Why we keep going to Euro-Peds

at Euro-Peds, August 2010, Day 2

After five years of making trips up north to Pontiac, Michigan to the Euro-Peds clinic at the Doctor's Hospital of Michigan, we have learned so much. We have learned a lot about cerebral palsy and seen first-hand how it affects different children differently. We've learned the importance of keeping the muscles and bones in proper alignment. (As the picture above shows, we still have a lot to learn on that account.) Each two week visit brings with it new information to help Isis grow and develop into a healthy, physically active kid.
Because she is a kid with cerebral palsy, sitting on the floor with her arms down and her head up takes major practice and many warm-up activities. A two week visit to Euro-Peds allows for forty hours to practice all kinds of skills, and warm-up all kinds of muscles that a typical one hour weekly PT session just cannot accomplish. With forty hours of massage, stretching, warm-ups, strength training and repetitive exercises under her belt, Isis has a chance to make strides at home, in school and in life that she otherwise would not have.

On a recent bike ride through the neighborhood, she reached up and, using her thumb and first finger, plucked her glasses off of her face. That trick was impossible for her to do previously. And plucking glasses off leads to accurately hitting switches in class and more intentional use of her hands in many avenues of life. The journey begins with the first pluck. Ha!