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Welcome to the Bob Blog. "Bob" is Sam's alter ego. Before Sam was born, Ben decided
his name should be Bob. (We should have known better than to ask, right?) And it stuck. As
Sam gets better and better, Ben calls him "Bob" a little less. We think when Sam wakes up, "Bob" will disappear completely
as far as Ben is concerned. As for the rest of us, well, Bob's a hard habit to break...
I'll try and keep everybody updated on Sam's progress, my thoughts, our daily ups and downs. It's tough sometimes,
and I don't do as well as I'd like.
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October 23, 2008
A Good Day at School
Well, I can't say enough good things about the sweet kids in Ben's class. I mentioned the other day that I was
going to take Sam in to introduce him and "explain" what I could, and it went very well.
The first thing the kids said about Sam: "He's so CUTE!!" They were sweet. They asked some questions, and
we talked quite a bit about... baseball! They all hope Sam keeps getting better, and were very nice to him.
We showed them how we feed him, and how he can (or can't) see, and some of the math cards he can see, and stuff like that.
We looked at baby pictures, some of which had Ben in them, and they thought that was pretty cool. We had a flashy keychain
for each one of them so they could see what kind of things we use for Sam's vision therapy.
All in all, it was a good day. Ben still wants me to bring Sam in to have lunch with him whenever we can, so I
guess it was a good thing overall.
October 21, 2008
Hopeful
Don't know why, but I'm feeling inexplicably hopeful. Sam is doing well - still can't pinpoint it, but he's doing
well. He won't let me do ABR on him, though. He refuses to lie on his back, and the exercises have to be done in a certain way to be effective.
I can make some changes to the process and do it while he's in his Bumbo chair, but as soon as I try to work on him, he tries
to hurl himself out of his seat. I don't know why - it's not a painful thing. He's just not having it at the moment.
Maybe it feels good and inspires him to move - or maybe he's just trying to push me over the edge.
I've been looking at G-therapy for a long time. Too long. There's a homeopathic/aryuvedic therapy in India that has been remarkable for some
kids with brain injuries. It's always been something I wanted to do for Sam, but things have conspired to keep us away
from it. (Not things, really, just money. If we had any, we'd have gone to India by now, for sure.)
The doctor in India treats many kids at his clinic for free; to ship the therapy to the US, or have it come via a parent who
is willing to bring it back to the US, costs about $2,000 for 6 months.
I have heard SUCH good reports from other parents, and such lamentation from those who waited (like we have) until they
could afford it. So, plow ahead we will.
He responds well to homeopathic treatment, and you know, he just deserves us to keep turning over stones, doesn't he?
The doctor in India posted this message recently to the g-therapy support group:
Dear Val, Julia Lang, Heather Webb, Hulet Smith, Balaji, Dr. Subbarao, Pam, Ganeshan, Kim, Majumdar,
Odonil, Rewankar, Swetlana, Shubhada, Patricia, Linda, Laura, Alexy, Mattie, Sophia and all children and Parents,
Greetings and many thanks for your emails. The above are just few of the many names in the
success of G Therapy journey, there are many more parents who have encouraged me in my struggle to help children, shown faith
and confidence in G Therapy.
In next few weeks I am going to post more such videos on my website. Here I must tell you about the tremandous
help given by my son Prasad and my son-in-law Dr. Upasani for renewing my website, and videos.
We are also working very hard since the last few months on a project to make G Therapy available
at a more affordable cost to parents, and also to make it available through easier distribution channels. My son Prasad has
very kindly offered his time for this task. The interests of parents and children are closest to our hearts and we are working
towards a solution, which - we target for in the next couple of months - could bring G Therapy to many more
children worldwide at an affordable cost. In the meantime, thank you very much for your support and patience.
Best wishes,
Dr. Oswal
Here is an absolutely astonishing video about a child with the same type of brain injury as Sam. It's video #6, about a child with a hypoxic injury.
So we're going to give it a go. I've always been afraid to start the therapy for Sam, have it do well, and then
not be able to afford to continue it, but if there's a likelihood it will be less expensive in the future, we'll go ahead
and start it somehow.
Okay, gotta go. I'm finally going in with Sam to Ben's school tomorrow (today?) to explain cerebral palsy.
Ugh. Not looking forward to it. But I have a plan, so it'll be okay. Kids are generally decent and kind,
although one or two has said some nasty things to Ben, which is why we're going to go in and try to alleviate the ignorance.
It's just that it's something I shouldn't be doing - I don't want to be the expert on this.
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