DAY 79

Although N's progress continues, the rate of progress has slowed significantly over the past few weeks since beginning the minerals. Having observed other posts on the PGP forum of kids being taken off the minerals for 1 wk due to unrelated illnesses then seeing an increase in progress again once restarted, I have decided to withhold the minerals from N for 1 weeks and then begin again.

DAY 67

N walked to the bathroom with the palms of her hands on mine as she maintained her own strength and balance. Wow!

DAY 65

Upped her dosage to 5 tsp. She was on 3 tsp for 7 wks, 4 tsp for 4 wks, just feel like we should be increasing so we are giving it a try.

Day 62

Because I posted about N wearing the long and short knee immobilizers at night in yesterday's post, I thought an update would be necessary. N did not make it through the night with the long knee immobilizer on her right leg. She was crying that it hurt. Of course we took it off, assuming

Day 61

N stayed in her stander for over 2 hours!! I hadn't planned it that way and usually take her out after an hour but life got busy and we weren't watching the clock. The thing about this is that she did not complain at all and was completely happy to play, eat dinner, and do homework in her stander. When I took her out she didn't giggle uncontrollably as she does when her legs hurt or feel numb! After a minute or two lying down, I helped her walk to the bathroom. It was not a far walk and I assisted quite a bit but the fact that her legs didn't just collapse under her or her complaining that they hurt or she couldn't do it is AWESOME! My girl is definitely getting stronger. What great progress!!

We started using the longer knee immobilizers at night when she sleeps because they keep her legs completely straight, better than her small ones. However, her left leg is not quite ready for such long time straight leg positioning and she can't make it through the night without tears. So tonight I decided we will use the long knee immobilizer on the right leg and continue to use the shorter one for her left leg for now. She's been such a rockstar with all this  hard work and adjustments, I certainly don't want to push things to a point where she is miserable...attitude is everything so lets keep her smiling!

Day 60

Great work today, N!!

And N continues to now walk to and from her booster seat all by herself. Boy, our lives just got a whole lot easier!

She did amazing at therapy too! Sorry for the dark video...she is not leaning against anything but there is a bench right behind her to give her the feel of added security if she felt the need to back up against it.

Day 59

Having added another young child to our family recently N's booster seat had to be moved to the backseat bench because the carseats won't anchor in the back; this makes getting N in and out of the van a little complicated. However, today when we parked the van and the teens hopped out to get her wheelchair and the younger girls from their seats, N took matters into her own hands. :) She unbuckled herself, stood up and WALKED between the middle row seats, around the front of one, to me at the door!! Wow! She looked great! Of course she was holding on but wasn't crouching and was standing tall. Later in the day she did it again. Must be on to something new!!