Better Day at PT

**May want to turn the sound down on the videos?

Head up and elbows under you!

Yes, he's actually smiling during therapy!

Yesterday we took the day off due to Christian being sick but today we were back to work. He had a great day at physical therapy. He worked on the "horse", stomach time propped on elbows, sitting, standing, sit to stand, and walking! whew! what a workout. Christian did much better than he did monday and tuesday. Tiffany (his therapist) adjusted his routine to accomodate his vision problems and sensory overload. We discovered that he would do a lot and do it with a smile sometimes if he is on the big swing soooo he did everything but walking on the swing.

He did the best he's ever done in his walker--he took 12 STEPS in a row with no facilitation from the therapist! I was so proud of him. He didn't even cry. He was like whatever, let's go walking.

Afterwards he had 1 dive. PaPa came in with us and gave me a break and held Christian. Unfortunatly he's had 6 big seizures today so keep praying for those to go away!

Also I was able to take a break during Christian's nap and go to Target. O I love me some target browsing- every isle-lookin at everything! Can I get an Amen from all my ladies!

Keep up the prayers-God's doing great things!

Started physical therapy

This week marks the start of physical therapy. He's having a bit of a rough time with the hard work. During therapy he has had seizures which have made him sleepy which cuts PT short. I will post pics later, due to the fact I'm tired and going to bed. Although we've had a rough start he has done well with sitting and standing that he has worked on in PT.

Continued. . .

Well we didn't get to have any therapy on Weds because Christian is sickly. We've started antibiotics so hopefully we can try tomorrow. We will see these pictures and videos are from the first day of PT. The video of him sitting on the moving contraption simulates the movement of a horse. It's helpful for shifting their wait and making the child pull with opposing muscles. It's quite interesting. The other video is him on the swing. She was trying to calm him down with the swinging but he's still working on sitting. The yellow and white suit is just that-a suit the kids wear to put more input in to their joints. It's hard to explain. All I know is that it makes the work they are doing that much tougher!

Oh Happy Day

This weekend was a nice break from therapy. Saturday it was warm so we had an outing to an outdoor mall area. We just walked around mostly but it was great to get out of the hotel room and get some fresh air. The pictures areh[t too exciting but one is of Eric pushing the stroller on our "day out" and the other is us having church via computer. We listened to pastor Lindell's sermon from the sunday before since we miss them and we don't really want to expose Christian to a church full of germs right now.

We are also thrilled, elated, overjoyed, blessed-to say that Christian's Big seizures have decreased!!! Friday he had 3, sat-1, and so far today none! We know that God is doing something great and answering all of our prayers. Thank you all ! Keep it up. We can't wait to see what next week will hold.

Luv,

The Russells

Happy Birthday Christian

This is the hyperbaric chamber he goes in to.

I'm a Big 2 year old Boy!

Friday Christian turned 2!!! This week of treatments went well. I had some difficulty popping my ears since my head was congested. Luckily Eric was here and went in with Christian. Eric did a great job! I included a picture of the chamber itself and then the video is of them once they got to the correct atmospheric pressure they put the hoods on to receive oxygen.

The hotel gave Christian a birthday balloon and stuffed animal and he received some cards and presents in the mail. Friday he only had 3 big seizures which is really good for him. He also had his physical therapy evaluation. He starts pt on monday along with hyperbarics. On Friday, he worked for an hour and half and only fussed thru some of it. No screaming-which was a relief.

Our bedtime has moved from 10:30 to 9:45 ish. Our routine now is hyperbarics from 8-9:30 then pt right after that for 2-3 hours, lunch at therapy, then hyperbarics again 1-3.

Thanks for your prayers and email,comments!

Robyn

1st day

This is us in the hyperbaric chamber. Christian is receiving the 100% oxygen in the hood. He has the hood on for 1 hour. It goes pretty fast.

Tough guy working on tummy time.

Naptime!!

Today was Christian's first day of hyperbaric treatment. Everything went well! He didn't seem to care about any of it really. I think he was still drowsy from getting up an hour earlier than usual. I know I was! I will get a picture on tomorrow. We have 2 sessions tomorrow.9:30 and 2:30.

It's snowin here and ohh so cold!

Hotel Life

I'm excited about hotel life for the moment. Ask me in 2-3 weeks and i'm sure I will have a different answer. The staff is great-very nice and accomodating. Many families that come up here for treatment stay here.
My favorite things about hotel life are:
-No housework thus leaving room for blogging, reading, watching tv during Big C's nap time!
-Not having to launder towels or bedding.
- Cable (TLC and HGTV!) (we do not have cable at home, don't feel sorry for us, we same $ and actually talk at night).
- Breakfast already fixed every morning and random strangers to eat with:)

I feel kinda mysterious, like I"m a world traveler, buisnesswoman, or stewardess staying in a hotel. . . But then I change a poopy diaper and put Christian's leg braces on and remember why i'm here but a girl can dream can't she?

It's very cold here and has snowed a little on and off so that was pretty. We start hyperbaric treatments tomorrow at 9:30 and then we will move on to doing that twice a day on tue or wed.
Christian is doing great! He took a couple of steps on his own in his walker last night and today has only had 2 seizures. You're all thinking-2seizures??!! only!! well for him that's really good sometimes he has 7 a day. So we thank God for the hours without them!

Well I'll leave you with a video of our room and Christian in his stroller.

Some Christmas Pics