Today was a big step in Madison’s journey, both as a toddler and a child who battles with CP.
Madison went to her “big kid” school this morning to visit for the first time. Starting in September, Madison will be attending Junior Kindergarten at St. Elizabeth Seaton Catholic Elementary in Pickering. She will be fully integrated into a full day kindergarten program with a class size of 30. It was an amazing first visit! She walked around the school with her Principal, Vice Principal and two members of her school support team. She went into a JK classroom and joined them for morning circle and calendar. She then went with them to the library to build in their tech section and played at a train table. She met her Vice Principals fish and got to choose some stickers. She LOVED it and was sad to have to leave. She will be registered in January, have her first team meeting in April with members from her preschool program and team at Grandview and will visit again in June and then August to make sure all equipment and everything that she needs is in place. They will also share with us in April her classroom schedule so we can plan her therapy in advance as she will be doing some half days during her first year of school to accommodate her rehab. They are also going to apply for support and what they need from the board now so we have all options available to discuss for the meeting in April. It was truly an amazing and relieving first visit.
After her school visit it was time to go to Grandview. “No needles… No needles” she told us the whole way in the car. Madison received her LAST BOTOX INJECTIONS today. Dr Park predicts that Madison will never need Botox again after her surgery. Based on the timing from when she last had the injections and when the Botox needs to be fully gone for the surgery, we had a tight window to have one more set of injections to help her get through until the spring. We were so happy they were the last ones- today was the worst they have ever been because of her awareness to the situation. She screamed and cried and tried to move off the table. 3 adults had to hold her down to the table while Dr Mason used his ultrasound machine to guide the injections…. 8 needles! As always she rebounded quickly and was then happy to have her bravery toy.
Madi and Jack were happy to have a quiet afternoon playing in the basement after such a busy morning.
Madi Moves 