warm up. I didnt not make him petal his bike. His feet where strapped in and I was pushing the bike by it handle. I didnt want to tire him out but just get his legs moving for Camp. As I was hiking with everything in toe. I was imagining new inventions for how to creat make shift back pack like carriers for equipment like this.

Once we arrived we walked into the center and there were 3 little 3 year old boy in walker just like James. You would think that we have seent his before as much Pt as we do but we just dont. The kids we see at home are either far less involved than James are far more involved. We dont know any kids that are at James level, so it was really nice to see them. James' face lit up and he instantly wanted to get out of his bike and into his walker with them to play. I was happy to help him do just that!

The camp day started at 830am. Today was mainly evaluations and seeing all what James could do. He was asked to do some timed walking and crawling, and a lot of beachmark tasks. I was happy to see that compared to last time we were at the camp James has really improved over what he could do in my eyes. I dont know the results of the evals until we leave but having seen many I pretty much know what they are scoring. His PT and I talked about my goals for the next 3 weeks. We are going to be focusing a lot on controling his walker and being able to be totally independant in it. As far as walking he is independant in it but he just cant quite turn it for corners and if he hit a wall he cant get himself out of it. We will also be working on that foot that is turning it. The suit will align his body perfectly so the idea is that we will re-train the muscles while he is in the suit.

Speaking of the suit.....the fitting went ok. He tolerated it for the most part. But James HATES putting on clothes much less a really form fitting suit that has about a hundred bungie cords going everywhere. So you can imagine how much he like it. I was proud of him though. He looked at his book and was quite patient for about 10 min of the 30 min process. And for James that is a big deal when it comes to things like this. I hope once we get the suit ON he will be ok with it. One of the OT goals for this camp cycle is to help James tolerate sustained pressure.

The RMDH has been great. Having a nicer and bigger room really has helped this time. A few of the people recognized James from August and were happy to see him. There is a new volunteer that James really likes. I like her too because she like sto take James to the playroom and read book with him while I eat. I REALLY like her a lot!!! Such a big help to have 2 seconds to eat during the day. Of course I can still see James from where I am.

James and I ended our day with a ice cream reward on the playground and several  trips down the slide. It was the first time that James and I really played side by side on a playground instead of me taking him to everything. It was a great way to end the day!