Mena and Therapy

Every week Mena goes to Speech and Physical therapy; once a month she does Occupational therapy. For those who don't know, when Mena was 5 months I noticed that she wouldn't let me extend her left arm all the way. I thought this was really strange so I asked her doctor about it. After x-raying her arm, she was sent to an orthopedic doctor, they diagnosed her with a rare birth defect called radioulnar synostosis...never heard of it? We hadn't either. I contacted the state and we enrolled her in an early intervention program, because Mena was also 7 weeks early and wasn't hitting all of her developmental milestones. She actually didn't walk until she was 19 months. While she was in therapy, we kept noticing that something was wrong with the right side of her body. After 2 mri's her neurologist concluded that either during labor or in utero, Mena had a stroke. I've read in medical literature that there is a connection between her birth defect and her stroke, but I am not scientist and it all gets really confusing. Therapy has helped her so much. I am so grateful that she has an amazing physical therapist that has been with her since she was 9 months. She was extremely instrumental in getting her to stand, crawl and walk.

Of course, not every session is good. Soon after these photos were taken, Mena has a complete and total meltdown. She doesn't have those very often, but she laid on the floor and I told her to let me know when she was done.

This was taken after therapy....but after a trip to Arbys and a cookie thanks to Nana and Papa...this is how she looked.

I love this little girl so much...even when she throws fits and has an attitude. She actually is an easy kid most of the time.