Monday, January 30, 2017

Tales from home based therapy - new exercises

Jonny has been working hard with Dominic developing a new home exercise plan for us to focus on since we got the other one mastered ages ago...

today was day 1 of doing it.  We are focusing on visual processing speed, core strength and body/spatial awareness.  We're also sneakily trying to increase his arm strength.

So first up are some vision exercises.
This is one of 3 vision exercises we do, and the only one i was able to film while supervising.  The idea here is by going from upper left to lower right we increase his visual processing speed crossing brain hemispheres. 




Then we do situps and pushups.  Pushups are very hard for him (weak upper body), so we do them on our knees and with him so he mimics. Situps are easier to get video of:




We are still working on lizards for reflex integration, tho on days we can ride the bike or go rock climbing, he can skip them. (yes, we are going to be taking him to the rock climbing gym in town as part of his therapy soon)



It was almost comical, as Jonny was finishing telling us about the exercises last night he said that he was going to bring us some "Yogorilla" cards for Dominic to mirror the picture of and get some body awareness via yoga. Rod, being a yoga teacher, had better ones already here.  And to Jonny's extreme Suprise Dominic did great with them last night.

Here he is today, slaying the yoga poses I asked him to do:




And I had him finish with child's pose....




The plan here is that we will do all these exercises a couple of times (i committed to 2) a day until mastery. 

Sunday, January 22, 2017

That was cool!

Last night we went to the annual Yule gathering with our friends (yes, we know its a month late, we like it that way).  We've attended this party for easily 20 years and the group of people who are there are very much family.

This is also a dog party.  We only took one because... well, just because. At any rate, there were probably as many 4 leggeds as there were 2 leggeds there last night and a fabulous time was had by all.  Dominic LOVES dogs of all varieties and was in his element playing with them.

The cool moment came as we were getting ready to leave.  Dominic was in his coat, headed out the door when he got obviously distressed.  I heard him saying "come on come one" and at first thought it was because he wanted to leave.  Then he clapped loudly and intently and in trotted a dog who had managed to get out the door.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED????

He recognized a problem, he asked for help and when help didn't come because we didn't understand him, he got the dog back inside himself.


Wednesday, January 18, 2017

orthodontia....


If you had told me a year ago - even 6 months ago - that we would be considering orthodontia for Dominic, I would've told you that you were crazy.

Yeah.
So.
Today we had a consult with an orthodontist who comes very highly recommended by our pediatric dentist.
That we were even willing to attempt this consult should tell you that Dominic has come MILES in the last few months.


What we are most urgently addressing is crowding on Dominic's upper palate that is keeping his adult canines from having space to drop in.  Secondary concern is an "anterior cross bite with an anterior functional shift".

Couple of things that are fabulous:
- Dominic ROCKED the exam, did great following directions for pictures and xrays
- The routine shift of spending almost 90 minutes in a strange office instead of going to school didn't phase him.
- somehow we have some insurance coverage for this, so our portion is WAY LESS than I was expecting and in fact if we choose their payment plan (1/3 down then the remainder spread out over the next 12 months), we won't even feel it financially.  We decided on the way home that all the years of STUPID expensive out of pocket autism treatment has completely jaded us.


so we have some options to discuss with our regular dentist next month.

1. Plan A - regular dentists does sedation and removes adult teeth.  cons: sedation is a crapshoot and per the orthodontist, that could make his underbite worse.

2. Plan B - the everything plan:  upper and lower braces; palate expanders / reverse pull headgear at night.  cons: Sensory boy in headgear?? you must be kidding.

3.  Plan C - Just upper braces addressing the spacing issue only for now.  Pros: Leaves a full spectrum of options for later should we think he could do plan B later.  And if we did plan B later if would just be an additional $400 (insurance!)


Interestingly Plan A and Plan C are roughly the same amount out of pocket.   We are leaning towards plan C.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Ramblings...

Its been a very weird week.

Monday/Tuesday we had a 27 hour power outage.  The outage was the result of Chinook winds which brought along with the 100+ mph winds,  high temps in the 50's and 60's.   It was bad enough that the state patrol ordered the schools in the county to not do afternoon bus service and tons of damage around town.  We made the decision to stay home and ride it out instead of going elsewhere and Dominic did amazing. I'm shocked at how my routine oriented kid just rolled with dark, cold, and no shower (he had a sink bath instead).  

Tuesday afternoon was a very hard Speech Therapy session, but Thursday's ST was amazing. Never quite know how he's going ot do in therapy.

Then last night, Daddy and Mommy went on a date (dinner and a hockey game), so Mr Jonny, our OT hung out with Dominic for a few hours.  here's a sampling of the texts I got about the evening

We did a lot of ADL type stuff, multi step directions, and overall engagement was spectacular to say the least" (ADL = activities of daily living)

He used the microwave and tested the temperature of his food and then warmed it up more

Its really cool to see this side of him and have him not see me as a dictator. 


I think its really valuable to have the folks giving Dominic therapy interact with him outside of a therapeutic setting.  So I'm pleased, even tho CC lost the hockey game.... 

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Cooking show

Anyone who knows me well knows that my choice of TV when I'm by myself (and often when i'm not) is the Food Network. I like to cook, i like to get ideas, I enjoy seeing whats out there.  And its relatively mindless, and very positive.

So last night, I'm hanging out in bed watching Diners, Drive ins, and Dives while Dominic took his shower as I have done every night since he switched from baths to showers over a year ago.   Dominic got himself bathed, dressed and brushed and came over to me presumably to say goodnight. Instead he announced "Cooking Show!!!" with such excitement that I told him to hop in and watch with me.

And he did.

For an Hour!!!

My kid hung out with me watching a cooking show for a solid hour, during which he provided a running commentary on what he was seeing "Eggs!  Hamburger!! Cheeeeeeeze" and so forth.  If you saw my facebook status last night, you've already seen this video...



This is what he did - cuddled with the dogs, under a blanket, he just hung out and enjoyed himself...








Then we got goofy. Because thats what we do.  And who let his feet get almost as big as mine?????? 




I cannot remember being so relaxed and happy just hanging out with him EVER. He stayed a little while after Daddy came down and joined us and then put himself to bed. 

This recovering thing.. its really amazing.  I am totally blown away.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Takes from home based therapy - word search

So tonight, after a rousing game of Hungry Hungry Hippo (Thank you Sherri!!), during which Dominic was very confused as to the point (can't really blame him...its sort of a bizarre game)... Jonny attempted to get him to do a word search.  This was the FIRST time ever that Dominic even allowed it..

Jonny showed him what to do by circling 2 words in black, adn then Dominic figured it out and found the ones in RED in 3-4 minutes






For real - wow.   The cognition gains are coming in LEAPS and bounds.  I'm basically slackjawed.  I was telling my BFF tonight that it was our turn for a breakthrough. We've had gains on many protocols, but this last few weeks, whether it was the particular combo of supplements he's on plus the adjustment, or solar flares, or what - its the first major breakthrough we've had in the 9 years we've been treating Dominic.  It was our turn. 

Sunday, January 1, 2017

This is new...

So we are having a very quiet afternoon today, waiting for OT to start. Dominic is surfing YouTube and I'm reading a book.  I look up and I see a pen and a piece of junk mail on the floor.  That's weird.

I get up and he's written down the name of the movie he's currently watching.

Wow is all I've got.