Of all of the therapies we’ve tried out, I like Medek the most. To me it makes the most sense and seems to have the most potential to help Nathan with his gross motor skills. For close to a year now we’ve been working on a daily home program with him. Juan Mario, his home [...]

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By the time I came to my senses and filmed this, he’d been holding himself up for about 10 minutes. I know I know I’m always full of excuses, but I’m slow like that, and only come to my senses when it’s almost too late This, my friends, is the result of 6, yes 6, [...]

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About a week ago I got an email from Ramon’s assistant in Canada confirming Nathan’s appointment in Montreal with Ramon. I almost went PLOP. I had made the appointment when I was in Chile, and then about 3 months ago I emailed them and asked for more information. I was told to email someone else, [...]

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Because here comes Nathan! Nathan, Owen, and nanny mcMary are heading to Montreal tomorrow for a cuevas medek intensive therapy session. They will be there for one week. Belle and I are planning to spoil ourselves all week. We have joint massages scheduled and a joint manicure and pedicure. On Wednesday we’re gonna take my [...]

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It’s been quiet around here these days. Did we lose everyone during our vacation? If you are still here, say YO! We’ve been busy little bees here at the Andrew house in Canyon Country. Nathan is going to preschool! In the bus! He loves it! Every day the teacher tells me of new things he’s [...]

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I’ve been thinking of life and luck today. How lucky to be Nathan’s mom and to get to share his life. How lucky to have a little baby girl on the way. Lucky to have the wonderful friends and family that I have. Lucky to have met the man of my dreams and to have [...]

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Even though I didn’t really do the whole “thanksgiving” thing, being by myself here in Chile, I’ve been feeling quite thanful lately. While I’m typing this post, Nathan is happily asleep and Lucky is going wild playing with his favorite toy, an elmo doll. I think this puppy was really meant to come to us [...]

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2.5 years ago the word Inchstones entered our life. Now, today, I speak in milinchstones – the building blocks of inchstones, which are the building blocks of milestones. Today I want to share a few milinchstones: He didn’t stand on his own, but once he stood, he stayed up for a few seconds! Ramon was [...]

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This morning at about 7 am I was in the deepest of sleeps and in the middle of an REM dream…when all of a sudden I heard a THUUUUUUUUUUUD…followed by 3 seconds of silence….followed by a loud WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaa. In 1/10 of a second I woke up, jumped out of bed, and ran to Nathan’s room…to [...]

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Here are a few videos of the rest of Nathan’s week with Ramon: Even though it was a tough week for us, he did well in CME and for that we are so grateful!

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I am starting to see how a million tiny winy little mini milinchstones start adding up to make tiny bits of change: 19 seconds now! We used to be excited with 5 seconds, now we’re at 19 (counts, not seconds, the key is – the amount of time has increased)! It’s still tiny but my [...]

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I’ve talked a lot about CME, Ramon’s therapy program, but today I thought I’d talk about why Ramon blows me away. Let me start with this video: Now let me list the reasons why I think Nathan is in the best hands possible: * he is always very positive. He believes his state of mind [...]

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This is the first time where he keeps his trunk up, without collapsing forwards, for more than 10 seconds. This is another first. First time he is able to stand, completely unsupported, for more than 2 seconds. He did another one where he stood for 10 seconds, but I didn’t get it on camera. Mini [...]

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Here is a picture of Nathan with his friend Youssef: From 11-9-09 They are CME buddies and both very big TV fans And a video of Nathan doing a good job with his aerial standing:

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Over the weekend while talking with my cousin in Buenos Aires, I made the final decision to stay in Santiago until mid-March. That’s about as late as I dare traveling while pregnant – I will be 7.5 months pregnant then. I’m excited that Nathan will have the chance to work with Ramon for a total [...]

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Ramon believes that once we get Nathan doing aerial standing consistently, we’re on our way! Yesterday he was able to repeat the aerial standing 5 times. The previous time I showed this exercise, we had to use a schmata to give him some feedback. Yesterday we removed it and he was able to stand without [...]

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When we came to Chile, Nathan’s progress with CME seemed great and rapid for the first 3 weeks. Then he got sick, he got grumpy, and his progress slowed considerably. I had a feeling that something was just not right but I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Over the weekend in Buenos Aires, [...]

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If Nathan could speak, I bet that’s what he’d be saying in his CME therapy. He’s gone back to Mr. Complaney during therapy. The first 3 weeks he was GREAT – he didn’t complain, he did the exercises well and happily. But I think now that we’ve been here several weeks he’s decided not to [...]

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Today Nathan and I had a wonderful day. I had a terrible night with fevers and vomiting and thought we were in for a rough day – especially when Denise, the nanny, didn’t come to work. It turned out to be the opposite. After all of the wonderful support and advice, I felt happier and [...]

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Nathan’s grandma Tita requested more pics and videos of Medek…so this one’s for you Tita! Dear readers – if you request, I shall deliver!

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Here are some pictures of the last few days: In other news: Nathan seems to be coming down with the same thing I had. Now that we know what it was, we’re jumping on it and I’m getting him on antibiotics tomorrow. He’s not feverish yet so hopefully we will stop this before it gets [...]

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For those of you wondering how Max is doing – everything’s going great! Max is now 9 weeks and 1 day old. I saw the OB down here today and he said the baby looks perfect. Everything is measuring right where it should be for the gestational age. I was able to hear the baby’s [...]

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Below are a few pictures of Nathan’s last session yesterday: The first 5 pictures are from an exercise where Nathan had to turn his shoulder to face Ramon and then to initiate the movement of sitting up. The first few times Ramon tried the exercise, there was no response. But by the 7th time, he [...]

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I am hoping to keep a photo journal of every single Medek session starting today. Cybell and Patricio loaned us their camera (mine is still stuck in customs) so I am thrilled to be able to start keeping track of Nathan’s progress! Here are a few pictures of this AM’s session: And a video: (update) [...]

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Nathan LOVES his preschool. About 5 minutes after we got there yesterday, one of the kids had figured out that Nathan loves to laugh and was clowning around. Nathan laughed the whole time I was there at the preschool dropping him off (about 20 minutes). The teacher in charge of the class is really lovely, [...]

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Today we went to a preschool across the street and guess what – tomorrow Nathan starts! I am so excited for him! Nathan will be going to Rocio’s school’s sister school. It’s run by the same director (she’s a lovely lady!) and thanks to Rocio and Sonia, they now have experience about how to integrate [...]

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I wanted to share a video with Ramon, talking about Medek. I think it’s a great video and gives a nice overview of the program: Walking Tall Please let me know what you think!

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Now we can properly chronicle our Chilean adventures. Yesterday we moved to a new apartment! The one we were originally in was too far from Ramon’s office, too noisy, and too small. We chose it because it was supposed to have a heated pool..well, guess what? It was FREEZING! So we complained to the agency [...]

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Hi everyone! I hope you haven’t missed us too much We made it to Santiago without a hitch thanks to the wonderful Mary! You heard me right! At the last minute Mary was able to come with us and has been wonderfully helpful! Nathan was a doll during the trip and has been brimming with [...]

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There was a video that I accidentally didn’t add to the previous Medek post, so I’ll add it here first: Now here are some of the exercises he did on the last day.

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These are some of the exercises that we did on day 2.

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Before I continue posting videos, I thought I should talk a little bit more about this therapy, how it works, its premises, etc. I’ll share some of what I learned from Ramon and just put together what I learned from his site and other parents. Back in the 70′s, Ramon was a regular physical therapist [...]

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Okay, I am going to post the promised videos of Nathan’s first appointment with Ramon on Sunday. Then I’ll do separate posts for days 2 and 3. Then I’ll write a couple of separate posts writing about some of the things I learned from Ramon regarding his therapy, how it works, and why it works. [...]

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It was definitely a series of fortunate events that brought us to Ramon Cuevas…and how happy and grateful we are!  Today Nathan had his first appointment with Ramon.  It was AMAZING!  The man is a true master, an artist of his trade.  There is no one like him in the disability world.   He played Nathan [...]

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My trip to Canada started with a most exciting adventure.  My alarm decided not to go off in the morning.  I got up to go to the bathroom and calmly went to the bathroom, stretched, grabbed some water..and decided to check the time.  I almost passed out when I noticed that it was 5:15 am [...]

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I’ve just gotten back from putting Owen, Nathan & Mary on a plane to Canada.  The doctor said I have pneumonia and tonsillitis so travelling wasn’t a great idea.  Owen was able to step in and take my place on the trip so they’re on their way now! They’re seeing Esther Fink for a 2nd [...]

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One of Nathan’s problems is that he has dystonia.  In a nutshell, what it means is that whatever he wants to do when it comes to movement, his body does the exact opossite.  So if he wants to reach out to grab a toy, instead his arm retracts closer to his body and becomes even [...]

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We’re back home and have adjusted to the new flow of our lives. Life is good. Nathan is over his cold, and very happy (except when he doesn’t want to do medek). We’ve settled back into routine with his normal activities. Today we had a play date with a local family of a child with [...]

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We are doing well. Nathan seems to have a little cold but continues to work hard with Esther. Evey day he seems to be able to do something that he couldn’t do the previous day -it’s amazing. I don’t have much time on the internet to upload many videos, so I thought Id just show [...]

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We decided to stay another week in Toronto so Nathan could have more time with Esther. We are all so happy with his progress that we figured it would be ideal if we kept going. The Ives kindly offered to host us for another week and Esther was able to clear up a couple of [...]

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If I did, I’ll say it again – I LOVE MEDEK! Today was a bit different. Instead of putting Nathan through the series of exercises, Ester focused on teaching US how to do the exercises. OMG, they are hard! Ester makes it looks so easy. We found them pretty challenging but I’m sure with practice [...]

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At last we found the program/therapy we’ve been looking for. At least we have a program that will help strengthen Nathan’s body and give him more function and abilities. At last I can stop searching, and settle in for the “long haul” with just one program. Hallelujah! I LOVE MEDEK! Already in just 3 days [...]

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