Sophie's Physical Therapy Journey

Sophie had her physical therapy evaluation on Thursday at Children's Memorial Hospital. It went well, but I left feeling more than a little overwhelmed. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but being told that everything we've been using/doing with Sophie since the day she was born has been basically The Exact Wrong Thing To Do was a surprising and dismaying thing to hear.

The PTs were both very, very nice. Which is good, because we are going to be seeing quite a lot of them. They spent some time with Sophie, checking out her range of motion in several different body areas and positions. Sophie, of course, screamed about 75% of the time and spent the other 25% looking at me with this "what is going on, who are these people, and when are you going to hold me again?" look on her face. It was a long hour, but we found out a lot of really interesting and vital things.

• Sophie has mild plagiocephaly and not-so-mind torticollis. NOT congenital torticollis, as our pediatrician first thought, which is really good news b/c that means there is no physical reason for Sophie's head to favor the right side - she just does it from habit. (Who knows why? One of my first questions, and the PTs said it could be for any number of reasons.)
• We must get rid of just about every comfort toy we own - the Exersaucer, the Jumperoo, the swing, and the Bumbo. From now on, she spends all her time on the floor, in my arms, or in the travel yard if I need to keep her contained. The reasons behind this giant purging of equipment are quite numerous - click here and scroll down to read up on them if you are interested.
  
• You can click here to get an overview on how Children's treats torticollis through therapy. (The woman in the first picture on the web page is one of Sophie's therapists). Sophie and I must go for a 50 minute session once a week at least until she is walking - maybe longer. We also have a long list of exercises that we must do at home whenever we can. I think, of all the things they told me that day, this floored me the most. I had no idea it would be such a time (not to mention financial) commitment. But, apparently, it is.

After hearing how limited her range of motion is and that the torticollis has already started to affect the structure of her face (so bizarre, but her jawline is actually beginning to tilt), I needed no further convincing. Obviously, we are all in. There's no point in spending all this time and money if we aren't going to do everything they say, so I'm following every word of their advice. We haven't used any of her big equipment toys since the appointment, and in fact we are getting rid of all of them as soon as we can. We also started working on her exercises right away. She's getting tons of tummy time, and I'm also concentrating on getting her to sit up on her own. So far, so good.

I am so grateful that the torticollis is nothing more serious, and I feel so blessed to live in a city with such a well-respected children's hospital at our disposal. But, to whine for just a minute, the changes have already been kinda hard. I work from home, and I really relied on being able to put Sophie somewhere for awhile so I didn't have to worry about her moving or falling over while I got things done. She needs much more supervision now, and I truly don't know how I'm gonna juggle it all when my work at the children's theatre starts back up full force in July. But I've no doubt it will somehow all come together. Right now, our first priority is Sophie.

I'll definitely keep everyone updated on our progress. The PTs are going to closely monitor her improvement and adjust her therapy accordingly. They gave me an idea of some things we may have to try if she doesn't respond to the current therapy as it's designed now, but I'm not focusing on what ifs? at the moment. My ongoing mental mantra is "one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time." Nothing else to do but take a deep breath and dive in. We'll see where the tide takes us.