Ella continues making progress which we are thrilled about. It is subtle and slow but it is happening. Colleen brought a walker last week and we had it over the weekend. This is like an old-lady walker which is so much better than the gait trainer which is so clunky and cumbersome. On the one hand, Ella does great with the walker. We were always worried about her ability, and desire, to hold onto the handles of the gait trainer. She always avoided those. Yet she seems to get the concept with the walker. She still needs alot of support — mostly for balance and she’s not able to use it independently. For one thing, she leans over to the left and eventually her left foot is outside of the walker. Then she easily lean back or to the sides and the whole walker goes with her. But she does get the handle idea with her right hand (she can’t hold on with the left) and pushes the thing a few steps ahead of her and walks forward. Yeah! So now we have to locate a walker b/c it will take about 3 months to get approval for one through the insurance. In the meantime, Beth has converted the gait trainer to a walker and we have an appointment at Children’s Physical Therapy equipment clinic to start the ordering process through the insurance. After about a half and hour on her feet, either walking or standing, Ella’s legs start to shake. She really needs to build up her strength. The great thing is that she is getting a little better with balance and stronger muscles slowly but surely. The downside is that it is so exhausting for us. We always have to be challenging her, supporting her, transitioning her.
With all Netta’s crankiness and adjustment issues I can see that it is so much easier to put a child down and have them independently challenge themselves and “do-their-own” thing. It’s intense with Ella and I always feel like more needs to be done.