Saturday, May 24, 2008

First Steps Quaterly Review

So... our coordinator at First Steps in getting ready to go on maternity leave so she moved up some of her appointments - including Joe's quarterly review. There wasn't a whole lot to it. She just checked to see if I had any questions, if we were happy with our therapists, etc. And the therapists write updates telling how they think therapy is going, if they recommend any changes, etc.
She is I have been very pleased with our PT. She is very sweet and challenges Joe and encourages him. She is recommending that Joe get fitted for orthotics (ancle/leg braces) to help with his development as he's learning to stand and walk, etc. She would like to see him twice a week but we're unsure if First Steps will approve it. They may suggest that he see an OT once a week in addition to seeing a PT once a week instead of upping PT to twice a week. We'll see what happens.
The DT on the other hand... I had bad vibes from the beginning and tried to get over it but alot of little things added up (she has always been kind of flaky, canceling and/or rescheduling at the last minute multiple times, is not very tolerant of Nate's interest in Joe's therapy & toys and I have come to dread her visits) and after yesterday I just knew I couldn't do it anymore. So I emailed our coordinator asking for a change of provider. There are a few other DTs that I'm looking at in the area right now. We'll try to make that transition here soon.
We have also taken him to our herbalist and she has him on some herbal supplements. She experienced similar delays with her son which were corrected with supplements and diet changes, etc and she is optimistic about Joe's situation.
* We will be meeting with a developmental specialist at Riley in a few weeks and depending on what they say we have an appointment with a pediatric neurologist at Riley in August (but they won't see him until their developmental specialist evaluates him). So we'll have to wait and see how all that goes.
We have noticed improvements over the last month or two. It is slow going but he has been improving his muscle control, he's been more actively interested in people and things, we've seen him pass objects from one had to the other more, he's had increased eye contact, been drinking from a cup on his own sometimes, he has been much more expressive, he's smiles more freely and laughs alot more too. * Now last few days he's been teething and a little lazy, but overall we've been seeing positive changes. We would appreciate your continued prayers as this is far from resolved.




2 comments:

Katie said...

Hi there! This post seemed so familiar to me. My sweet 8 year old went through this sort of things and actually just got his 4th pair of afo (ankle-foot orthotics). If you don't mind me asking, does your little guy have a diagnosis? Please feel free to email me off blog. :)

Unknown said...

I'll keep praying, Wani. Thanks for the update!

Sniz