Monday, November 3, 2008

CIMT--Update.






Today, Leah was recasted...while the casting went quite smoothly, the cast that is on is not fitting right, again. This is our second casting specialist and our third time fully casting. It's officially not the right time for Leah to be fully casted. Our OT thinks it's because she is still so little, 13 months and 18(ish)lbs. Right now, Leah has the cast on, but we are pretty sure that tomorrow it will be taken off. It's come to a point where is it unsafe for her to have it on. She knows how to slip her little fingers out of it and then her hand will get caught--which could lead to pressure ulcers or loss of circulation. We don't want those things to happen, so, for now we will stick with the removable cast. We have been seeing really great results with it anyway. I am giving up hope of fully casting, for now. Hopefully we will re-visit it again in a couple months.

I still think Constraint Induced Movement Therapy is absolutely amazing and Leah has far surpassed our goal for her. Initially all we wanted CIMT to do was to increase awareness, she has not only increased her awareness but is also more actively using that hand. Today, for the very first time ever she grabbed a rice cake with her left hand, I mean seriously that is AMAZING--AH! SHE GRABBED THE RICE CAKE...A-MAZING!

With the rice cake in her hand...



Trying to get it in her mouth, she needs a little help turning her wrist.


Success! This rice cake is delicious!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amanda, sorry that the casting isn't going as you had hoped, but your right you can try again in a couple months. those pictures of her and the rice cake are amazing!! I can feel your joy and how proud you are of her. Keep up the good work Leah!!!

Abby said...

WOW! How great is that that she got the rice cake AND you go tit on film!!!! What to go Leah!

Popcorn House said...

That is awesome feeding herself the rice cake with lefty! Those little milestones are just HUGE for us and for them. Keep up the good work. Sorry about the cast again.

Anonymous said...

ditto Kara.

Erin said...

Amanda sorry the casting did not do what is suppose to but Leah sure is:) She is too cute and feeding with lefty is awesome.

Kiera said...

That is a bummer that they could not get the cast to fit correctly. I am still really surprised by that aspect of your experience.

I am glad to hear that the results are amazing though! I LOVED the pictures of the rice cakes! Sheis so cute and that is so impressive that she is using lefty!

Keep us posted on how the removable goes!

Barbara said...

I'm always interested in reading about constraint therapy. We don't really do it much in Canada it seems. We did a modified version where we put a sock on Bennett's hand. We saw incredible results with just that - and it was something we only did for a couple hours a day.

I'm sorry that this experience didn't go as you hoped but from what I've read constraint therapy can work at any age. You'll have many more opportunities and in the meantime you have some wonderful progress to celebrate!

Great pictures.