Monday saw us go to Veronika’s appointment with the brain injury rehab specialist. He was impressed how well Veronika is doing. Last time he saw her she wasnt even crawling, and now she is starting to use her walking frame. When we got there I hadn’t put her theratog tape on her left leg, that helps align her leg and pelvis, as I thought he would be needing to examine her and would need it taken off. So after she walked a little in her frame, and he was talking about her leg being turned in, I said that I had some theratog tape for her leg. So I put it on her after he had examined her, and he was shocked how well it straightened her leg. He was actually amazed at how well it worked(I think he might have been a bit sceptical that a piece of theratog tape would make such a difference). I asked lots of questions, and the Dr wanted to know what therapy we were doing with her…..lots!

Then came the biggest shock, I have been processing it all week…

a good shock,

actually a fantastic shock

something a Specialist has NEVER said to me before.

He said that “I can’t guarantee it, but I can see down the track that Veronika might be able to do away with her walking frame and walk without it”.

That was a pretty BIG statement for me to take in….as I said its something a specialist has never said to me before, actually any of Veronika’s Doctors have never said anything like that before.

We chatted about her progress for a little longer. He wants her to see a speech pathologist to see if there is any underlying medical reason she isn’t eating or talking. We know that children with Down Syndrome have speech delay, but he just wants to make sure that there aren’t any other things going on that we don’t know about….other than that, he will see her again in a year.

Veronika’s left leg before straightening with theratogs(must take an after pic!)

Yesterday we have our 1st Playgroup at Early Childhood Intervention Services(ECIS) for 2012. It was so nice to get back to group, I realized how much I really  had missed it, missed seeing the other Mums and children. This was also the 1st time Veronika has used her walking frame to get into ECIS. The teachers and staff were so excited to see Veronika cruising along in her walking frame, and so encouraging.There are activities to do each session, and this week was ‘egg’ related(as in eggs for easter). Veronika wanted to do a  painting. We spent most of last year trying to get Veronika to stand at the easel to paint, and she wouldn’t. So yesterday when the TA asked if we were going to stick the Egg to paint to the table, I said no Veronika can stand at the easel with her walking frame, AND SHE DID!!!

After morning tea, it was time for outside play….Veronika used her walking frame to get out to the playground, and she went straight for the play equipment to crawl over, with a slide at the end. She had a lovely time going over the bridge, and then down the slide. I decided to over come another fear of mine, and let her crawl through the pine bark. Veronika has had 2 allergic reactions to pine bark in the past(both times it was new pine bark), and after the second one I havent let her get too close to pine bark, but she is starting Kinder next year, so I need to see how she goes as there is pine bark everywhere at the school she will go to…..and yay no reaction.

So all in all we have had a fantastic week