I might as well stop his therapy

Okay then. Sleeping seems to be going well. Put him to bed, he cries, and eventually he goes to sleep at a good time. Amen. That's all I am saying. I don't want to tempt fate.


We went for a six month review with the orthopaedic department. This basically goes along the following lines.


Go to clinic. Go for Xray. Xray hips. Go back to clinic. Wait for half an hour. Watch copious amounts of children come out with fresh plaster on various parts of their body and wonder to myself how they managed to break said arm, leg, foot etc. Go in and meet doctor and physio. Get told that due to Zack's condition it is pretty unlikely that he will walk, sit, etc. etc. Take five minutes to explain to doctor that we know all this, have done from Zack's birth so nothing is a surprise to us. He nods approvingly (probably glad we aren't parents who are in denial). We add that we know it may be unlikely that Zack will move independently but also say we won't give up trying to help him. Zack gets examined. Spine is good. Hips haven't changed but there may come a point when he will need an operation on his hips as they could dislocate (quite common in children with his type of C.P). We make an appointment for a years time. End of appointment.


The thing is, I go along to these doctors clinics knowing full well it will be negative and not very positive. And I can see why and yes, given the nature of Zack's injury and the statistical evidence of what happens to children like him you would assume that he won't develop his gross motor skills. But I think that if I just gave in to the inevitable then I might as well stop his therapy, stop encouraging him to try, let him be and make no extra demands of him. If I did that then Zack wouldn't be where he is today so I will never give up on him and we will never stop trying. I know there is so much more he can do. Call it a gut instinct but this clever little boy is very strong willed and with a little encouragement and help I think he will get a lot further than most people assume. After all when he was a few weeks old in hospital and they took him off the ventilator they didn't expect him to be able to breathe for himself. Got that wrong. And as one doctor said to him, you proved us all wrong. 


He hasn't anything to prove. He just is who he is and anything extra he can and wants to do is an amazing achievement.