Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Loved By Many


Being Loved

Maggie Dykstra and Emma Allison:
Their lives with cerebral palsy.


Maggie Dykstra
On Tuesday, November 25, 2014, in Bettendorf, Iowa, Maggie Dykstra 
and her nurse Melody Sereda play at home. Melody helps Maggie get 
into her stander to play with bead necklaces. Maggie also sits in her 
Tomato chair and colors with crayons. Melody lets Maggie chose which 
color crayon to use by putting the crayons on her fingers and letting 
Maggie touch the one she wants. Maggie also uses this way of 
communicating for yes and no questions.  

Melody helps Maggie three days a week. Maggie also has three other 
nurses that go to school with her. A nurse comes, Monday through 
Friday and stays from 7am to 4:30 or 5:00pm. During this time the 
nurses ride to school with her, feed her, give her medicines, do therapy 
and stretches, change her diaper, and watch for seizure activity.

The braces Maggie wears are called AFOs. She wears these while she 
is in the stander and gait trainer, which is a walking device. This machine 
is called a gait trainer because your step is called a gait.

Maggie is fed 230 mL of formula and 80 mL of water every three hours 
through a feeding tube connected to a 60 mL syringe. The feeding tube 
is connected to a MIC-KEY low profile gastronomy feeding tube in her 
stomach, which is replaced every three months. This is called a bolus feed. 
Over night she is put on a feeding pump, which feeds her 60 mL per hour, 
totaling 720 mL per night.

On Monday and Thursday of every week Maggie attends physical therapy. 
On Thursday, the occupational therapist and physical therapist co-treat. 
She also goes to water therapy on Tuesday. The physical therapist 
tries to strengthen Maggie’s core and trunk muscles to help her stand 
and sit. Maggie’s occupational therapy tries to strengthen her neck 
control, trunk control, and grasping with ease on her hands. Her 
favorite thing to do is ride her bike at therapy and school.




















Emma Allison
On Monday, December 1, 2014, in Morrison, Illinois, Emma Allison enjoys 
going to physical education and art. Emma says that her favorite subject 
is math. Emma was born 10 weeks premature and had Grade 3 IVH. At the 
time of her birth, the parents were told that she would most likely have 
cerebral palsy. At the age of two the official diagnosis was made.


The walker Emma uses throughout her day is called a reversible Kaye 
Walker. Emma has been attending some type of therapy since she 
was six months old. Today, Emma has a private therapist, but she 
also receives Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy through 
school. She receives all of her therapies are once a week.








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