August 23, 2006
August 23, 2006 | Updates
Late update again, but things are going fine-a little crazy, but fine :)! Samuel completed a week of hyperbarics and will do one more week. Then we will wait a few months before doing another 10 seesions and so on. We’ve been very blessed to have some members of the family drive Samuel to hyperbarics. So between grandparents, aunts, Samuel’s dad and myself, we are able to just drive a few days each and it’s not such a burden on me. We’re also lucky that grandma is willing to meet us at hyperbarics to either go in the chamber with Samuel or sit and watch Nathan while I do. What would we do without all our wonderful help?Samuel has been good in the chamber. He was only upset one day when he got really hot. Otherwise, he has been pretty content to just watch a movie. He is VERY wiggly, though, and there isn’t much room in that chamber when there are 2 of you in there! But it is all worth it since we have seen so much improvement from it.
This past weekend, we went to Bear Lake for a family reunion. I ventured up later than Tom and the older boys and tried staying overnight in the motorhome. Amazingly enough, everyone slept fine. It REALLY surprised me! In fact, everyone slept so well that we stayed 2 nights instead of just the 1 I was originally planning on. All right boys!
Samuel also got a chance to sit in the lake. I let him sit where the water came up to his waiste and I held him there until my back couldn’t hold him anymore. He loved the waves splashing up against him and watching the other kids play around him. It was definitely fun. His brothers even pulled him around in a blown up canoe for a little while. And we even took him for a ride on the boat. He smiled huge as we drove around and he eventually fell asleep. We all had a good time.
Today, we went out to his school to see the bus he is supposed to ride to preschool each day. There were some issues with the carseats they use and how close the bus seats are to each other. They don’t leave room for Samuel to straighten his legs when he gets upset. And that could cause a real problem because he doesn’t seem to know when he is hurting himself. I fear that he will straighten his legs against the seat when they are twisted in some strange fashion and possibly break his ankle or something. So we will have to see what we can come up with to prevent that. If we can’t find anything, I will just drive him instead of having him ride the bus. I’ve already decided to do that once a day because the trip to school could be as long as an hour and that is just too long for him.
And, lastly, Samuel has now had 2 horseback riding sessions. And he absolutely LOVES it! The first night, he rode with one of his therapists for a while and then he rode laying on his back on the horse while a therapist walked on each side of him. He liked sitting up on the horse because I think it sort of immitated him walking around on his own. It’s like the scenery was moving by Samuel just like it used to when he was running across the ground. He really was looking around and smiling and enjoying the ride. And he really enjoyed laying on the horse-almost too much-because he got so comfy, he nearly fell asleep :)!
Tonight we went again and I rode with Samuel for nearly 45 minutes. We rode bareback with spotters on each side of us and again, Samuel really enjoyed it. He looked around and loved seeing the other horses go by. He smiled at everyone who said “hi” to him. And towards the end, he again got so comfortable, that he nearly fell asleep. But even with his heavy eyes, he seemed to be trying to stay awake because he liked it so much. It’s been a really good thing for him and we hear that there may soon be an indoor arena here in Paradise. That would be great! Samuel was jabbering up a storm by the time we were done tonight. I think he really enjoyed himself.
Well, keep praying, we still have a long way to go! Until next week…
Love,
The Jewkes
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