Well today was the big day, Ryder got his first set of casts on. Tyler and I both had ourselves pretty worked up about it but like usual Ryder was amazing and took it like a champ! He got a little annoyed at the very end which is to be expected but there were no tears :) It helped that the technician doing it was super friendly and he played with Ryder's trains and "Choo-choo-ed" along with him. It took maybe twenty minutes to have both casts put on.
Since getting home he has been doing pretty good. Movement is definitely more complicated now but he is still getting around. He can still play on his knees which I am super happy about. I had a bit of a panic attack the other day thinking the casts would be above the knee but thank goodness they aren't!!! Crawling is a lot more work, he still tries but falls to his belly a lot more than he did. Standing and playing at the couch is a BIG no-no now :( The fiberglass on our floor is like a slippery skating rink. They gave us little walker shoes but he's still very uneasy standing with them. I think it's because he's not able to grip the floor with his little toes like he did before to give him some sort of stability.
They dont even phase him :)
His shirt says "for a small guy, I'm still a BIG DEAL!"
Well my prediction came true! It was just a month ago, almost exactly that Ryder first got up on all fours and decided to make his first move towards crawling. He would take a couple strides with his arms while I moved his legs then fall to his belly. May not sound like much but we knew this was such a huge accomplishment. When we first showed his therapists they were blown away and almost in disbelief of what he was doing! I said give him a month and he'll be crawling all over the place. Everyday we worked on it and he got a little better each and every day. Pretty soon he was moving all on his own and you could tell in his eyes and giggle that he was SO proud of himself. Now I would say he crawls about 90% of the time. Rarely do we find him pulling himself along the floor and if we do we say "come on Ryder, crawl" and he pushes up and gets going again! With every new milestone he reaches it confirms my thoughts that "hey this kid is gonna be just fine!"
Here's a small clip of him in action :)
This one is just him playing but it shows how he's getting a lot of control.
Ryder has also been talking up a storm! Speech delay is very common with kids who have CP and a lot will never speak but luckily Ryder dodged that one. He is saying new words and sounds almost daily. Today he brought me over his shoes and said "Shoe shoe" then he went over to the closet and pulled on his jacket and said "coat". Haha think he was hinting much?! It was enough to impress me, so we went for a nice long walk. :) He's also putting words together like "more toast" or the other day he said "Dadda wuv you". He loves making animal sounds but sometimes he likes to pretend every animal is a horse. :) He also asks for help for almost everything and his new favorite word of course is "NO" lol oh well at least he's communicating!!
Tyler and I have been back and forth with each other trying to decide if Ryder should get Hyperbaric Oxygen Theyapy (HBOT) while at Ability camp. My argument is I want and NEED to try anything and everything out there that could possible help Ryder. In Tyler's argument it is a LOT of money (that was generously donated) and there's no real proof or studies that have been done to say "yes this will help our child". It is so hard to make these decisions!! We have asked for advice from Ryder's specialists but with no proof on seeing any results they advised us against it. I just don't get why all these doctors are so negative when it comes to alternate therapy. It really makes me wonder what they would be doing if it were their child. I'm pretty sure they would do EVERYTHING they could to try and help. I have gone to forums and searched online for people who have done this for their children and have found that almost everyone says that YES they saw improvements. Actually I have not come across anyone who said they didn't see any difference. The more I read the more I want to do it. Of course I am not expecting it to "heal" Ryder and all of a sudden he'll be running across the room but I want to know in my heart that we have done everything in our power to help him.
As I just read this to Tyler we are STILL arguing about it!! I understand that it is a lot of money but I really feel like this is the right thing to do. Any advise or opinions on HBOT would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! xo
Okay this video has absolutely nothing to do with HBOT but I just wanted to put it here for my little nephew Branden!! He loves watching Ryder's movies! :) hehe!!
It does however show how stable he is getting on his knee's though! There is no way he could have done this without falling a month ago!! :)
Wow! This past weekend we had so many generous donations! We were able to deposit almost $2000 into Ryder's Ability camp account!! Our GRAND total is now $6000.00!!!! Thank you never seems to feel like enough.... My cousins back home threw a very successful poker night. With friends and family they raised $1200 in one night!!! Wow guys, this means so much to us and we all love you so much!! We also had some more than generous donations from family and also friends from my moms work.
THANK-YOU!!
Here is a pic my mom took of the last round of the poker night. We have Mike, Tyler and Stan and the man on the far right Larry, who won the pot and very generously donated it ALL to Ryder!! From the sounds of it everyone had an awesome night! Thanks again!
Here's the pot!! :)
Ryder is doing pretty good. Not much going on these days. Summer has come to an end and Fall is definitely in the air. Our favorite outdoor pool has closed and the leaves are already starting to fall. I took Ryder for one last swim at our favorite beach and we also took him to a little fair where he went on his first carnival rides. All in all it was a good summer but I am a bit disappointed that we spent the majority of it's nice weather waiting for Ryder's walker. Pretty soon we will have to find some indoor options for Ryder to play and get his exercise. In two weeks time Ryder will have casts on both of his legs!! :( Then I am gonna be really stuck for ideas on how to keep this guy busy!! NO swimming and NO baths!! Hopefully he will still be able to use his walker but only time will tell.
