Laughter

(For anyone who knows us and our tendency towards humor, often juvenile humor, this information will probably not provide many surprises.)

During Anna's first session with her new occupational therapist at the end of February, he brought out a special "tool" that he thought Anna would enjoy using during her OT sessions.  His special tool?  A whoopee cushion.  Awesome.  His idea was to give Anna a little extra motivation to practice standing transfers from one place to another.  It turns out she also did a lot of "wheelchair push-ups" with the whoopee cushion, too.

I don't know that Anna had ever seen a whoopee cushion before that Monday, but by the end of the day we were the proud owners of our own whoopee cushion.  That first one only lasted about a week in our home; by that point it was so well used that it was falling apart.  Even Ethan would push himself up with his arms in his chair at the table, then say "Toot!" with a huge smile on his face.

Last week while at the store I picked up two more to replace our first.  Cushion #2 was used just about every day in our home last week, by just about every member of the family.  It's already starting to show wear and tear.

Pediatric rehab is tricky.  It's true that kids' brains are resilient, but rehab takes a lot of work.  Imagine telling a kid to work really hard at something, with no real visible motivation, and see what kind of effort you get.  If you bribe the child, you may get a bit more effort.  If, however, you make the work fun, then a kid is going to work and work and work, even if they are drop dead tired.  As long as they are laughing and don't think of it as work, they will keep going (for the most part).

Whenever Anna has been intrinsically motivated, the lengths to which she pushes herself are incredible.  When she pushes herself like this, she makes huge gains.

Take the sand/sensory table, for example.  Since Christmas, this child's hand strength, dexterity, and endurance has gotten so much better.  We think that a good portion of this improvement is a result of the hours she, Kate, and Ethan spent playing in the sand table on Saturdays this winter.  Digging, squeezing, rolling, pouring.  Anna was doing all of those "exercises" while having fun.

Our current challenge is to make the work fun when it comes to Anna's legs, hips, feet, core strength, etc.  We are trying, but unless it is fun, she won't push herself.  As she told me recently, "But my wheelchair is comfortable."  In light of where she was last year, I think it's AWESOME that she considers her wheelchair comfortable, but ... we don't want it to be too comfortable.

Anna's new physical therapist is trying different things each week and, so far, has done a great job of finding fun, challenging activities.  Anna is usually pretty tired after her PT sessions, but finds them very enjoyable.  Anna doesn't really notice that the activities are "work" until near the end of the session when she is getting close to being dog-tired.

With the nice weather last week and over the weekend, we became aware of the different kinds of challenges we will face this summer.  This year, as opposed to last year, Anna wants  to run around and play with Kate and Ethan; she recognizes the things that are going on around her and wants to participate in them; she can think fast enough to be a part of it.  However, she is physically limited in how she can play.  I could tell she was feeling a whole host of feelings regarding this over the weekend.

So ... we are going to work on it, all aspects of it.  First, what kind of equipment can we have to make Anna more mobile independently outside?  Second, what more can we do consciously at home to help with her core/leg strengthening?  Third, how can we recognize one another's feelings and alter our own actions/activities to help?  (This one will be mainly for me, Kate, and Anna as we approach the summer together.)

Matt and I make a good team.  Between the two of us, I am definitely the "planner" and he provides the element of laughter.  Over the years, especially the parenting years, we have worked these characteristics into our lives in a fairly effective way.  I make sure the children are clothed and fed (among other things, of course), and he makes sure we have fun running around the yard and at the dinner table (among other things, of course).  I am confident that our roles and our relationship will continue to grow and evolve, but I hope that we will also continue to keep some of what has stuck with us since we first met 15 years ago.

Now that we recognize this new challenge, Matt will be able to help bring the laughter and humor into the home rehab piece so we can continue to help Anna get stronger and continue to have fun doing it.

Instead of closing with prayers this time, let me close with a reference to Sunday's sermon at our church.  Our pastor preached on 1 Corinthians 15 - "The Resurrection Chapter".  I won't include the whole chapter here, simply because it is too long.  However, I encourage any readers of this blog to read the chapter.  The closing verses are as follows:

"Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."