To the Awesome Ms. E, Tony’s Super Cool PT

Ms. E came into our world a little over a year ago after her clinic responded to a vendor call from our support services coordinator seeking an in-home physical therapist willing to work with our little man. In-home PT’s are hard to come by on our side of town, and nobody could be found, but I decided to go with this clinic’s opening because they were at least closer to my house. I am ever so glad that I did.

Ms. E demonstrated her patience from day one by tolerating with exceptional grace one of my “this is what you are getting into…are you sure you really feel comfortable taking this case?” shakedowns. As we’ve discussed before, Tony’s just adorable- but I can be a lot to handle sometimes. Of greater importance to me however, is the patience and love she shows to our son.

I greatly appreciate her competence, her professionalism, and that she has always listened to my feedback on things pertaining to Tony’s treatment. Ms. E has melted my heart on more than one occasion with the way she interacts with him. She demonstrates such concern for Tony’s welfare and moving him forward in all areas, I knew I could ask for her help in getting Tony to generalize compliance with going potty at the request of others. I am so grateful she prompts him in PT every week, because this is a skill we’re working on for school readiness. And, she does a great job of recognizing when he needs a sensory break.

In the end though, no statement I make can ever speak as eloquently as a refusal from Tony to leave. He has indicated on more than one occasion that he wanted to stay and keep working with Ms. E, and that says a great deal about how comfortable he feels with her, because he’s almost always happy to go. Ms. E, we love you. Thank you for putting up with me, for making my Wednesdays brighter, and for being so good to our son.

Some Doing to Consider

Originally, I had planned for some recommendations on reading this month, but I had an experience this past week that caused me to defer those to next month. While I love to read, the truest thing I can ever tell you any month is that what you do matters far more than what you read, and this month, I’m going to ask you to consider focusing more on doing.

I was walking with my little man around the streets of our community, working on direction flexibility. He has this new thing where he likes to take off his shoes and he refuses to put them back on, and we’re in the blister and burn season over here. Now, I do take him out for this therapy target early enough that the ground isn’t yet hot enough to burn him. From the sensory standpoint I’m delighted he’s willing to walk around barefoot outside, yet there are certain inescapable safety issues that make a refusal to keep shoes on a risk to Tony a good chunk of the day.

He had just tried banging his head on the sidewalk because I had put a shoe back on his foot, when Owen approached me and asked if I needed help. I explained the situation, and he and his wife Patty came over and walked with Tony and I back to our house. They helped me keep his shoes on. When Tony tried to calm himself by chewing on Patty’s arm, she just gently looked at me and said that he needed oral input. She understood, because they too have a kiddo on the spectrum.

Look, I have absolutely no desire to make anyone feel badly for me or about themselves, but I’ve been all over the streets in our area, and probably hundreds, and I do mean hundreds, of people have seen me in situations far more dramatic. Some of them have even stopped their cars, picked up their cell phones, and sat agonizing at the side of the road trying to figure out if they needed to call and report a possible kidnapping- because of the dramatic nature of his meltdowns on those occasions, I can only assume.

In all of that time though, I have only had one person pop out of their house to check if I was OK (a teacher from one of our local schools), and one other person (A.M.) offer to give me a ride home. When I assured both of those individuals I had things under control, they went about their ways. Those offers brought me so much joy because of their rarity, but Patty and Owen (who did not know our family prior to this incident) took things a step farther by walking with me and making sure I was OK. Nothing about what they did was hard, anybody could have done it, and yet they are the first people to have done so. And it meant everything to my day, to my week, and to my heart.

You may not see someone out doing public therapy with their kiddo, you may not run into any situations that look like ours this month, but I am sure you will come across someone who needs help and a kind word. So this month- and every month- I am recommending doing over reading. Though don’t you worry, if you want a stack of reading also, I’ll be giving you some things to consider for that again next month 😉