Kevin has had some additional constipation issues since the surgery. His lack of mobility, a week of antibiotics, no epsom salt baths for 2 weeks, really added to his constipation issues. We returned to a new colon hydrotherapist (the original one quit) that has been a great assist. But even before this, we still struggled with an imbalance between constipation and the reverse problem. So we will continue tweaking his supplement program and adding another round of anti-microbials.
We are so fortunate to have a Hyperbaric Chamber in the convenience of our own home. I have used it for my recovery as well as Kevin’s. And we will continue using the Hyperbaric Therapy as a part of Kevin’s daily program.
We are also going to try to re-introduce the Passive Deep Breathing program into Kevin’s program. We had discontinued this because of his gulping. We know that it doesn’t cause the gulping but he was doing a significant amount of gulping during it and not getting the good deep breathes during these sessions. I have purchased some reflex bags for myself to use with Kevin to hopefully encourage him to breathe better during this program and now I will also receive the benefits. I am also going to give him the spearmint smell before to help ease any stress or anxiety he may be feeling.
We are still on the waiting list for our third session with the Solisten Headphones.
We will continue with the Olfactory program of using the smells and pictures, and have Kevin try to identify the picture of the smell.
Also continuing with the Tactile program of contrasts using big/little; hard/soft; smooth/bumpy.
One of Kevin’s favorite activities, Table Time sessions will continue to increase Kevin’s understanding of Concepts, Math, Colors, Sequences, and Storytelling. A new part of this program is providing opportunities throughout the day for Kevin to have “free time to make choices”. So I will say, “When we finish ____, you can choose something to play with.” I will provide him with three choices of play and he will have to make a choice on his own. Eventually when he is mobile again, he will bring the choice to me. Another step to this program is to learn Time Concepts, by taking a picture of his activity choice and put the picture under Today. The next morning, move the picture under Yesterday, and discuss some possible choices for Today.
This is to assist in Developing Self to address some of our new concerns. We want Kevin to become aware that he can initiate something he wants: either he gets it himself, or comes to join me, or asks me for help for something he wants. We are starting with mealtimes. We also have to be careful not to let him zone out (like flipping a spoon) so that he is aware and present. When discussing this aspect of Kevin’s program, I sometimes felt this was incorrect in describing Kevin, but then when I thought back to that very clear sock episode, we are certain this is a very important part of his program. Hopefully, this will also give him more opportunities and reason to use sign language. We realize that some of this is our own fault, doing things for Kevin that he could do himself, it is sometimes easy to hurry and do for him the common everyday tasks when we have a long list of program to accomplish but then that is not the purpose of all this, is it! We are grateful to have FHC to help us implement these social aspects to the program.
I hope you had an opportunity to read our encouraging experience with the Inerventions Mollii Suit. We have ordered one of these amazing suits from Sweden and hope to receive it in a couple weeks.
For the first two months we will continue the slow process of getting Kevin back on his feet after his hyprocure surgery. This first week we are moving and strengthening his legs and feet in the pool. But our regular program will include Reflex Integration, Inerventions Mollii Suit, and Gravity Free - one of our old programs that we did in our basement, but now we will try it in our garage. We have returned to this program since it is a good program while Kevin is regaining his ability to be on his feet. But more importantly based on Kevin’s evaluation they feel this lower brain activity will help Kevin with some of his struggles of proprioception and being able to adjust to different environments.
Hi, just reading your posts - thank you for going to the effort of writing all this. Just thinking re constipation that reflex bags plus anatomical adjustments (eg Gillespie CSF therapy) can help with constipation. This was our experience from using The Scotson Technique in the UK. Basically a strong effective diaphragm not only is good for effective breathing but also massages the colon with every in-breath. See more in this postfrom aanother mum explaining it: " When you look at your son has he got an unusual shaped rib cage? is it very sticky out or very long and narrow? or does he breath in an irregular or kinda jerky breath? if so this may indicate that the diaphragm is not sitting properly on top of the colon.. Normally the diaphragm sits on top of the colon so that on each exhalation the colon is gently massaged by the diaphragm and this massage vibration helps the food to transit down the colon. If food is not transitting then the liquid in the poo is reabsorbed and constipation begins. TST helps to position the diaphragm and strengthen the breathing mechanism which addresses constipation as well as to alleviate some of the other ASD issues like sleeplessness and muscle tone. "
ReplyDelete