Baby Steps

Stander time.  It's always been a struggle.  A struggle for both me and Clayton.  I hate dragging the big monster out (actually this one is much smaller than his first!) and he hates getting locked into a fixed position.  Can't say that I blame him . . .

At any rate, before he got sick this summer, we were doing good if he stood in it three times a week (and those times were usually almost an hour).  He complained the whole time, and I had to do lots of tricks to keep him entertained.  Why is standing so important?  Life in a wheelchair brings a whole set of problems to your body that most people are unaware of.  Sitting in a wheelchair means you constantly battle against scoliosis and hip displacement.  And both can get bad real fast if you don't stay on top of them.  Our hip sockets are formed by weight-bearing activities like walking and standing and when you don't do those things, the socket never really forms for the "ball" to fit in.

Which brings me back to Clayton's time in the stander.  Brian and I both go through periods where we get lax with Clayton's theraputic activities.  And then we'll get on a kick and get super nervous we haven't done enough.  Well, we're on that kick now about his hips.  We visited a lot last week with another family whose child lives with both hips out of socket.  How incredibly painful!  Didn't take us long to jump back on the bandwagon of including standing time in Clayton's daily activities.  Problem was Clayton has been out of practice and we just can't jump back in and pick up where he left off.  I put him in it last week and he nearly passed out he was so weak.  He barely lasted ten minutes and his little legs shook for the rest of the afternoon.  Not to mention the crying he did when I made him get in it.  I felt horrible, but knew it was a necessary evil. 

The good news is he stood in it yesterday for fifteen minutes and never complained a bit!  And his legs held up just fine afterwards.  I was so proud he had made progress over just a few days!  Baby steps is better than no steps at all, right?  And at least this way we'll know that no matter what happens, we've done our best to prevent his spine and hips from giving way.