You probably remember that last spring I got a real bee in my bonnet about children not being able to receive VitalStim therapy at the hospital due to some stupid financial bureaucracy. I was on a mission to get the funding or simply an administrative kick in the hiney wherever it was needed in order to provide this therapy to all kids who needed it. Well, God decided to do it Himself :) I didn't have to do anything, really, and the hospital now has the electrode expenses in its permanent supply budget, and there is no financial obstacle to getting that therapy to all kids. However, there IS a personnel availability obstacle. Emma's speech therapist is the ONLY person certified to perform this therapy, and she has a pretty intense waiting list of kids who need it. So the next step is to pray for the hospital to shell out the bucks to certify another speech therapist and probably buy another conducting machine (I have no idea what it's actually called, but it seems to be a machine that conducts electricity.).
During Emma's last therapy, Dru, her therapist, commented that Emma will probably be more of a long-term patient with the VitalStim therapy. We were kind of expecting that the VitalStim wouldn't correct her swallowing quickly. Luckily, the hospital's blockades to the treatment have come down, so there's not an issue with continuing the therapy. Three interesting things have happened with Emma's eating habits. Actually, let me back up and explain her eating habits first. Emma's food needs to be relatively smooth, non-grainy, skinless, and dissolve quickly if possible. She can't drink anything because she chokes on it, and she has ZERO interest in a sippy cup or straw because she has such awful texture issues. The texture thing is common to all kids with spina bifida, even those whose symptoms are not as severe as Emma's. Emma doesn't put anything at all in her mouth because of those texture issues, which is great when she's crawling around on the floor....not so great when we're trying to teach her to pick up small pieces of food and feed herself. That brings me to the 3 "events": (1) At my parents' pool on Saturday morning, Emma suddenly leaned down and started trying to drink the water. No idea what that was about, but we're going to be talking to her speech therapist about giving her liquids. (2) Emma was sitting on Mama Jane's lap and out of the blue, reached down, grabbed a piece of artichoke and put it in her mouth. We grabbed it out of her mouth, mainly out of shock, but also out of concern that she would choke on it. She has learned what it looks like when we all sit down to eat and that something on a plate is meant to go into her mouth. (3) This morning my mom set down a fresh roll on her high chair tray, along with small pieces she had torn off for Emma to eat. Emma picked up the whole roll and starting biting small pieces off of it and chewing them like a big girl.
It's pretty obvious that these milestones are significant for Baby Emma. But let me tell you why they're so significant to me. Other moms get to watch their children discover and do things on their own, with no therapy, no training, no encouraging, no prayers for their children to accomplish simple tasks. Nature just runs its course with other kids. I have finally been able to watch my daughter take major developmental steps with no prior practice, no therapy...she did these things by herself, out of the blue. What a blessing to be a mother.
PS - My mom sneakily got her Flip camera out and videoed Emma eating the roll. If Emma had known she was being filmed, she definitely would have dropped the roll and started waving and making googly eyes at the camera. I'll try to get a copy of it to post on the blog.
