Neuropsychologist

 Today Chloe had an appointment with a Neuropsychologist to be evaluated to see if we are on the right track. This is an individual with a doctorate degree, license in clinical psychology and specialized training or board  certification in neuropsychology who practices or adheres to the principles of neuropsychology; a specialty within the field of psychology focusing primarily on neurobehavioral functioning.

He was quite helpful asked a lot of questions of me and tested Chloe sharing her strengths and weaknesses with us. He is sending us an extensive pack of information and  recommendations. He liked the work she is doing at the thrift store and feels some type of work that keeps her in motion is an excellent idea. His tests were academic and also evaluated reasoning skills. The reasoning skill test I watch was very interesting and very different from the other one.

We will see the neurologist in November 2012 to discuss these recommendation!

What we can conclude!

Chloe was given serotonin medication to alleviate anxiety possible due to pain. The neurologist said this is an attempt to block pain receptors or at least help with her anxiety. The serotonin medication decreased the anxiety but also increase her ability to use her arms and upper trunk. From the ability to almost do nothing when she started, to her greatly improved flexibility in these past 10 months has been breath taking to watch. We can conclude, we must be dealing with some unknown pain issue that is helped by this medication

Maybe Final pages of the book!

Since the start of our journey to help Chloe recover from this bulging disc that caused this muscle disorder. The Doctors said a right mother for a right kid. I have been a medical social worker that helped clients in a group home work through a number of health issues to stabilize these issues and improve the quality of their life for 20 plus years.

I was surprised how my daughter recovery took a whole lot of opinions and surprise treatments that helped to figure out what would be the right direction to proceed.

In January the medication with serotonin was introduced and the bulging disc was in the mild state but we were still not getting a lot of arm and shoulder movement. Since the introduction of this medication the arms, trunk and shoulders seemed to wake up. Chloe now has much better control and seems to be continuing to improve. We are very lucky to work with physical therapist and occupational therapist during this time who kept one step ahead of Chloe’s progress.

The goal is to tone up all the many muscles in Chloe’s chest, arms and shoulders then see possible get off the medication one day. This will be an adventure that still has many unanswered questions. Hopefully next year, possibly a part time job while she works with a personal trainer to continue to maintain and develop these newly awaken muscles.

This is a recovery of many muscles I am grateful for the exercise routines that the professional lay out for us. I am grateful that my college degree and my work experience help me handle some rough times too.

We will continue to push ahead on an unknown path and hope for continued success.

Journey continues>>>

Sorry it took so long to post! I was sick for several weeks, a relative in hospital and had 2 independent construction project over here during that time. I also  focus in a project and tend to lose myself in what I do. I have had people concerned that I might be getting to withdrawn but I shared with them my focusing on projects is intense, they finally got it. So I am not sure which of the issues took up the most time!

 

In the physical therapy sessions we now have exercises to completely stretch out her back with 3 or more exercises. Now we are working on developing exercises for Chloe to do,  lying on her sides. The physical therapist found that the sides of her trunk need to be strengthen and now are very weak . This is what our next goal will be to develop these very weak muscles.  So Chloe is more tired and sore then ever before. So I would like to share with you our behavior approach from the book                                                  

 

Since Chloe receives a medication that blocks her pain receptors.

 We now, have to work on her excessive Fight-or-Flight response.
 It is the body’s response to perceived threat or danger which
 causes certain hormones like adrenalin and cortisol to be released
 in her body. The release causes increased heart rate, slowing of
digestion and shunting flow to major muscle groups.
The changing various autonomic nervous
functions giving the body s burst of energy and strength.

We work with the white board as to what the problem is and
 how to deal with it like a person of her age would. First she
must go take a break no crying, no yelling and she must be ready
 to discuss the subject like a person of her age would.
 If she is unable to discuss it I may resort to having her type
 how she should act in a given situation.
I will demonstrate by creating the sentences she needs to type.
 Areas I will cover in these sentences: what is the problem,
why she got in trouble for her response and what should she
 do differently to prevent her from typing? At the start she did
 a lot of typing but now we can talk thing through and maybe use
the white board for highlights of things to remember.