First Therapy Visit

Wednesday ~ March 28, 2007

Well, Hunter had his first visit with Ms. Marty at Texas Children's Health Center yesterday for occupational therapy. He didn't like the arm manipulation....she took his shirt off to look at muscle development and boy did that make him mad!! Since the nerves aren't working yet he doesn't feel pain when we rotate his arm...something I was afraid of since he seems to cry when we do the exercises. She said he probably just hates to be bothered! lol. She did say that he is progressing well and is exhibiting resistance in the arm. The bicep is the muscle that is kind of lying dormant right now so we want to pray that he begins using it on his own. We will continue to do our rotation exercises at home to keep the joint from becoming stiff and he will have therapy once a week for the next 3 months. She gave us a bit of hope in that another patient who had less movement at this stage than what he does was not refered for surgery at 3 months. So she is very optimistic that he will regain function through therapy but nerves take a long time to heal so it's just a wait and see kind of thing!
The hard reality that he will always be a little weaker in that arm and will need more aggressive therapy once he starts activities where he needs to use both arms together (i.e. crawling, pulling up) was kind of rough to hear. But, again, we know we serve a Big God who can perfrom Big Miracles! More than one person has made the comment that despite this injury he'll probably be the kid that throws a fastball like no other! That's always encouraging to hear!
We are going to take him for a visit to a Chiropractor for a "second opinion" and see what they think. Please pray that God will give us the wisdom to make the right decision as far as treatment goes. We want to do everything we can to keep that arm ready for when those nerves heal and don't want to hinder his progress in any way. We'll keep you posted!!