Burning up the treadmill…or vice versa

March 21, 2010

As I’ve mentioned before, this was week 1 (of 8) of the intensive treadmill study for Nathan through Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The premise of the study is to work with kids with CP and see if they can develop endurance and strength working on a treadmill (suspended via a LiteGait.) There are three sessions a week, one of which is Nathan’s regular weekly PT session with Abbi. For the time that it takes to get setup in the LiteGait harness, attached to the overhead arm and other prep work, it’s about 35-40 actual minutes possible on the treadmill a day.

For Nathan, his days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Monday and Thursday are with a different PT, who works with Abbi so secrets and tips are shared and very little can be pulled over on them. That doesn’t mean that Nathan won’t try. The first day Nathan saw Liz and wanted to see how much he could get away with. He was reluctant to show any effort, even acting like he couldn’t stand in the LiteGait. He made her do almost all of the burning a hole in his shoe work, moving his feet with her arms, one after the other. Occasionally she would stop giving the support to see what he would do and see if he would step on his own at any point. He just hung there, letting his feet fall behind him and drag on the end of the belt. It even got so bad the first day, he burned a hole in the top of one of his shoes.

Toward the end of the session, we learned if we put a rubber ball on the treadmill (that would roll towards him) he thought that was the funniest thing ever. He started to show the tiniest desire to kick at it, but still not showing Liz anything to build expectations. The worst was when we finally got done. She got him out of the harness, and I sat with him putting his coat on. Liz commented about how he probably had Jell-O legs for working so long without complaining. He didn’t do a lot of work, but many of the other kids didn't have the patience for the whole time the first day.

Liz headed back to her office, and I got him up to his feet and faced him toward the lobby. As soon as he couldn’t see her, and was convinced she couldn’t see him, he strutted like a peacock out to the lobby. His giggle gave away that he knew what he thought he was getting away with. He walked all the way to the door, but as soon as he got to the opening, he dropped. He had to make sure that no one (especially Liz) was in the lobby to see his new stunt, that little booger!

Tuesday (with Abbi) was a little better. Annette was there too, and we had the ball ready from the start as well as the Backyardigans video, and I was set to walk along side on another treadmill. He showed some progress, but still nothing like we think he’s capable of. He lasted the whole session, but again, Abbi did most of the work.

Thursday (8 a.m.) with Liz was better than the first day as well, but he began to try a new trick. Instead of walking or letting his feet drag, he was trying to pull them up and tuck both his knees to his chest. I was impressed that for a guy with very little tummy muscles, he would hold his legs up for 4-5 seconds at a time. It’s not the result the study is looking for, but we’re willing to take any extra muscle building we can get. Even though he wasn’t doing as much dragging that day, someone apparently smelled something else burning as when we were wrapping up, the receptionist came in from the lobby saying, “It’s okay, the fire department is on the way, we’re just supposed to all exit the building now.” Sure enough, there was a fire truck out there as I was getting Nathan strapped into the car. We saw no fire and couldn't smell anything odd ourselves, but it was an interesting way to start the morning.

Hopefully Nathan will learn that this is something we’ll be doing for a while, that it’s for his own good and he’ll start to comply a little better. If we weren’t so convinced that he knows what he’s doing (or not doing) I think we’d be a little more discouraged, but if we can get him to start showing off and quit being so shy, he could really get more people excited about him. Seven more weeks to go, many more miles to step. It’s a long road Nathan, and we’re all in it together for the long haul.

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