Some of you have emailed me to ask about what kinds of things are done during a Therasuit session. I took more pictures of Sarah to help give everyone an idea. In this picture, Sarah is in the suit and standing up against the wall. She can stand up for 18 minutes (with crying and trying to squat to sit down). Slowly they are adding more minutes. Each child will start at a different pace with different goals.

Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!

Sarah did much better on days 4 and 5 in therapy. Even though she cried from the start, she did all of her work and then some. Today, she's much more relaxed, because she got to spend the day playing and then diving into her Halloween candy.

Sarah was a fairy princess and went around to get candy in a little red wagon. Her wonderful speech therapist got a switch (a button device where you can record a short sentence) and recorded "Trick or Treat" and gave it to Sarah. I showed Sarah how to press the button and put candy in her bucket. As soon as she learned that pressing the button brings about candy, she kept pressing and the pressing the button even before we made it to the next door.

Day three of intensive physical therapy proved to be too much for me. Sarah cried her little heart out within 20 minutes of starting the session. The therapist asked me to leave the room because it seemed that when Sarah could not see me, she was doing what was expected of her (and more). Yet as soon as she caught a glimpse of me, she would stop working. Either way she had tears running down her little face, so I stepped into a little closet room in the center. I sat there for the remaining two and half hours listening to her cries and protests. It felt like time would never pass. As soon as it was all over I got a wonderful progress report. Sarah did more work than expected at this point in the therapy. As soon as I picked her up, the waterworks ended. That let me know that there was nothing wrong with Sarah, except her hatred of doing any exercises.

Sarah came home, ate lunch and took a nap. As soon as she woke up, she wore her fairy princess Halloween costume and she was off to the first of four Halloween parties she has been invited to. It was a great break for Sarah, who got lots of candy, carved a pumpkin, danced, and listened to Halloween stories. She sitting now, watching the Daily Show with great intensity (she either gets Jon Stewart on a different level or she's giving him dirty looks, its hard to tell). I wonder if she knows she's going back to therapy first thing in the morning.

Sarah has fallen into a deep sleep this afternoon. At her session today, she figured out how to not do her work. The therapist would have Sarah lifting some weights in a certain motion with her arm and Sarah would just let that arm hang instead of going through the motions. I wanted to laugh a little, but it was frustrating because she was wasting time instead of working. Afterward, she was put on a treadmill to walk and then worked on standing up against the wall.

She will be sore starting tomorrow but I hope this will all bring about some good results for her. We'll just have to wait and see what will happen in three weeks.

Here's Sarah crying while doing something called "Dead Lifts". The braces on her legs keep them straight (as she has a tendency to bend at the knees). She has to go down and touch her toes and then come back up, while her legs are straight. Even though she hates them,

she can do 90 reps quite quickly and with little assistance.

Sarah's first day in intensive physical therapy was...well..interesting! She did pretty good for the first hour and half, but after that, she spent most of

it crying. I think it had to do with the yellow suit she was wearing. It's fitted with many large rubber bands that provide resistance. Sarah always hated any constricted feeling, but at least she did all the work that was asked of her. The crying was nothing to really worry about. As soon as the session was over, her crying stopped as if I turned off a switch. A couple of cookies later, and she was as happy as a clam. In this picture she's in something that is called the "Spider". The bungee cords attached to the cage-like walls on either side force Sarah to stand-up. This position is great for squats and other stretches.

The big day is about to come up on Monday. Sarah will be starting intenstive physical therapy that uses the Therasuit Method. I'm excited as well as nervous about what is to come. This therapy involves putting Sarah into a bungee-like suit and attaching it to what is commonly called "The Cage". The suit and bungee cords act as a resistance to Sarah's tight muscles and help her 're-learn' normal range-of-motion skills. Unfortunately, this is a three-hour long session. There are five sessions a week for a period of three weeks. She will be done November 13th. I've decided to purchase a set of ear plugs for each therapist that will be working with Sarah. Normally, Sarah does a great job in therapy even though she feels the need to get angry with the therapist...but she still does her work. I'm hoping there won't be a complete meltdown next week. Some of you guys have emailed me, asking about the Therasuit Method, so here's a link to the main site...http://www.suittherapy.com/ Many local therapists are trained in this method so you should just ask around to find someone who can do it locally (if you are interested).