Yesterday Maria went to hippotherapy (physical therapy with a horse) for the first time (which is amazing considering we were waiting for her new state coordinator to send in the approval, and he actually did it with only 3 or 4 phone calls to him and his supervisor!). The therapist, Marcia, fell in love with Maria before we even got her out of the car. And before she got on the horse, the therapist said she was going to try and get Maria into a Friday 9am or 10am slot rather than the noon Wednesday slot that she’s got now. I tell you, Maria has magical powers…
Marcia worked with Maria for a little while on a padded table and asked us (Sue & I) some questions about her, then she put a waist belt and a helmet on Maria and put her on a cute little black shetland pony. I think her (his?) name is Blackberry?? They put a Boppy pillow around her front to lean on; one guy led the pony while the therapist stood on one side and a volunteer stood on Maria’s other side to keep her upright. The family has to stay outside the arena and not interact with the child (children often act up around the family). They walked around the arena several times; Maria was doing really well sitting up. I think she was on the horse for 20 minutes or so, which is a long time for the 1st time. All of a sudden, you could tell she was tired because she got a bit more floppy, so they came in.
They told me that the brains of people who don’t walk can wire themselves to learn how to walk just by riding on a horse, because the horse has the forward, up&down, and swivel movements of a person walking. After the ride, Marcia held onto Maria and Maria took about 20 steps–it was amazing!! She’s been doing really well lately with walking; she took those few steps with Andy to get baby Elmo, and she took several steps (6 in a row once) with Barb (home physical therapist) this week. I’m real excited about what this therapy could do for her; which is a good thing, since Marcia told us after we got there, that oh by the way, you have to pay $30 each time for horse rental that the insurance won’t pay. It’ll be worth it if it helps her.
The bad part is that I think the horse riding made Maria’s diaper rash worse, so I took her to the doc today and it turns out it’s a yeast infection (wish someone told me that a week or two ago!!), so he gave us a prescription for Nystatin cream, which is only 83 cents/tube. Good thing, since Maria grabbed it and squeezed out about 1/4 of it the 1st time I used it. It was actually pretty darn funny! I sure hope it helps because she looks really bad. I’d take a picture of it, but I’d be afraid of getting arrested for having kiddie porn.
Maria has been obsessed with chests lately. Everyone she comes in contact with, male or female, she pulls open their shirt at the neck and peers in, usually reaching in to feel around. It’s very cute.