Monday, April 2, 2012

Physical Therapy - Walking on the Treadmill

"Walk" is a four letter word in Josie's world.  If you dare suggest it in her presence, it is met with a resounding "NO!" from our crawling cutie (as seen here).  Girlfriend has zero desire to be upright - period.  Case closed.  End of story.  Amen.

 This is why when our beloved PT, Bea, suggested Josie go to our local pediatric therapy outpatient facility and attempt to walk on their fancy treadmill contraption, trepidation set in.
We prepared for our treadmill appointment with a little ride on Josie's new zebra.  Vestibular system engaged - check!
When we arrived, I photographed Josie in the waiting room.  I was thinking it may be the last opportunity to see her smile.
I wasn't too far off base.  The physical therapist at the facility asked if Josie was into any sort of toys.  "She loves singing animals." I replied.  I'll be darned if that PT produced a singing animal that we don't already have in our personal collection.  Josie was intrigued.
A singing animal?  Ok, I'll bite.

We took that singing animal into the gym with us and the PT started hooking Josie into the special harness that attaches to the treadmill.  Cue the waterworks!
Eventually, through her tears, Josie's pleasant smile returned.
Here's a clip of our little walker in action.
She strolled along at a whopping 0.3 mph.  Her gait could certainly use improvement...
...but that's why we're here.  We now have a standing weekly appointment to go to treadmill therapy with the hopes that Josie will be a full-fledged walker one of these days and that the "w" word will not longer constitute profanity in our home.

Go Josie, go!

6 comments:

  1. Haha, I remember when we had Alayna in one of those during PT each week. She loved it though. Josie will be up and running in no time.

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  2. Charlotte was put on a treadmill program last summer as well. Our PT wanted us to do it at least 5x/wk at home too. She HATED it at first but now loves it and looks around pretty proud. I'm not sure what was worse at the beginning, Charlotte's crying, or me trying to wrestle her onto it at 8 months pregnant!!! (we just held her by the waist or under the arms, no harness) And, it turns out Charlotte and Josie have something else in common - she loves asparagus too! haha :)

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  3. That is a neat contraption! My son, now 18, just happens to have DS and he really didn't walk until he was 3. His philosophy (as least as far as the PT could figure) was he could commando crawl faster than most of his peers could walk/run so why get upright. She finally got him walking by putting a golf club in each hand. He also always loved to push strollers.

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  4. Go Josie! Emily didn't want to walk for a long time, crawling just seemed so much more efficient to her. I think time will bring her the desire and confidence she needs :-)

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  5. V goes limp anymore on the treadmill. She can be a booger buy I think I've figured something big out... I'll let you know if it works.

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  6. Good job on the treadmill! Cute birthday posts too!

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