Been shopping........

We've had a lovely, relaxed half term this week. Daniel has mainly had a break from physio, in order to allow him to recover, and stop him getting too tired. We have continued to do his stretches twice a day (those can never be missed unless he is simply too poorly to tolerate them), and have done a handful of the home exercises on some days. However, we have had no sessions with a physio, and have tried not to push him at all.

He has enjoyed some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa......

.....and been swimming.....

...and has continued to walk, walk, walk whenever an opportunity presents itself....

At the moment, Daniel is still mainly wearing his full splints, because he experienced some pain when we took him down to just the ankle splints. Therefore, in agreement with his physios, and of course desperate not to injure him, we are making the change very gradually. He is doing some standing at home in just the ankle splints, and using them in physio sessions, but still wearing his full splints when out and about and particularly at school.

The most exciting achievement of the week came on Friday, exactly 3 months since his SDR operation, Daniel WALKED all the way round Cheltenham town centre. We took his wheelchair with the intention that he would just walk the length of the shopping arcade and then hop in his chair for the rest of the trip. However, he wanted to keep going and going, and refused to get in his wheelchair at all (so Lucy enjoyed a ride around town!) You can see from this clip how much more confident and fluent his walking in his walker has become.

 

He hugely enjoyed the independence of looking round M&S, deciding which way he would go and what he would look at.

Admittedly he did end up flat on his face at one point, and was really tired towards the end, but he did manage the whole trip starting and finishing at our car without getting in his wheelchair at all. It really brought home to me how much he has achieved in the last 3 months.

Tomorrow we return to the full physio routine, and Daniel returns to full-time school. That should be challenging, but I look forward to what he might achieve in the next 3 months....

February already.......

The time is flying by, and I can't believe that it is already 11 weeks since Daniel's SDR operation. The last couple of weeks Daniel has continued to work hard at his physio, and usually with his gappy smile much in evidence!

We have all been struck down, to varying degrees, with the bug that has been going round the children's school. However, Daniel has so far managed with only one day off school, and one missed hydrotherapy session, and has otherwise carried on. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he can have a good rest over half term, and manage to stay healthy. After half term we are hoping that he will go back to more or less full time at school, which will bring even more challenges in terms of time management.

The video below was taken this weekend, and shows two really big indications of Daniel's progress. Firstly, on Friday he started to be able to stand UNAIDED, and managed over FIVE SECONDS!! (In the clip below he only does about three and a half seconds but he did manage more in other attempts!) This is something he has never, ever done in his life before; before surgery, as soon as you let go of him, he would just fall over immediately! We were all seriously excited by this new achievement! In the second half you can see him doing well at one of the balance exercises from the home exercises. This shows how his hip stability is improving, as well as his strength in general.

So, since he is getting stronger, and following the advice from St Louis, being the mean parents that we are, we have made Daniel's life a bit trickier still! We are now trying him without his tall splints and just with the smaller ankle splints. These give his legs less support and the change has temporarily made standing and walking harder for him. However, if he can manage without the tall splints, it should allow him to build muscle strength in his ankles and calf muscles now too.