Nathan started yoga today. A few years ago he had some sessions with the wonderful Catherine, who is certified by Sonia Kumar and her “Yoga for the Special Child” method. But at the time we were doing so much that I let yoga fall by the wayside. Last week I decided to try hot yoga [...]

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* It was dark and we’d just gotten home from dinner and the store. I had my phone in one hand and a used cup in the other. I was watching Izzy and tossed the cup into our large outside trash can. I walked inside and noticed that I was still holding the cup. Yep, [...]

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A good friend called me recently and left me a message.  She verbalized a question that I ask myself almost every day.  It goes something like this: When do I draw the line?  How do I know when enough is enough?  I have traveled all over the world to help my daughter.  I have spent [...]

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Combining CME with Whole Body Vibration Isabelle walking (sorry for the bad quality I’ve had a hard time catching her while having the camera etc) Nathan during his home CME therapy Belle cheerleads for Nathan during CME Pictures of Isabelle walking (sorry they are not clear I still do not know how to catch motion [...]

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I may not be many things, but there is one thing I am – PERSISTENT. I have a hard time giving up. Where I see potential, I see opportunity. Where I see opportunity, I see the need for extra effort. Where I see the need for effort, I give it all I’ve got. So a [...]

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Nathan is doing much better. He is healing. We never did get in to see the doctor because he started feeling and acting better. My diagnosis: cold with severe food allergy. We cleaned up his diet and things improved, and now we’re using our typical repertoire of homeopathics and vitamin C to get him all [...]

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This morning I got in my car at 9:55 and at 10 am on the dot I arrived at the new suit therapy center that Nathan will be attending. I am still pinching myself. I cannot believe it is this close..worse yet, that it’s always been there and I hadn’t found it! I guess the [...]

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A few people have been asking me about FK/ABM, and what we’re currently doing, so I figured it’s time for an update. So 2 weekends ago we went to a Feldenkrais training with Mia Segal and her daughter Leora. Here’s an excerpt about Mia: Mia’s expertise in rehabillitative and generative methods has been attained over [...]

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18 gallons of gas, 2 short 10 min stops, 1 soy latte with sugar-free vanilla and 1 shot of coffee (soy chai latte for Nathan), 2 jack in the box burger and fries, 5.5 hours, and 3 movies later (tinker belle, nightmare before xmas, and lilo & stitch 2), we made it home. I feel [...]

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Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone had a lovely day. We spent our day driving up to San Rafael, CA. Tomorrow Nathan starts his Anat Baniel Method intensive. He will be seeing Anat a few times, as well as some of the senior ABM practitioners at the center. I never thought I could do [...]

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Today I read a book called “Your Inner Physican and You”, written by John Upledger, the guy who invented CranioSacral therapy. It was FASCINATING. For anyone who is interested in learning more about central nervous system function and how to improve overall physical and emotional health – I highly recommend this book. Here are some [...]

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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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Having a child with severe special needs is a little bit like receiving something like this: At first you don’t even know how/where to start figuring out how to help your child. Our puzzle contains pieces in all areas of development – sensory, cognitive, communication, physical, equipment, accessibility, medical, etc etc I confess that today, [...]

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Nathan had his MRI evaluated by the Carter Centers for Research in Holoprosencephaly back in 2006. However, since he still had massive fluid build up in the brain, the data wasn’t completely accurate. Back in mid 2009 he had another MRI and I finally got the results today of the new MRI interpretation by the [...]

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He did this over and over again, showing off his newly acquired skill. He did this after the first ABM intensive in February and then stopped, so it’s nice to see him doing it again, and more consistently this time. We’re so proud of you Nathan! It was so cute, he kept turning to his [...]

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Interesting article: Blue laser could lead to autism cure I guess we really are in the forefront of this therapy as we’re already using it therapeutically! I’ll talk more about the laser as I learn more – I have a binder full of info that I will read in the next few days! But for [...]

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* I just came back from Nathan’s room. I put him down to nap, on his belly, the way he has slept since he was little. 30 min’s later I heard him crying so I rushed to his room. Guess where I found him – on his back! He hasn’t rolled from belly to back [...]

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Nathan just finished an ABM intensive last week, where he had sessions every day. I was hoping this would be a daily therapy but I was informed by his ABM therapist that we shouldn’t do more than a week at a time, and then we have to give him time to “integrate” the information that [...]

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Ask…and you shall receive. After my post last week where I mentioned my desire to integrate everything we’ve done for Nathan into a routine…things changed. It looks like it’s all coming together! Here’s how it’s all coming together: 1. ABM. Nathan started an ABM intensive today. Victoria came to the house and worked with Nathan [...]

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* Nathan and Owen are on their way home right now! They finished 20 hours of intensive therapy and 10 HBOT dives. Plus they had a fantastic time hanging out together. I don’t think they missed me too much * I had an OB appointment and Belle’s C-section is scheduled for Monday April 26th! We’re [...]

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New Hope for Kids with Disabilities This is why I LOVE Napa Center. They have AWESOME, caring, compassionate, knowledgeable therapists. Not only are they fantastic at what they do – everyone there CARES and does a great job at helping kids. Although Nathan is not at the El Segundo location, he is working with the [...]

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A real quick post today – Nathan and Owen are home! They finished 40 dives today! Wohooooo! Nathan was SOOO happy to be home – I think he was ready for his house, his food, his bed Nathan just passed out and Owen and I are going to spend time together so this is it [...]

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I went to see Dr. Kenny today and she told me about a new things she’s been offering her patients. It’s called exercise with oxygen therapy. Knowing how much Nathan’s benefited from HBOT thus far I was really interested in hearing about it. But instead of telling me about it – she made me try [...]

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I mostly try to post the good stuff. But sometimes you get things like this: Yes, he’s fully and truly asleep. And other times, you get this: The good news: Nathan’s done 37 dives and only has 3 more to go! My boys should be back home by Friday afternoon, hooooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Nathan has now completed 12 Hbot dives! Today when I talked to him on the phone, I told him how much I missed him. I asked him if he missed me too. I heard a very very clear “Yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh”. He was so sweet! Daddy reports that he behaved perfectly both in the chamber and during [...]

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People often ask me why I do so many things with Nathan instead of sticking to one and committing to it. The answer is simple: I do not believe that any ONE therapy can address ALL of Nathan’s needs. Nathan’s cerebral palsy affects him in every way therefore his needs are varied and multi-faceted. Below [...]

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Maybe I jinxed myself. Yesterday I mentioned how well Nathan was doing with his Hbot. Because today, it was a total disaster. We put Nathan in the chamber – as usual. Everything was the same. Then about 15 min’s later Kathie, Nathan’s nurse, went to find me to tell me Nathan was really upset and [...]

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My great friend Amber, Brandon’s mom, is my inspiration for today’s post. She has walked this journey with me from the very beginning, and has been a wonderful friend and support for me all these years. I love her attitude and her perspective. Talking about perspective, below are a few pictures of Nathan’s brain: From [...]

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…is leading us to the California Integrative Hyperbaric Center. Tomorrow. Yes, I mean like, Nathan will be finishing his first Hyperbaric dive in 12 hours. I’m a bit stunned by the speed of it all, and excited. Very excited. I’ve posted here how much I’ve wanted Nathan to receive HBOT. But circumstances never allowed it [...]

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I know this may not look like much…but it’s AWESOME for Nathan. Usually, Nathan’s pelvis is immobile. It’s like he has no pelvis – it has 0 mobility. After 1 week of ABM, he’s starting to realize that he HAS a pelvis and that he can use it to move! In the video it looks [...]

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Today has been a wonderful day. This morning I forgot Nathan’s wheelchair in my car at the mechanics, so when the bus came to pick him up, he couldn’t get on. He gave us a big lip and almost cried! He’s really loving the bus ride, and fortunately they agreed to pick him up last [...]

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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 a lot. I’ve been looking back at the last 4 months, and looking at us now, and feeling … extremely grateful. The Nathan I have in front of me is different from the Nathan that went to Chile four months ago. – After 2 years of 0 growth, his head circumference increased [...]

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…for a reason. I’ve always firmly believed that, and now I’m even more convinced than ever. Let me tell you a couple of stories. The wonderful Cybell started reading this blog some months ago. She found our blog through Sonia’s (Mamaterapeuta’s) blog. When she found out I was in Chile, she emailed me and we [...]

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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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And here he is going for a swim. He LOVES it.

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I’ve noticed that if I allow myself to get overly tired, it’s harder to stay positive. Well a good night’s sleep seems like a childhood memory, it’s been that long since I’ve had one. While in a funky exhausted mood I started dwelling on “The Head”. This is the big ugly monster that terrorizes me [...]

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Eugenia, Mathew’s mom, sent me this video (thanks!!!!): What a wonderful testimonial for HBOT! This, and hundreds of stories like it, is why I feel that I HAVE to give HBOT in a hard chamber a try. We’ve used a soft chamber, but I haven’t seen improvements from it and I think it’s because the [...]

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This is something that I worry about with Nathan. Ramon tells me not to worry – it will come, he says – but worry I do. I was searching around the web and found these articles: Music as a feedback mechanism for teaching head control to severely handicapped children: a pilot study. Sensory feedback for [...]

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Today was Nathan’s first Rolfing appointment. The verdict: INCREDIBLE! Let me tell you the story of how I took Nathan to his first rolfing appointment. About 8 months ago I started going to a hot yoga studio. There is a table there with a bunch of flyers. I noticed one that said “rolfing” but I [...]

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Today I went to a workshop with Anat Baniel. I have one word about it: WOW! The woman is a force of nature! Anat’s method is based on brain plasticity. Her basic premise is that people learn through movement. For a healthy child to learn to roll, he goes through thousands of attempts of tiny, [...]

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Nathan and I have been slowly coming up with our own version of aquatic therapy. He LOVES being in the water! We’ve been getting in pretty much every day since we returned from England. I think it’s his favorite activity of the day. I quickly realized that I could get him to work on his [...]

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Yesterday I spent a couple of hours on the phone with a lady name Kirshner who runs one of the brain injury Yahoo groups: BIA4KIDS. This is one of my favorite groups as most of the parents are very proactive about helping their kids. She shared with me a great deal of information and I [...]

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I’ve had a few people contacting me about Nathan and what we’re doing with him so I thought it might be time for another “Approach” post. Here’s our current approach towards Nathan’s development: Overview We believe that to give Nathan as many opportunities for a good quality of life, we need to help him heal [...]

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A mom in one of  the Yahoo groups I read posted this video: The website for the Israeli group working on this project is: Step of Mind I love hearing about projects like this one!

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I’ve had a stream of people asking me about G-therapy so I figured I’d dedicate my first post back home to this topic. G-therapy was created by a homeopathic doctor in India specifically to treat conditions of the Central Nervous System.  Here’s an excerpt from Hulet Smith’s blog, who has worked with Dr. Oswal: G-therapy [...]

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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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The closing sentence of my meltdown post earlier this week was, “Why won’t anyone throw us a bone”. Well a couple of mornings later a huge bone fell on top of us. We got a call from the Canadian Medek Centre verifying our appointments for the following week. Huh? What? A couple of months ago [...]

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From 4-23-09 This is Nathan in his theratogs. We got an incredible deal for these through Special Child Exchange and Nathan has been using them for a couple of weeks. They are GREAT! They give Nathan a little bit of extra feedback so he tries to keep his body in better posture and alignment. He [...]

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Above are some videos of Nathan during his Anat Baniel therapy. The verdict? I think the therapy was good, but the scenario was not beneficial. To receive this therapy we had to travel to San Diego, break Nathan’s routine, take him away from his house, room, bed, dogs, and especially his DAD, change his scheduled [...]

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