Wednesday, February 29, 2012

God provides

I thank God for His providence in terms of finances. After an appropriate break from the last assignment in Sept last year (afterwhich my grandma fell v ill and eventually passed away), I was given an altogether new task and an opportunity to get to know IB economics syllabus. I thank God for Joshua's (my tuition boy) mum who understood the difficulty of handling a special needs child as Joshua's brother is autistic. That covered some of my monthly insurance premiums but it was still short.

Then recently, I have been easily affected whenever I see normal children. I find myself asking many questions; why, when....

God's response came in a way I never expected. I took up another assignment from an agent. I thought it was a female student as the name and number given to me was that of Joscelyn. When I reached the house, then I found out that my second student is also called Joshua.

Mere coincidence. Just how many Joshuas are there in Singapore? Anyway, I thought hard about it. Perhaps, God wanted to encourage me through the Bible character Joshua who chose not to believe in what he sees (powerful enemies in greath strength) but trusts that the LORD will lead Israel to victory. Similarly, if I choose to believe in my eyes and what I see of Charlene as of now, I will only feel despair and lose hope. However, I should follow Joshua and trust in God and put my hope in Him. One day, I will also reach the Promised Land just as God led Joshua and Israel into the land filled with honey and milk.

I thank God also for my friend Wanfen who remembered me and helped me to get a third student who is willing to come to my place. At least for now, it is sufficient to cover my monthly insurance premiums leaving the savings intact.

Thank you Lord Jesus!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

28 Feb 2012 - Charlene sits by herself in neurosuit

We have been trying to do the neurosuit training with Charlene daily if possible. I realised that if I have to tighten the bungees to such an extent that I can leave Charlene to sit by herself, the problem I have is that her head will be protruded outwards like a duck (just imagine yourself in front of the computer screen). After checking with the school physiotherapist, it is indeed not wise to leave Charlene in that position as her chin should be tucked in. However, the neurosuit targets more on the big muscles which explain why her trunk is so stabilized. So, Teacher Melody taped some kineseo tape on Charlene's neck to see if that will help.

We will persist in the neurosuit training and we pray that God will use that to train Charlene's neck muscles that Charlene may control her head and sit on her own!


Monday, February 27, 2012

27 Feb 2012

Finally, after waiting 9 weeks, Charlene can go into the pool for hydrotherapy. The pool has been closed for a couple of weeks for safety precaution due to a few cases of hand foot mouth disease.

Charlene was smiling happily when she first went into the pool. After a few months of break from hydro, Mummy cannot remember the things that need to be done in the pool. :(

Hydrotherapy is good for Charlene. But it is impossible to bathe her in a public swimming pool without a bath chair. Also, Charlene is very afraid of cold and public swimming pools are all not heated.

Monday, February 20, 2012

20 Feb 12 - Charlene "hello" doctor!

20 Feb 12

Charlene had a hectic day today.

She went to school, and chose her favourite toy spider during song time. As there is time, the teachers tried to get her to pick another toy (she always pick spider). They gave her a crocodile and a train. Our dear Charlene raised both her hands off the 2 toys, indicating that she don't want both of them. So the teacher tried again with a train and a spider (her fave). Charlene tried damn hard, and raised her hand off the train. In the end, the teachers relented and sang itsy bitsy spider for Charlene the second time.

After school, I had to rush down to KK for her neuro appointment. Dez already told her to keep awake in the hospital and to prove to her neuro doctor that she is responsive by complaining and waving her hands (which she is doing frequently now).

So our dear Charlene was being daddy's girl (for once) and was wide awake in the hospital. When Charlene stepped into the room, a new neuro doctor said hi to Charlene. Charlene quickly raised her right hand in response to him. When I told the doctor that Charlene was saying hi to him, the doctor was amazed. The accompanying nurse (having seen Charlene before) was in disbelief and tested Charlene again. Charlene responded quickly with her right hand again!

The accompanying nurse was so amazed, that she called another nurse in to look at Charlene. This time, Charlene was upset at being asked to demonstrate so many times, so she started complaining and moving both hands. Both nurses were amused!

Finally, Charlene's main neuro doctor came into the room. Charlene was put on the bed so that they can examine her. Charlene was upset on the bed and keep whining and flaying her arms. Hahaha! The two nurses who have known Charlene for a long time were shocked at what she is able to do (Shouting loudly and throwing tantrums).

Praise God for his blessings on Charlene! We can see that Charlene is improving slowly but surely. We will continue to trust in Him!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

16 Feb 12

I decided to heed Sally's advice and bring Charlene out for a morning walk. The idea is to get Charlene exposed to sunlight and get more Vitamin D.

Charlene was already awake since 9pm last night and didn't sleep till 9am this morning.  I was still feeling sleepy, but decided that i can keep awake by taking the morning walk.

I pushed Charlene in her pram and walked around the whole park near our place. It was a refreshing stroll as I see ppl doing their morning jogs, kickboxing exercises, cycling etc.... it made me feel connected to the community.

And Charlene seems to enjoy the stroll, as she has that "listening" look. Maybe she's listening to the crickets who's still chirping in the morning, haha.

Managed to take this nice photo of Charlene basking in the sunlight. My friends said that the sunrays looks like God's blessing on Charlene!


Monday, February 13, 2012

13 Feb 12

Thank you Lord for a great day!

Charlene was awake at 0000 but I was sleeping and only woke up at 0400. So once again, we had neurosuit training in the middle of the night at 0500. Charlene did hold her head by herself, though I think I need to meet the KKH PT more to train my techniques. Then, at 0550, I probably didn't handle her well, her head flopped down and next moment she was upset and went into fits. I stopped the neurosuit training and she went to sleep. 

I was prepared that she would not be awake for school. But nevertheless I prayed for a fruitful day before I took a nap myself in the morning. At 1140 when I was changing her for school, she woke up. She stayed awake and was as usual smiling happily during Circle Time and Song Time in class. I will not bring the neurosuit to school and let her use it unless only during the half hour of therapy. I want Charlene to be happy in class. 

I didn't bring the apple mango puree as I thought Charlene will be asleep. Anyway, I asked teacher for some cold ice and started the 'toothbrush' feeding practice with Charlene. The SLT who normally will be busy with another child was free as that other child was sleeping. So he caught Charlene doing 'O' shape with her mouth (what he described as rounding?). I tried the chewy tube to stimulate tongue movement and there was none. The SLT tried and there was none too. I casually said that Charlene liked sour taste, cold water is too plain for her. He sprayed some sour gel on the chewy tube and this time, they (the SLT and the teacher) saw a lot of tongue movement from Charlene. The SLT is very pleased and praised Charlene for her improvement! I prayed a silent prayer and seized the opportunity to ask him if there would be a value to let Charlene go for vital stim. He said yes and asked me for doctor's letter and said he will arrange for it during the holidays. Thank God! We pray that the vital stim will bring about a breakthrough in Charlene's oral skills. 

God is Good! Amen. 

Saturday, February 11, 2012

11 Feb 12

Charlene woke up in the middle of the night again. Seeing that she cannot sleep, I decided to do neurosuit training with her.

It was quite tough trying to put on the neurosuit for her. Though we had already been through the training with Siti and Sarah, putting it on without the help of a trained expert was still not easy. I had to wake up Dez so that he could help me out with the tying of the bungee cords.

After about 30mins of fiddling, we managed to suit her up completely. At first it didn't seem like working cos Charlene couldn't hold her head up on her own. I was quite discouraged, but Dez persisted and like a mechanic, he tweaked the tightness of the bungee cords beside Charlene's head.

And praise God! Charlene was able to hold her head with minimal support from us! Dez and I were so happy to see Charlene doing that!

Lord, we pray that you bless us with the wisdom to maximise the usage of the neurosuit, so that we can help trained Charlene to hold her head by herself. Bless us with the energy to do so even during midnight or throughout the day.


Friday, February 10, 2012

10 Feb 12

We are supposed to visit Sarah in late morning today. Unfortunately, Charlene slept very late last night (2am-ish?). Me and Dez didn't think she would be awake for her PT. But because we wanted to get the neurosuit from Sarah, we decided to just 'waste' the $180 for the PT.

But praise God! When we reached there, Charlene actually woke up! She was quite unhappy that she was disturbed from her beauty sleep, but yeah, she was awake and managed to do the PT with Sarah. Sarah taught us a few exercises that we can do with the neurosuit and demonstrated with the awake Charlene. 

So after the PT, we paid for the neurosuit and the second-hand neurosuit is ours! We thank God for blessing us with the second-hand neurosuit, because we saved about $2000! Dez realised that it was almost the exact amount of money that we had tithe for our YMM building funds... God has blessed us back in full! 

Thursday, February 2, 2012

2 Feb 2012

Charlene has been sleeping for the whole of today. Her shifting biological clock has been driving me nuts. This past week, she can be awake for a straight 12 hours and then get knocked out the whole of next day and the clock will effectively shift the other way. She was still sleeping during her physiotherapy session at 615pm and only woke up when the PT made her do standing. It's great to know that we can do standing with her in the neurosuit just with the help of 2 people. Hopefully, we can save on buying the stander (which costs 3k).

After Charlene woke up, the neurosuit training became more fruitful as she did more work with her neck muscles and head control. Dez was able to sit her on his lap without supporting her head. Charlene was holding her head and looking straight. Thank God! 

We are so looking forward to finally getting the second hand neurosuit from Sarah next week.

Charlene sitting n watching a toy

Charlene standing in the neurosuit

Hippo looks so much like Charlene...

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

1 Feb 2012

Charlene's classmates were not around when class started. Teacher Adeline started singing and Charlene didn't smile. I suspect she wanted the crowd (in the next class). Shortly after, one of her classmates came (the other was sick) and Teacher Dhila also joined. Charlene was still not smiling but she was participating.

She was given spider and teddy bear. She wanted to choose the teddy bear and when I ask her "Are you sure?" She put her right hand back and then could not decide. Mummy was 'scolded' by Teacher Adeline for confusing her.

After that, Charlene started playing music toys with Teacher Dhila. We started with a cymbal where Charlene has to hit her hand on it to hear the sound. Charlene liked the clapper. Teacher got her to grab it with her left hand and the clapper is supposed to be 'shaken' with it resting in her right hand. We could tell that she tried super hard. She knows what she is supposed to do. It's either the message from the brain to the muscles got lost or her muscles cannot do as being told. Anyway, Charlene was v happy playing with the music toys and was finally smiling.

Teacher Adeline played a new song that required the children to do some actions. Charlene's smiling expression changed almost immediately. Teacher Dhila said she is listening as it is new to her.

Charlene was sitting at 90degrees with her AFOs for one and a half hour without complaining!!! Then the moment we went to see Teacher Melody for physiotherapy. She started to whine almost immediately. Teacher Melody said that Charlene had developed some muscles. Thank God!