Visiting the Therapy Gym

Today has been a roller coaster of emotions. We have felt everything from excitement to fear to disappointment. I can only imagine how Gracie is feeling. At 9:00 this morning, Gracie worked with a therapist named Jenn in the therapy room. It is playroom full of toys and equipment that any child would love. Because Gracie had toured the playroom before surgery, she was eager to go back and play with many toys, especially the kitchen set. However, the process of moving Gracie from her wheelchair to the mat was scary for her. Jenn started with some simple leg exercises with Gracie on the mat. She wanted to have Gracie sit on the edge of a raised mat by herself next but Gracie was too fearful and cried. We tried to come back to that later but Gracie protested. Jenn moved the kitchen set near the mat for Gracie to play with while she and Nana help her upright. Because this would require Gracie to let go of her grip on the two of them, she did not want to do this. Last, Grandma and I practiced getting Gracie up. For the first month after surgery, we have to be careful not to extend her hips toward her back past a 90 degree angle. This could seriously hurt Gracie as well as rupture her incision spot. This makes us all very nervous. We are all acting like Hannah Montana's bodyguards when other people are around. There was one time when we had Gracie in the elevator and many people got in with us. One woman had a huge bag that looked very heavy. We were all ready to throw her to the ground if she swung around and bumped Gracie. That poor woman had no idea how closely we were watching her.

Gracie has complained about her stomach hurting throughout this entire process. She is prone to constipation so it could be that. She is getting medicine to help with this problem. There is also the possibility that she is faking her pain to keep us from making her work. When we returned for her second therapy session at 1:00, she was exhausted, crying, and not cooperative at all. We had to cancel the therapy. Again, she complained about her stomach. We are all expecting her back to hurt, so we wondered if she had just confused the stomach pain with back pain. She is insistent that it is her stomach though. We have left word with the nurse to get in touch with the doctor to see how we should proceed.

We know we shouldn't compare Gracie with other patients, but we can't help but notice the progress the rhizotomy patient next door has made. She is the same age as Gracie yet she was not nearly as mobile as Gracie was before surgery. She is alert, cheerful, and performing very well in therapy. She went down the slide today, hopped like a bunny, and hated to leave therapy. Gracie has another therapy session in the morning at 8:30. We pray it goes well. Ideally, Gracie will be discharged tomorrow at 11:00.