Baby Steps!

Today was an amazing day for our little girl. We started gait training with the goal of getting our little Emmy walking. This morning we headed up to Shriner's Hospital in Portland for the first day of two weeks of gait training and intensive therapy. We began the morning with a 9:00 appt. to get her new braces fitted. They did the casting for them back in November so today they just needed to fine tune them. The lady who constructed her braces and did the initial casting was the one who did the fitting today as well. When she brought them out they looked soooooo tiny. (We had only ever seen an eight year old use them prior to today). She laid them down on the hospital bed and placed Emily in them. Once she had her all strapped in she lifted her to the floor. She helped Emily to balance and then let go of her. There stood our little girl, on her own to feet for the first time in her little life. At first she had no concept of what she was doing then she began to realize that she could actually fall from that position. After that realization she was a little unsure of the whole situation.

Emily's braces extend from her chest down to her feet. I took some pictures but you can't really see the detail of them so I will have to work on getting some close ups through out the week.

After her braces were checked for proper fit, we proceeded upstairs to Physical Therapy. Once we got there we were told to take a lunch break (by that time it was 12:00) and to return at 1:00 for our first therapy appointment. So we headed out to the car to enjoy our picnic lunch in the back of the van (while watching Little People on the DVD player). Following lunch it was back inside to began putting those shiny new braces to use.

We began with a training session on bracing 101 for mom's sake. I learned what to do and what not to do with the new braces. Then mom received hand's on training as to how to put them on Emily. Once she was snuggly in her braces we were ready to put them to the test. She was given a shiny, new, red walker and the training began.

So much of what Emily is being taught we take for granted. With a typical child walking is a natural process which occurs over time. In Emily's case, she is being taught how to walk in two weeks. She doesn't even know what it feels like to stand on her own two feet let alone walk on them. She doesn't know what it is like to feel her own feet underneath her. She doesn't know what it is like to fall from a standing position. All of these concepts are new and it is amazing to watch her little brain absorb all that it can from her new experiences.

To begin with, her PT allowed her to lean forward and backward and then to correct herself and bring her body back to a completely upright position using the walker for support. He then taught her proper hand placement for her walker. Until she understands how to make her braces walk they have to be manually controlled by someone else. Thus began the lessons in walking. He physically moves each leg for her in order to teach her how to walk.

Since she has no muscle tone and very little movement in her legs, she powers the braces with her ab muscles. When she arches her back and thrusts her stomach forward one leg takes a step. The legs of the braces are connected by a cable so when one leg takes a step the other reciprocates and takes a step in turn and then the process repeats itself. Getting Emily's body to recognize what movements it needs to make in order to actually take a step is the hard part. In order to accomplish that goal we "walk" Emily all over the hospital rolling behind her on a stool with wheels, making the leg movements for her. Emily's PT, an intern, my mom and I are all taking turns throughout the day. So far Emily is tolerating it well but is very serious about the whole thing.

The goal is that eventually Emily will no longer need hand over hand assistance. Once she learns how to make the braces work she will be able to power them on her own and along with the aid of the walker she will be walking independently. Since each child is different there is no way to tell when that will happen for our Emmy. For now we just keep taking "baby steps".