Lots of Appointments

This week was busy with several doctor appointments and therapy appointments. It was also a rollercoaster ride trying to sort through all of the "professional medical advice" that we received.
 

On Monday, we met with our new physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor, Dr. Such-Neibaur. I had heard really good things about Dr. Such-Neibaur, and she was the doctor that our oncologists had wanted us to see initially, but at the time she was not accepting new patients unless they were traumatic brain injuries. Compared to our old doctor, Dr. Lewelt, who moved to California, I did not really care for Dr. Such-Neibaur. Dr. Lewelt seemed very open to seeing what Brynlee could do, and she was very open to different ideas and trying different things to see what would work. The first thing that did not impress me about Dr. Such-Neibaur was that she essentially knew nothing about Brynlee other than she had a spinal cord injury. I was bothered that she couldn't take 5 minutes of her time to read through her history before she came in or even after she came in to get the whole picture. Also, she pushed me on the wheelchair issue and left me with the impression that we are rehabilitating Brynlee for a wheelchair and not for walking. I was not too happy when I left. Don't get me wrong, she was very nice, but my goals for Brynlee seem different than her goals.
 

Dr. Such-Neibaur also wants us to get some bladder and bowel testing done on Brynlee. Even though we haven't had any problems with Brynlee's bowel and bladder, there is a possibility that she might not completely be emptying everything out, which can cause problems with infections and the kidneys. I know I haven't gone into too many details with why a spinal cord injury and paraplegia is so devastating, but there are a lot of secondary issues that stem from paralysis such as this that we have to deal with. I'm sure as we go along this journey more and more issues will continue to come up. It sucks!
 

On Tuesday we had our home therapy appointment with Early Intervention. Honestly, I am not sure why I am doing Early Intervention. They don't do anything or show me anything that I don't already know. My only thought is that it might be an easier transition into the school district's preschool program if we stay in early intervention, but I don't know. They are nice and all, but so far they haven't provided me with anything that I was told they could possibly provide. I've been a little bit disappointed and haven't quite decided if we will continue with E.I.
 

Thursday was our regular outpatient physical therapy appointment. Brynlee did really well until about the last 10 minutes or so, but the most exciting part for me was when we put her in the harness and had her do some walking. Brynlee liked it for the first few minutes, and then I think she realized that she was working hard and then she didn't like it so much. However, I was so happy we did some "walking" today. I wish they would do that at every appointment.
 

So if you have made it this far in the post then you are in for the most exciting news of the entire week. On Friday we went down to Provo to the Now I Can place for a screening for Brynlee to possibly start their intensive physical therapy program. Now I Can is a nonprofit place that doesn't follow typical physical therapy protocol and has seen some amazing results in the kids that they have helped. The head physical therapist met with us and evaluated Brynlee. He gave us all sorts of suggestions for ways we could build our own stander or our own parallel bars (things that our insurance has denied and that are extremely expensive to buy on our own). Just the information he gave us in our short visit was worth the drive to Provo. However, the best news of the day was when he told us that he saw absolutely no reason why Brynlee couldn't walk with crutches and braces on her legs or a walker. He told us that he has had experience with kids with a similar presentation, and he was confident that they could help Brynlee. Finally some hope and someone on our team who shares our goals for Brynlee. The optomism they have there is so apparent and contagious. So we signed up for the session that starts after Thanksgiving, and Brynlee and I will be heading off to Provo for three weeks to do some intensive physical therapy. We are so excited! We already feel that we gained so much knowledge in just our short visit with them, so I am excited to see how much more we will learn and how much Brynlee will improve after our session.