Constraint Therapy

Jadon continues to make great progress post shoulder reduction and tendon transfer surgery.  For the last four weeks we have been doing constraint therapy.  Our therapist, Karen, made a cast for lefty to wear.  It was cut in half and fitted with velcro straps so that we could take it off during sleeping hours.  If he is awake he is supposed to have it on though. 

This was the day the cast was made.  It is not cut in half yet.  Take note of how clean it is in this pic!  It looks nothing like that now!  LOL!

 Mealtimes are the biggest struggle for us during this session of constraint therapy.  Jadon does not have the ability to supinate (rotate his hand/upper arm in towards his mouth once he gets the hand to his mouth) so we have to assist him with that part.  That makes for some long meal times but we are being persistent!  Just the fact that he can now get his hand up to his mouth is huge!  He did not have that ability before surgery. 

 Ms. Karen has been trying a lot of fun things with Jadon during therapy now that he has all this new ability.  One day Karen taped paper underneath a table and had him lay on a bean bag chair.  Then she gave him paint brushes that fit on his fingers!  He had a blast painting this way!

 Lefty still gets in there and helps even though he is in the cast.  In the pic below Jadon is using his casted left hand to help Righty get the strawberry all the way in his mouth.  Jadon loves picking strawberries out of our strawberry patch.  This is the first good year for our strawberries and none of them have made it in the house.  They all get picked them immediately eaten right out there at the patch. 

 Love the progess that the pic below shows.  Jadon is trying to take the strawberry from his Daddy.  Again, not something that came very easily before our last surgery.

Weight bearing is very important for bone and joint strengthening so Karen has been focusing on that a lot lately.  Below Jadon is wearing a weight while doing his therapy activities.  We are also getting a lot of good weight bearing done in the pool.  Jadon just started doing pool therapy again.  He loves it!  We do pool therapy once a week and land therapy the other day of the week.  

 

Righty picked and brought Mommy a "flower" the other day.  I loved it!

 Take note of how dirty Jadon's cast is in the pic below.  He lives outside now that it is nice.  We can barely get him inside to eat meals.  He has also decided that he does not want to nap anymore.  This is not making Mommy very happy.  I took this pic on a 90 degree plus day in the middle of the afternoon when Jadon was supposed to be napping.  Judging by the look on his face he is no where  near ready for a nap.  Darn!  Oh and he also ditches shoes quite often.

 Just the other day in therapy Karen showed Jadon something new.  She thought this would be a good way to get some weight bearing and shoulder abduction in.  Jadon was not so sure of the little cart at first.  She tried to get him on it at the very beginning of therapy but he was not interested.  Just as therapy was about to be over he asked to ride on it.  I guess he just had to think about it for awhile. 

Once he got on it he loved it!  He was really mad when he had to get off of the cart because it was time to go home!!

I have to admit it looked like fun!

Wednesday (6/15) is our last day of constraint therapy!  Karen likes to do it in four week stretches.  I will be happy to be rid of that stinky, smelly cast!!