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If I had been in a war with
therapy before it could be compared to an ice cream Sunday as equaled to
jalapeno peppers. We moved into Mother’s rent house because Rodney had
taken a big cut in salary. The house was really old with only one bedroom.
Rodney put a floor into the connecting garage, opened up the wall and gave
us space for a dining area and another bedroom. The tiny kitchen served
and that was all. I had grown up living in the apartment at times since
this was originally my grandmother’s property. The space, or lack of
space, didn’t bother me. Once in a while, now, I will dream I’m having to
move back into the place and in my mind I’m trying to decide what to do
with furniture, floor coverings, windows and such.
This new therapy was taught
to us and every six months we were to go back to one of Doman-Delacato’s
offices for evaluation. The daily, seven day a week program taxed me to
the limit. We had to be at the fire station by five thirty in the morning
since one of the mother’s was a nurse and had to be at work very early.
That alone was a daily grind. The men of Ponca City’s fire department
volunteered to help us. The exercises requirerd five people, at least. She
was to be flat on her stomach while in rhythm each person moved one of her
limbs and head, alligator fashion to simulate a crawl. Probably some
evolutionist had come up with the method in a belief it was a basic step
man must have programed into his development. It didn’t matter where or
what the theory was to me. The fact being it was exercise and this is what
Rhonda needed.
The systematic training was
performed every hour for eight minutes. So, instead of the few stretching
repetitive push and pull work-outs I had practiced before no way compared
to this. One person could do maybe thirty stretching exercises on each
limb twice a day. This new method was about four stretching motions on
each limb every five seconds. Or approximately 48 strokes every minute, or
384 in eight minutes and it was done for each limb in unison. This was a
far cry from the exercise therapy Rhonda had before. Each session was just
for one eight minute length. She had 8 sessions a day, one every hour.
After the eight minutes
were up Rhonda was put on a long rug where she had to crawl on her belly
much like the army maneuvers where men crawl under barb wire. For some
reason she never rebelled as she had done with the braces. One of their
requirement was to totally take the braces off. There was no love lost in
that.
After crawling on the rug
we went into a dark room to try to stimulate her brain activity by using
the muscles in her eyes. A machine with a light bulb was timed to come on
and off for five minutes. This exercise was, of course, painless.
After we finished we went
to the academic part of the program when Rhonda was taught words according
to categories. There was white house, green house, tree house, ice house,
hill house, big house, little house, brick house, chicken house, farm
house, and so and so forth. After she had learned these we went to another
such as bicycle, tricycle, motor cycle, unicycle, bicycle for two, and so
on. There were books to learn to read. The first one read: nose is nose
and toes are toes but nose is not toes, and so on. This was before Dr.
Seuss so it was fun and Rhonda learned to read right away. I was amazed
and unbelieving.
There were tactile
exercises, too, we did at this time. I sewed her a bag and put small
objects in there. She was to reach in and identify the objects. This was
to create a picture in her brain teaching her to see the object with her
hands as so many women do daily when they riffle through their purses to
try to find a lipstick or their car keys. After these were finished it was
time to go back to the 8 minutes of physical therapy, which was called
patterning.
We kept this therapy up for
four years, finally exhausting the men at the fire department. Some were
true blue and came to our home on schedule. The churches found volunteers.
I had 40 people a day go through my home, 280 a week. Rhonda made great
strides. Her appetite improved and she would eat. She was enjoying
reading, though haltingly. The child no longer woke at night screaming
with leg cramps. This alone was a blessing and well worth the work
involved.
We had used up all our
volunteers and we finished up the forth year with my sister exercising a
leg and arm and myself her other leg and arm. Rhonda was strong enough by
now that she could turn her own head in rhythm.
Debt for medical expenses
and other expenses was well over 30,000. and we took bankruptcy. The judge
granted our filing with not even a comment or question. I kept my head up
high while I was on the stand in the courtroom as we faced our creditors.
The judge seemed to have a look of unity with me. It was the hardest thing
I have ever had to do, well other than, the therapy itself. |
