Author: katherineambos

Today was the Annual Mike Gregoire Memorial Golf Tournament. We are grateful that Madison was one of the recipients of funds raised in this year’s tournament for her rehabilitation fund. Madison just turned 2 and has already received more therapy then probably most people who attended tonight – and we think we had an astounding 250+ people in attendance which was fabulous!

Being exposed to all her services from such a young age has drastically improved her physical development and she continues to make huge gains each and every day.

Right now Madison uses her walker and braces to try and walk independently, but it is our hope that with continued support through her therapies that she will one day be able to walk unassisted. In fact one of her therapists believes she will be able to take 2 independent steps by the end of October.

We are not sure what the future will hold for Madison in terms of therapies, surgeries, medication and equipment she may need so we are extremely grateful for everyone who attended the golf tournament today, those who donated and provided silent auction and door prizes. Thank you for supporting us to help give Madison everything she will need to be the person that she wants to be.

We want to thank Lisa, Patrick and Jessica Gregoire for thinking of us when deciding on who they wanted to help through the tournament. We are so appreciative for their support.

We also want to thank the organizing committee – Gerry, Kathleen, Theresa, Marianne and as well all of our family and friends who continue to support us and Madison. Many people help us through taking Madison to appointments, different therapies, helping us talk through important decisions, following our blog and loving her so much with their kind words and giving spirit.

Thank you to all the volunteers today who were out on the course all day, setting up the silent auction and 50-50 draw and to Deer Creek for hosting us today and providing excellent food and service.

Today was an extremely successful tournament. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves and thank you again for participating and honoring Mike, our families and supporting Madison.

 

Madison loves to help around the house.  She especially was interested in helping James today as he built her new big girl bed. Madison handed him screws and held onto the bars. She loved using the rails to help her walk around.  Her new room is slowly coming together.

She also helped Dada type on the computer which is her new love. She knows the keys for the letters A, B and C. Madison will be the one writing her own blogs in no time.

After having some playtime with Elmo at Grandma Sandra’s house, Madison worked with Stephanie in the afternoon at Variety Village. They started with a warm up doing crawling up to an object, kneeling to stand up, pivoting back to a kneeling position and then back to crawling. They then worked on walking with a new hip brace. The hip brace is to help open up Madison’s hips to then help her legs and knees stay straight and not bump against each other. Stephanie let Madison borrow the brace and she is to use it over the next few weeks whenever she is practicing her walking.

Madison visited the Grandview Oshawa location today to meet with Dr. Watt. He is a Developmental Paediatrician of 30 plus years who specializes in rehabilitation in children with CP. He works out of Alberta but visits Toronto every few months to work with families from Grandview. He was excellent!!! He met with us for 1.5 hours. He talked to us about everything from dealing with the emotions around diagnosis, options for therapy, short term goals and long term goals, confirming diagnosis and possible future surgeries and treatment options. He confirmed that we are on the right track with our choice of therapies for Madison and that a good short term option for treating her tone is Botox. He was very knowledgeable with what people are doing in other countries,  current research and studies that are being done and educated us on things to stay away from or look for in inappropriate therapies. He was very happy to hear that Madison will be receiving an MRI at Sick Kids of both her brain and her spine and he would also like Madison to have a hip x-ray done. He loved working with Madison and assessing her and would like to see her again in 6 months to review imaging and see how she responds to Botox. He was a breath of fresh air and we learned so much in our short time with him. We feel extremely lucky to have a doctor with his experience and expertise looking out for Madison’s best interests and helping guide us through the next few years.

Madison then spent her evening with Nana & Papa while we went to the golf course to stuff golfers bags for the upcoming golf tournament this Sunday. Madison and Nana read a special new book from our friend Bonnie. Bonne dropped by tonight with items for the golf tournament and a special Blue Jays ball and a horse stuffy to go with her special new horse book. She tried to take some selfies with Papa and then was sad when they couldn’t play anymore and had to go to bed.

Madison ended up passing out from her busy day. She still tries to fight bedtime so she can play, but with all her activity lately bedtime is starting earlier and earlier.

Madison had a great afternoon with her Aunts Suzanne and Janine. She had a big nap, ate some grilled cheese and went to March of Dimes for her new Conductive Ed class. She worked really hard with Monika doing free standing reaching for objects,  walking with ropes and walking using chairs. We are thrilled Madison will be going for classes every Wednesday until mid December!

Madison also cheered on the Jays as they clinched their division…in Madison’s words “Yay Blue Jays!”

There is so much that we love about Madison’s new school that it’s hard to highlight everything. We all work so hard on Madison’s physical skills that she is trying to develop, but we love how her school is also working hard on her cognitive learning skills like an average 2 year old. Madison has quiet time everyday for 15 minutes where she works 1:1 with her volunteer or teacher on different skills. Right now she is learning her numbers, colours and shapes. It’s so nice to read her home journal everyday when they share with us how much Madison loves to learn and how well she is doing.

On a totally seperate topic…we were thrilled to find out today that Madison’s upcoming botox shots were approved for coverage from our insurance company! ! Apparently it’s rare to have coverage so we were happy they accepted our doctors letter of recommendation.

Before dinner we convinced Madison to go for a walk in her walker. She has been using her school one more throughout the day so she hasn’t been too interested at night using hers. We told her she would see Pam on her walk so she decided to go. Her walking is getting alot better. She is also more confident in her walker turning around and walking on uneven ground.

After a super late night partying with family, Madison spent the day in her pj’s playing around the house with Carter & Stitch. She decided she wanted to race Carter around the house on her bike. With the help of Dada she did many laps. She can almost touch the pedals herself!

A reminder that the Mike Gregoire Memorial Golf Tournament is one week away! Thank you to everyone who has registered for either golf or dinner. The silent auction items are also looking really good. We are looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Madison had a fantastic time on Saturday celebrating at Andrew & Domenica’s wedding. She was very excited to wear her puffy princess dress. Mama has decided to stock up on tights as they can only be worn once because of the Velcro on her AFO’s. She loved playing in the church pews with Nate, side stepping back and forth and pointing at all the stain glass windows.

She sat in her first booster chair at the ceremony. She loved pointing and looking at all the different colours of lights and how they changed the look of the flowers. She ate lots! Pasta, cheese, apples, rice, chicken, potatoes, bread, veggies and the yummy chocolate ice cream dessert.

We were all very grateful for the wedding donation to March of Dimes Conductive Education Program on behalf of all the guests that Andrew and Domenica made. Her favorite part of the night was dancing! She figured out that if she was held while standing on the ground she could rock side to side and clap her hands to the beat. She danced with Aunt Nadia, Uncle Mark and Nana & Papa. She loved it so much she partied until 11pm! Congratulations on a beautiful wedding Andrew & Domenica!

Madison has a mild obsession with her new baby doll to say the least. Mama and Dada have taken advantage of this obsession for therapy purposes. Madison makes the baby sit on the ground and then she will sit by herself on the ground. The baby is then put on its knees so Madison goes on her needs.  The baby stands tall on the ground so Madison tries to stand tall on the ground. Once the therapy session was finished Madison put her baby to bed and then decided she should go into bed with her baby too. She is loving her new baby and bed from Nana and Papa – and based on all the new things she has been doing since she got it –  Mama and Dada love it too!