My 6th #20Time Reflection

Hey this is Kay! Today I am going to talk to you about the therapy that Kade has to have. Kade has to have therapy four times a week. He has physical therapy on Wednesday. In physical therapy Kade works on sitting up by himself and playing with his toys. He has occupational therapy, vision therapy, and speech therapy on Thursdays. Occupational therapy is a form of therapy for those recuperating from physical or mental illness that encourages rehabilitation through the performance of activities required in daily life. Vision therapy is when they work on Kade seeing things. He plays with toys that light up and are very bright so he can see them. In speech therapy they work on Kade eating things. They also try to get him to make sounds since he can't talk yet. On Fridays his Pre K teacher comes to his house from Hart County SKIP. The teacher just comes to play with him on those days. They work on playing with toys and playing with paint. After therapy Kade is very tired (especially on Thursdays.) When the therapist leaves Kade most of the time takes a nap. I want to be a physical therapist when I grow up, so I enjoyed learning about the kinds of therapy that Kade does. All in all, I enjoyed learning about these things more than I have the others even though everything I have learned is pretty interesting. Well that's all I have for today! -Kay

My 5th #20 Time Reflection

Hey this is Kay! Today I am going to talk about the kind of stretches Kade does and the braces he has to wear. Kade has to do his stretches because he has cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy causes the muscles to be tight. If Kade does not stretch then his muscles won't go back to normal. The tightest part of Kade's body is his arms, so we start by stretching those. We stretch his arms over his head and across his body. Next, we stretch his legs. We stretch his legs apart and up. Then, we stretch his back by turning him side to side while sitting up. After that, we lean him side to side. Lastly, we move his neck up and down, and side to side. Now I'm going to tell you some more about Kade's braces. Kade has AFOs, which are his short braces. To put those on you have to slide them on his feet and then you strap them around his legs. He has to keep his AFOs on almost all day. Kade's long braces are called KFOs. The long braces are to help keep his legs straight. He only wears these braces for about an hour or so. To put these on you have to slide them on his kegs and then strap them around his legs. Kade also has a thing called a separator that keeps his legs apart when he has on his braces. The last kind of braces that Kade has are thumb braces, which he doesn't wear a lot. In order to learn all of this I went up to his house for about an hour. His mother told me about all of these things and even let me put the braces on Kade. I was very confused about all of his braces and his stretches at first but then I understood. I have to take a lot of notes in order to remember all of these things. My next post will be about about Kade's therapy. Well that's all I have for today! -Kay

My 4th #20 Time Reflection

Hey this is Kay! Today I am going to be talking to you about Kade's daily schedule. During the day, while his mom is at work, Kade stays with his baby sitter, Mrs. Cindy. Mrs. Cindy has kept Kade ever since he was a little baby, so she knows everything about him. Mrs. Cindy arrives at Kade's house at about 6:30 in the morning, so she can get him up and get him ready while his parents get ready for work and his brother gets ready for school. The first thing Mrs. Cindy does when Kade wakes up is she gives him his medicines and his breathing treatment. Second, she stretches him. She stretches his arms, legs, back, and neck. Third, she gives him his first bottle which he takes out of a sippy cup. Fourth, she puts Kade in his stander, which helps him stand up straight. Fifth, she puts him in the floor and plays with him. She tries to make him follow the commands she tells him and use his hands and arms to play with toys. Sixth, she puts him in his swing that is inside of their house. Swinging helps his brain to develop. Seventh, she gives Kade his second bottle of the day out of a sippy cup. Eighth, Kade takes a nap. Ninth, Kade sits in his firefly chair and plays with toys and watches games on the IPad. Tenth, Kade takes another bottle at 4:00. Eleventh, Kade swings more in his swing and has more tummy time. Twelfth, Mrs. Cindy leaves at about 5:30 or 6 and Kade plays until bedtime. Thirteenth, at about 8:30 Kade takes a bath and gets his medicine and breathing treatments. Lastly, Kade is rocked in his chair until he falls asleep. Yesterday I went up to Kade's house and learned all about his daily schedule from his mom. I had to take many notes in order to remember all of these things about Kade. Well that's all I have for today! -Kay

Kade at the Go Kart Race

Hey this is Kay! Today I am going to be talking to you about Kade going to the go kart races. The picture below is of Kade at his brother, Brody's, go kart race. Kade likes to go to his races because he likes the sounds of the go karts. Kade can only hear loud sounds, so go kart races are perfect for him. Anyways back to Brody; he really likes to race go karts. He says that he likes the overall thrill of riding them. Brody goes every single night to the shop to work on his go kart. He has to rub the tires, wash it, and make sure it is running good. When he gets to the race, he has to check in with the people at the race, and then he makes sure everything is okay on his go kart. Brody races usually around 3 or 4 times each race. The first is practice, then the heat race, and then the actual race. The heat race is to see how fast he runs. During the heat race there is only about 3 or 4 cars at a time. In the main event there are about 7 or 8 cars running at a time. Brody is only 7, so that's why there aren't very many cars on the track at the same time. In the older classes there are about 25 or 30 cars running at the same time. In Brody's class there aren't hardly any wrecks, but in the older classes there are very many races. So racing in the older classes is much more dangerous. All in all, Kade likes going to the races because he can see the lights at night and he can hear the go karts running around the track. (The picture below is of Kade sitting in Brody's go kart.)

My 3rd #20time Reflection

Hey this is Kay! Today I am going to talk to you about the medicine that Kade takes and how it helps him. Kade takes some of his medicine through a bottle type thing. It looks like a bottle, but it's smaller. He takes his other medicine through a syringe.  Kade takes 3 ml of Keppra, 4.5 ml of Trileptal, 1.3 ml of Reglan, 5 ml of Provacid, 2.2 ml of Baclofen, and 1 pill of Singular. He takes the Keppra and Trileptal for his seizures, the Reglan and Provacid for his reflux, the Baclofen to help his arms and legs not to be so stiff, and the Singular for his allergies. It is very important to give Kade his medicine because if you don't he won't act like his normal self. It could even cause him to start having seizures. Learning all of this in just one day was a lot and it was pretty difficult. I had to ask many questions because I didn't understand all of it. I'm actually starting to kind of feel like a nurse now because I know how much medicine to give Kade and when to give it to him. In the next blog post, I plan to talk about when Kade got very sick and had to go back into the hospital. That's all I have for today! -Kay

My 2nd #20time Reflection

Hey this is Kay! This week I learned how to give Kade a bath. Remember that Kade has a trach, so his bath may be a little bit different, but not much. One thing that is different is that you can't get Kade's trach wet because if you do the water will go down his throat. It will go down his throat because the trach is connected directly to Kade's throat. If the water goes down his throat then he will not be able to breath and that will cause him to die, so it is very important that you don't get water on his trach! The first step in giving him a bath is you get the bath seat to put him in. The bath seat is what keeps him from getting his trach wet. Next, you get a wash cloth wet and put soap on it. After that, you undo the trach ties that are around his neck. The trach ties is what helps hold his trach together. You have to undo the trach ties because you have to wash up under the ties really good. If you don't wash under them then it will cause a crusty substance to form up under it. While washing around the trach, you have to wash carefully, but you also have to make sure you wash it good. After washing Kade, you have to put his trach ties back together, get him out of the bath chair, and dry him off. The part that I found the hardest is when you wash around his trach because you have to make sure water doesn't get inside of it. Next, I will learn how to give Kade his medicine. That's all I have for today! -Kay

My 1st #20time Reflection

Hey this is Kay! Last night I went up to Kade's house and learned part of what Kade's nightly routine is. First, Kade has to be suctioned.  Kade has a trach which is like a little hole in his throat that has a tube going down it. The trach helps Kade breath like we do. When Kade starts to make a sound like he is congested that means it is time for him to be suctioned. In order to suction Kade you have to first take off his HME (which is the thing that covers his hole in his throat.) Next, you take the suction cathedar (the tube that is connected to the suction machine) and stick it 6 cm. down his throat. The suction cathedar has a little button like thing on it that has air coming out of it. You have to put your finger over the hole to make the machine start sucking the stuff out of Kade's trach. The last thing you have to do is give him his breathing treatment. Kade takes a breathing treatment through a nebulizer. The medicine you put in his nebulizer are 1 vial of xopanex and 1 vial of pulmicort. To give him a breathing treatment, you have to put a little mask like thing over his trach. During the process of this I had very many struggles because it was my first time doing this. In the future I hope to become better and better at this. Next week I plan to talk to you about how to give Kade a bath.That's all I have for today!-Kay