More new things at therapy

Today we went up to Marti's house again and I took all three kiddos. Thankfully Marti's neighbor said she would watch Cruz and Ry while Kai has his therapy. This is huge because now I don't have to go through the city during rush hour traffic when Peter is awake. So we went up at 11am today and it was smooth sailing with no traffic. Ryenne instantly started playing with the other little girls' and Cruz was a cruiser.

This time Kai and I went into the sauna first with the therapy music playing. We sweated and sweated! When he came out, he was happy and jolly. Marti got him on the swinging platform with his feet in the front to exercise his side muscles (the last times he wouldn't let Marti put him on the platform) so already this is big. Then she stimulated his mouth with a vibrating thingy that she had attached a lollipop to. Last time he wouldn't let her turn the vibration on, but this time he did. We came to the conclusion that we will now do the sauna first thing before the therapy because he seems to be so much more cooperative.

Marti explained to me that Kai reacts to things with an instant "fight or flight" response. She gave me examples: if someone brushes your arm just slightly, you tend to move your arm quickly. Or if you touch something hot, you move your arm instantly. It's fight or flight. But if you grab a cup you think is full but it's really empty and it's lighter your arm is already up high with the cup before you realize it's empty. The brain processes that information more slowly. With Kai, he reacts to everything instantly with that "fight or flight" response.

So we're "resetting" this. She gave me this little medical brush and showed me how to brush his body with it - his arms, back, legs, hands, and feet. What this does is flood his brain with sensation and will hopefully reprogram his "fight or flight" response to use it when it's appropriate and to process things more normally in other situations.

I am hoping that I understood it all correctly. So much info to soak in! We have set it up so that we will have therapy twice a week. I'm thankful that she has all of this knowledge and the sauna because it's doing a world of good for him. He hasn't given me a blank stare in a few days and he's talking quite a bit.