First Week of Therapy

Jake started all of his out-patient therapy this past week. It's quite a change from having therapy twice a day for OT/PT/Speech while in the hospital, to once/twice a week now that we're out. We met each of the therapists this week and it was decided he would have PT twice a week and OT and Speech once a week. It doesn't sound like that much, but when you consider he's going to school now until almost 12:30, then home for lunch and a short rest then to an hour of therapy, it gets a little busy. We're very lucky that he he can go to Children's in Parker which is only 15 minutes away. We're also learning how to fit in the daily home exercises we're given from each therapist. It's extremely important to do more at home now since his appointments are further apart. For now, Todd is overseeing most of that while I am in charge of taking him to his appointments. Still trying to figure out the best ways to divide and conquer.

I had someone ask me this week if I miss going to the hospital. As strange as it sounds, at times I do. When I was there, it was a little bit of a break from the rest of my life, and all I thought about was taking care of Jake and focusing on his therapy. I didn't worry about phone calls that needed to be made, things that needed to be done at the house, errands, finances, work, etc. I'm finding that I'm not doing a very good job giving myself those mental breaks now that we're home and I'm easily distracted. This morning I was making a latte, went to the fridge to get milk while the coffee was brewing, got distracted by a pile of mail on the counter and started sorting through it before I ever got to the fridge. Next thing I know, coffee is running all over the floor. My goal this week is to figure out how to better manage my mental health and not feel so overwhelmed.

We ended the week with a really nice "slice of normal" day today. My side of the family has four birthdays within five days in August (my mom and dad, sister-in-law and nephew) and we got together to celebrate today. Jake was in a great mood, was getting around well, and didn't seem to get overly tired. Luke enjoyed spending time with his cousins and didn't feel left out or that Jake was getting more attention than him. It was so nice to just hang out and visit, eat good food, and hear what's going on with everyone else. We've really missed our extended family get-togethers the past few months.