Story continues

This is a 400 summary of Chloe's recovery journey:


As our daughter got her environmental, pollen, food allergies and asthma under control with diet and medication her pediatrician kept an eye on these issues but also introduced us to pharmaceutical grade fish oil (special ratio of oils). It is reasonable priced and delivered to our home monthly. The theory behind this was to increase brain conductivity and exercise would improve Chloe abilities.

Chloe was born 18 years ago with a neurological disorder called “floppy infant” caused by extremely low tone and rapid growth. Chloe had to work at achieving all her milestone by physical, occupational and speech therapies. These therapies were to give us suggestions on what we needed to keep working on as homework, a daily routine we followed up with at home.

This August we saw an orthopedic doctor who took many x-rays of her shoulders. What he said she did was to get her right shoulder joint working correctly but the left shoulder is still not using the small core muscles under the large muscles. He suggested that if she got the right shoulder working with exercise then she can do the left the same way: walking stretching exercises and ball activities (basket ball, soccer). This was a remarkable that the shoulders started working with just exercise so maybe the pharmaceutical grade fish oil was a help.

Chloe’s arms and shoulders are steadily improving. She is presently working on her GED in the morning. Two afternoons a week she works with a personal trainer, one day a week she works with a music therapist and at least 2 days a week she works out on her own. She has always worked on her fine motor skills: playing piano and recorder also she is improving her typing speed. Chloe was doing this even when here shoulders weren’t able to do gross motor activities like raising her arm over her head.

So how much has been achieved with just exercise or the fish oil and exercise we may never know. We are just grateful that it is working!

Orthopedic Doctor appointmentt.

Wednesday Chloe got a number of ex rays done on both shoulders before the appointment. The doctor showed us her ex-rays and described what he saw. He said the the shoulder joint is the most complicated joint in the body and there are small muscles that hold the shoulder joint together covered by larger muscles. The bone structure looks normal but "sloppy" . He suggested that Chloe's smaller muscles are working in her right shoulder but in the left shoulder she is using "cheater" muscles (different muscles then she should be using) that is why her shoulder is raised higher then her right.

When asked what we should do he said repetition exercises which will build endurance and hopefully wake up these smaller muscles in her left shoulder and we'll know if it works by her left shoulder will be more level with the right shoulder.

September Chloe will work with 2 adaptive personal trainers at the YMCA and with her musical therapist in an attempt to do what we did right shoulder to activate these muscles in her left shoulder too.

Chloe left shoulder June 21, 2010

I talked to Chloe's doctor who wanted me to bring in the notes on Natasha hip surgery in with us to see the orthopedic doctor so he compare it with what he finds in Chloe left shoulder. I started the process to get the information on Natasha's surgery so I can bring it with us. Everything takes time so an August appointment looks reasonable to get everything together.

Chloe left shoulder issue! June 20, 2010

Chloe's occupational therapist has been seeing Chloe one time per week since March of 2010 to address decreased range of motion and muscle weakness of her upper extremities. She stated Chloe has made very good progress and has achieved nearly full range of motion of both right and left arms. However , her left shoulder has remained a concern. When passively ranging her left shoulder, mild tightness is felt when moving through horizontal abduction to overhead reaching. She continues to present with incresing weakness on this side and left shoulder elevation.

She recommends that Chloe's left shoulder be examined by a orthopedic doctor to rule out abnormalities of alignment. Our other daughter Natasha has two pins in her hip due to growth plate issues so I will ask the Orthopedic doctor if this could be a growth plate issue? Hopefully we will get answer in August to what this might be.

The Journey continues.....

Our daughter, now 17 has a neurological disorder, which causes less than normal muscle tone and balance issues since birth. Primary issue in school was she cried often and it was questioned if it was because of pain. The pediatrician prescribed medication that controlled her asthma and allergies fluids and excess fluids in her body and a pharmaceutical quality Omega-3. Chloe has seen allergists who identified food and environmental allergies.

A physical therapist found her extensors muscles stronger then her muscles that flex and right side joints are loose. Chloe has tinnitus in her right ear and also right jaw, right arm, right eye and right hip issues. She complains of headaches and asthma that might be related too. She is also right side dominate and presently five feet nine which professional have said if she was only shorter or left handed she might have fewer difficulties. The physical therapist set up an exercise program that Chloe does daily.

Vision and hearing are important to balance, so our next stop was an eye appointment. The eye doctor found her vision to be good but she did have a glare issue. He recommended glare resistant glasses. We found not all glare resistant glasses are the same some helped the eye condition and others made her stumble and fall. Her headache improved and attention to her studies did too. When asked what hurts, she points to the left side of her forehead most of the time.

Braces that look like sleeves supporting her elbows improved her arm control. Her pediatrician referred her to an occupational therapist that suggested that these sleeve braces gave Chloe proproceptive feedback to her brain, which help her have better control of her elbows. Also noted that her right side shoulder was lower and smaller then the left but only noticeable when it was pointed out to me. Since Chloe started with the OT what is found out so far is her right arm and shoulder appears stronger then her left arm and shoulder and with these braces her ability to use both arms in fine motor activities is also steady improving. What ever is affecting the left shoulder and arm seems to be improving with weights, stretching and trunk rotation exercises.

Her asthma and headaches are under control even in this pollen season So it appears we are on the right track.

Chloe still sees a music therapist and adaptive trainer who help identify symptoms that we took to the physical therapist and occupational therapist to explain what we might be seeing. Chloe works on GED and computer programs that help her with her studies. This is her home schooling course work she is doing.