Happy Monday!  Evie slept in this morning till almost 7:30 am, which almost never happens.  She woke up in a great mood and completed her exercise program without any complaints.  This morning she had therapy with Jessica and Oma came along.   The therapy room set up has changed as they continue to do renovations and we got to see the brand new floor on the side that they were working on.  Very nice and slip resistant!

It was busy in there so Evie had a harder time concentrating at the beginning.  They started on the rocket and then worked on squats on an incline (which was very tough for Ev).  She later moved to doing wall squats. She then worked on stepping over obstacles.  She has trouble really lifting her feet up as she steps so she kept kicking the obstacles. Next she worked on the stairs. She started with two hands and then went to one.  Improving every day!

Next Evelyn got to do something she has never tried before, a scooter (not the board type she is used to)!!  Jessica brought out a Lightning McQueen scooter and Evie was pretty excited (and so was Mommy).  With help from Jessica, Evie did great!  She picked up the movement pretty well and started off with pushing on her left leg.  She switched legs at the end of the hall and crossed back across the room.  A scooter is a great way to work the legs separately and practice weight shifting.  May have found a good addition to her home equipment!

After therapy Mommy and Evie worked on a few things to give to Dr. Park before our follow-up appointment.  Dr. Park has dozens of pictures of children and adults he has helped over the years hanging on the walls of his office and we wanted to give him one of him and Evie as a thank you.  Evie also drew him a picture.  After some quiet time and stretching we headed back to the hospital for Evelyn’s follow-up appointment.

Our appointment with Dr. Park was short and sweet.  He was happy with Evelyn’s progress since he saw her three weeks ago.  He was also happy with how her incision is healing.  Dr. Park asked Evie to walk to across the room and her heels were down!  He then asked her to run and she did a quicker walk.  I asked how we could teach her to run as she has never been able to run in the traditional sense.  He said she will start to walk faster and then as she gets faster she will learn to run.  That would be awesome!  We asked a few questions about her using different strollers or future epidurals etc. and he said she would be fine for both.  Evelyn then gave him his gifts and pointed out that there was space on the wall for her photo.  She also got him to sign her Dr. Park book.  He signed it happily and wrote “Walk, Walk” in her book.  He said walking will be the best thing for her and that is what she will do!

 

We thanked Dr. Park again and I told him how amazing it is that he is so active on social media and answering questions from past, current and future patients.  It really shows that what he does is his passion.  A very special man indeed and it is so appreciated!

When we got back to the hotel we received a package from a fellow Canadian CP family who are currently living in Arkansas.  Jacqueline and I met through social media (such an amazing community out there of support) and she has a warrior daughter similar in age to Evie.  We were going to try and meet up in St. Louis for National CP Awareness Day but it didn’t work out.  This family is so sweet and they sent us special t-shirts made for Evie and I.  We LOVE them!! Thank you so much Jacqueline and family, we hope to meet you in the near future!!