Monday with the Team Doubled

Monday, with the team doubled

The rest of our group arrived over the weekend – everyone who is coming is now here, including six occupational therapy students from St. Catherine University.

The whole group after Sunday night supper, before our team meeting

And now, meet Juan. He is a delightful 15 year old who remembered Sammie and Tamara from a past wheelchair fitting. Juan has really tight hamstring muscles – the big muscle that crosses both the hip and the knee joint. This means that he cannot straighten out his legs when he lies down, and in order to sit tall he must have his feet tucked under him a bit.

When Juan lies on his back his legs fall to one side because they can’t straighten out. Over time this is hard on his hips and his spine.

Today Juan and his parents learned about this dynamic with assistance from Hammie, our new teaching tool. Hammie is a simplified anatomical model that can demonstrate posture problems related to tight hamstring and hip flexor muscles in sitting and lying.

Hammie and Juan stretch out together on the mat

We had a chat with Juan about learning to sleep a new way at night, to help stretch out his legs and keep his back straight – he is a clever guy and agreed to work with his parents on this. We were able to refurbish his tilt in space wheelchair with new seating and a bunch of adjustments, and sent him on his way with his parents looking great!

Juan looking good in his wheelchair, refurbished to work well for him awhile longer.