January 2014

The holidays have been so good, the weather has been so crazy. Debbie has been outside chipping ice out of the birdfeeders to be able to put out seed. The birds are having a party at the Heitzman house.

Notice all the tracks on the deck, between the birds, dogs and squirrels it has been a party.

Sporting new shirt received for Christmas

Christopher has continued working with the therapist at Shepherd Pathways and with Jenna the speech therapist at Dynamic Therapies. He is still making progress, ever so slow for Debbie and I. But it is miraculous the progress he continues make. 

 

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of people who continue to support him. Our strength continues to grow each day through the your love and prayers. We THANK YOU.

 

On January 10th we were finally able to meet with Jeanne Green regarding getting Christopher in the pool for some aqua therapy. Jeanne is the aunt of Tyler Seaman and has been interested in getting Christopher in the water for months. We are so thankful for this opportunity. I believe he will really benefit greatly from this type of therapy.

 

Posing for the camera.

On January 16th Christopher finally got in the pool with Jeanne at the Mountain View Aquatic Center. He did very well, he walked down the ramp into the pool where Jeanne worked with him for over an hour. The activities she is working on will help to strengthen his core and his balance. As you can see in the video below he was able to walk up the ramp, of course he was showing of for the

camera the whole way. 



 

One of the best thing this month is Christopher will finally be getting out of the heavy walking boots he has had to wear since the first week in Dec. He was been fitted for his AFO's (Ankle-Foot Orthotics) at Shepherd Pathways, they will take two weeks to custom make the braces. He will were them during the day while walking and exercising.

AFOs finally arrive, high tech carbon fiber. He was so excited, he could finally wear his new shoes.

Here is a better picture of his shoes.

 

Well he has definitely fallen in love with the ability to wear his new shoes, it is one of the first things he is asking for each mornings. He was in casts or some type of orthotic shoe for nearly 3 months. So now he is back to making a fashion statement again.

 

We are continuing to build his leg strength by using the standing frame. While he sometimes spends over and hour or two in the frame, we very often listen to music. During these times we encourage him to shift his weight back and forth, from his right leg to his left. He still is not very confident in putting weight on his right leg, so the music has been a great way to get him move his hips and shift his weight.

 

He has such a great time with the music, but I am sure he is going to kill me for putting this to video. Sorry Christopher, it is just too cute not to share.

There are so many things starting to happen right now, Since we have started with Jeanne in the pool we have also started pool therapy at the Shepherd Center pool with Brian one of the PTs who has been working with Christopher since the surgery.

We have also seen Dr. Seiler regarding the contractures in his wrist and spasticity in his left arm. He has recommended we try another round of Botox injections before we think about surgery. We will be scheduling this in the next few weeks, either with Dr. Beniga at Shepherd or back with Dr. Seiler.
Making progress, THANK YOU LORD!!!