Physical Therapy 101

Our main project while we are in Jamaica this year is not physically demanding or challenging like we have been used to in past years, yet it is a very important one to the wheelchair bound residences of Mustard Seed and all who love them.

Today was spent at My Fathers House, Day One of a week-long measuring project that will start the process of fitting residents for their customized wheelchairs. We split our team into two groups, each having a measurer, a note taker- going through all possible customized options & needs of the individual with the caregivers, a videographer/ photographer to relay the additional thousand words back to the fabricators of these customized chairs, and someone to help the caregiver keep the kids as calm & relaxed as possible throughout. It wasn't until we were going through this process in conjunction with speaking to their caregivers that I really understood that their current chairs, which are mostly second-hand, really do not fit the needs of their very unique body shapes and disabilities/abilities, thus hindering them in many ways.  These new chairs , which are essentially their individual 'homes', will allow for more mobility, interaction, comfort and rehabilitation. That thought puts a huge smile on my face, as I am sure it does for everyone else who has had any interaction with these great kids & young adults.

After measuring all the residents we enjoyed a game of wheelchair football [ American style:) ] with some of the boys. Devon, who takes a little bit longer to warm up, lit up as soon as he saw the football. He has a great throwing arm and is able to propel himself pretty fast with his feet. Ty Ty, when not uncontrollably laughing at Kevin and Andrew fighting for the ball, was awesome at protecting the ball as we raced him down the courtyard to get a touchdown. Marcus and Ramon went from being bystanders to players. Marcus was giving Devon some extra pointers on throwing the ball, while Ramon was pretty quick and kept stealing the ball. Dwight enjoyed watching all the activity from his front row seat. It was nice to see boys just being boys. We were no longer focusing on their disabilities -- rather on all their great abilities.

~ Suzanne (4th year)