Harrison's Story: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

See me standing now!!

My body is getting stronger everyday! I've been doing my exercises! Here is a picture of me standing up holding onto my Dad's hands again. I have also been doing some tummy time....I love to watch TV laying on my stomach now, instead of on my back! I can almost watch a whole Rockies game on my stomach. In fact, I automatically roll onto my stomach to watch TV or play on the floor!

Thanks to everyone who is supporting me! It's fun to talk to people about my experiences. People always ask me would I go again? My answer is yes! It was hard, but the results are definitley worth it!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Physical Therapy

Yesterday my physical therapist, Sandra, came to see me. She told me I need to work on my core muscles that will help me improve my balance and help me to sit up without using my hands. I was a little mad at her. I really want to run...not walk! She was making me do all sorts of crazy exercises, which included throwing a ball with 2 hands, not one. "I want to pitch," I told her, "You don't pitch with 2 hands!" But she explained to me that doing exercises like throwing a ball over my head with two hands was going to give me the strength to have more control and balance. I can also b So, I guess I'll try. I can also practice standing up, if I wear my AFO's. (They are plastic inserts that I wear inside my shoes to give my ankles and legs stability) My mom took pictures of me doing my exercises--I'm working really hard!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Let the Games Begin

Sunday, August 9, 2009

I'm doing great!

After my exciting day of sitting up by myself, I got really sick....for 8 days! My mom and dad didn't have me do much in those days, but I am home now! Boy does it feel good to sleep in my own bed! I survived the plane ride....I only slept about 2 hours during the 11 hour plane ride. That may sound terrible, but it made for an easy recovery to Denver time. And guess what? Two of my favorite families were at the airport to welcome me home! The Freed's and Cohen's! It was sooo fun to see familiar faces! I was so tired I could hardly talk! We got home a little after 8 pm and went right to sleep.
For an update....it is much easier for me to get my words out. My speech is getting better each day. My hands aren't clentched and my wrists can rotate! Yesterday my mom helped me hold on to a chair in our front room, and then she let go....I could stand holding onto furniture for a minute or two! I'm really excited!
Thanks again to everyone who helped make this adventure possible! We are praying for my bestest friend Dominic today and tomorrow. His procedure is tomorrow and Wednesday! We love you Big D!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Lunch today at McD's

H picked up bottle, drank, and set it back on table with minimal assistance. No spills too!

Note the satisfaction in his face. You'd think even now from his reaction 5 min later he made a significant breakthrough. That's because he did.

What we are beginning to understand is that H will need training to get the most out of this therapy. Line upon line is how this will work. It's almost as if what was not there before is now present. It just needs to be trained like a younger child. So many firsts to come.

OK! So he just stole my fry while I was typing! And he used his right hand too. That's new. This is like Christmas every day. You just have to pay attention.

Go H go!

Jeff

Monday, August 3, 2009

Update ...

About 36 hours ago Harrison received his stem cell treatment.

Things went very well.

The photo taken moments ago of H playing on the floor with his new toy. He is balancing on his own. At the time of the photo, he had been up-INDEPENDENTLY- for about 10 min. This has never happened before.

"Would you like to go to bed now?"

"I've been waiting my whole life to play like this. I'm NOT tired!"

So he will be allowed to stay up later. All he wants...

Never doubt prayer, faith, and that miracles can happen.

Forward this to anyone interested. I have some toys to play with...

Jeff

Hi! My name is Harrison...

Hi. My name is Harrison Spiers. I was born on March 8, 1999. My Mom and Dad were really excited to have me join their family. I already had a big sister, Morgan, here to help take care of me. When my mom was pregnant with me, they thought something could be wrong with me because something came back a little off in some of her blood work. But, after much tests were done, they determined I was healthy.

Something else happened as I was born. While my mom was pushing me out, the cord got wrapped around my neck, and I was purple/blue when I was born. I was not breathing. The nurses did a great job of helping me breathe, and I was fine just a few minutes later.

I was a pretty normal newborn. I definitely had my days and nights mixed up. My big sister was really fun. She liked to push me around in her doll stroller. I knew she really loved me.

When I was four months old, my mom’s friend asked why I couldn’t hold my head up. My mom wasn’t sure, so she asked my doctor. The doctor told her not to worry about it unless I still couldn’t hold my head up at six months.

Well, guess what? At six months, I still couldn’t hold my head up very much. My head was sooo heavy. My doctor told my mom it was time to do some tests. So, we went to see a developmental psychologist.

Man, that appointment was long. All she did was asked my mom and dad a zillion questions. At the end of the appointment, she told my mom and dad the news….I was going to be moderately to severely mentally and physically handicapped. Well, my mom and dad didn’t believe it. They knew I was smart. They said a lot of prayers on my behalf, in fact they still do.

Next, I went to get an MRI of my brain. Boy was that weird. I went to the hospital, and they put me to sleep so I wouldn’t be afraid of the loud noisy machine. After the results came back, we went to see another doctor. He told us that my brain was normal, there was nothing wrong. I was just developing slower than normal.

This is when all the therapies began. We had people over at my house all the time. There was a physical therapist, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, and a development therapist. This was crazy. I didn’t like some of them, sometimes I would just scream through the whole session. Some of them were really nice and helped me.

When I was just a little over 18 months old, my family moved to Colorado for my Dad’s new job. I guess it was ok, except I had to move away from all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. This was pretty hard because I missed them so much.

My mom also had to find me some new therapists. We started going to therapy almost every day. This time we had to go to an office, they didn’t come to my house. We did this 4x a week until I was three years old. During this time, we went to see many new doctors, and they all said the same thing. I was developmentally slow. Finally, we went to a doctor that gave me my diagnosis, Cerebral Palsy (CP).

Let me tell you what CP is. It basically means that I have slow motor skills; this was caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. There are 3 different types of CP: spastic, ataxic, and athetoid. The type of CP I have is Athetoid. This basically means that I have problems controlling my muscles. Sometimes I am really floppy, sometimes I am really tight. This makes it really hard for me to hold still. Most of the time, my arms like to go flying. It’s hard for me to hold them still. My hands are clenched most of the time. This makes it very difficult to feed, write and dress myself.

Even though my body doesn’t function like all my friends and peers, I am just as smart as everyone else. I do go to a normal class at school; I just have an aide with me all the time. She writes for me and helps me with my daily skills. I even have a computer that helps me write sentences and do my spelling tests. It can talk for me also. I can talk, but sometimes people don’t understand everything I say. Most of my day is spent in my wheelchair. I do have a tricycle that I can ride for exercise, and also a special walker that helps me walk.

I still do therapy. I ride horses with my physical therapist. It’s really fun. This is the only time I can sit up myself, without being in my wheelchair. I also go to speech therapy as well. My speech has improved so much since I started.

I love people. I love my friends. Some of them are really amazing. They don’t care that I don’t speak perfectly, or that I can’t walk. I really love sports as well. I love playing football and baseball with my dad and brothers. I also play baseball on a handicapped league. They have a special field where wheelchairs can ride on the entire thing!

My favorite Pastime .... mowing the lawn with Uncle Aaron!