A wonderful miracle....long post

So glad to be posting GOOD, HAPPY, AMAZING AND WONDERFUL NEWS this post.

I've come to accept what life has brought me, at least I think I have fully accepted it. It's something you never want to hear as a parent. "She may have cognitive delays and mental health issues for the rest of her life"

Hearing these words, made something snap inside me, or maybe it's because soon I won't have my full and complete attention to give to her any more. She'll have to learn to share. I did everything I could to find out how we could get insurance to pay for therapies, but unless it was delays in the result of an accident it wasn't going to happen. I don't get that, the government is complaining about spending too much money on supporting adults with special needs; when the majority of these individuals could be helped early on in life by governments improving bills and such to allow funds and monies to be spent in better educating these kids to ensure they can be fully or pretty-much-on-their-own functioning adults.

My L-bug needs the full therapy round up, occupational, speech and physical. And paying individually for each of these through a medical professional is EXPENSIVE and there was NO WAY we could afford it with out insurance helping out. Which of course wouldn't be covered, she wasn't in a accident to cause her delays.

I had to look at alternative methods. We hired Jason's cousin, who is a speech therapist for private lessons. That worked out great, until she needed time off to welcome her third precious girl into the world this last week. Still not enough and since she never regressed in the regular school year; we did not qualify for the summer programs. She didn't either last year and the summer sucked, she really needs the stability of a schedule, like what school gave her.

I felt trapped, ran into dead ends where ever I looked. None of the out side of school district programs made sense for her. I just didn't feel good about any of them. My sister then reminded me of a movement therapy, she had tried and a friend used on their daughter who has Cerebral Palsy. A funky named, hippy dippy, holistic movement therapy called Feldenkrais (pronounced: felden-christ) and in all honesty it sounded nuts. And I am usually so open to new ways of thinking and trying new things, but for the longest time I kept pushing the idea to the back burner. Until I talked to my sister's friend, the one with the daughter mentioned above, I listened to his experience and what it did for his daughter. I was intrigued, but still put it off. Until after hearing those words "life long" and "mental health" I snapped. I called every Feldenkrias practioner in the valley, and talked with each one until I knew I had found the one I wanted to work with.

Our first visit with Carol went really well. Lily responded to her immediately and I was able to witness first hand what Feldenkrais is. At first I wasn't super impressed; I'm paying how much for you to wiggle Lily's legs around and play with her feet!?!?!? It doen't even look like your doing any sort of therapy!

Oh boy was I wrong....

Her first appointment was on a Friday. That whole weekend, I was completely floored and shocked at the sudden and immediate flood of words, finishing of words, 3-4 word sentences and stories of past events she was literally exploding with.  While driving past our library, she very clearly said each syllable. clearly. Li.bra.ry. Even her teachers at church said they noticed a huge difference, she wanted to say the prayer and was telling stories AND they could understand her!!! That was after just ONE session; We've now had a full weeks worth of therapy and wonderful things are still happening. Her words are clearer, longer and longer sentences for her. She is telling more stories about things we've done in the past. Asking for friends to play with and going to specific places. Also her strength in her legs and body is improving, even so she is starting to run and walk more normal! You can see things starting to connect and see how she is processing and taking in the experiences, learning from it. I'm so so so so so relieved and I feel that the only partial diagnosis we got from the neuro-physic is irrelevant to our situation anymore. Yes, I'm still thinking getting a full diagnosis from a neurologist and genetics would be extremely helpful, especially when it comes to making sure she gets what she needs from school. But for now and this summer I couldn't be happier with what we are learning through Feldenkrias. I'm happy to see such crazy fast results.

So I'm starting to think this Feldenkrais thing, is starting to sound like a bunch of hocus pocus. I'm afraid I don't have much to explain, as I am still learning all about it my self. But HERE is the website for the Utah Feldenkrais practitioners, we work with Carol Lessinger. The website explains a little about what the therapy is. I also found it interesting to read about the Dr. who started the method. You can read about him and the method HERE on wikipedia.

Basically, how I explain it is; have you ever heard how many Dr's say to let your baby crawl as long as possible? The motion of the hands and legs having to cross brain waves, triggers new thought patterns and stimulates the brain. Basically that's what the therapy is, moving the body to trigger new thought patterns to awaken areas of the brain needed for improving speech, muscle strength and such.
OR better yet. The book I am reading from one practitioner had a young girl with CP who never realized her legs were two separate body parts. She always moved them as one. This therapist  drew a cat and dog on both of her knees and started to move them around. Seeing the difference, first hand re-wired the signals in this girls brain to awaken and make her brain realize it could move each leg independently. From this point, this girl was able to learn how to walk.

I'm so excited to continue this with Lily. I love that I am able to give her all three types of needed therapy all wrapped up in one and I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing the results. It has made the price tag worth it. It's expensive at first, as the therapy relays on several weekly sessions to make the needed connections. We will then go down in sessions, once a strong connection has been made. Carol expects this to happen in a month or two. So I'm kinda glad I'll be home bound with our new little guy, less chance of being tempted with out to eat treats and shopping! I keep thinking and reminding me self each $30 I spend on something frivolous is one treatment for Lily.  (Alright, I did go a little crazy shopping in park city, but I got things I'm so excited to wear after the baby comes. If it took me as long as it did to feel good about my self again, body wise after having Lily, a newly stocked wardrobe is for sure a must.)