After a wonderful week's vacation, we pick up where we left off: rehab. Monday morning may not be Ella-Marie's most favorite time, but once we arrive in picturesque Pulle, the gates of Harry Potter's Hogwarts open ... or rather Pulderbos, where miracles and magic also happen. By popular demand, below comes a summary of Ella-Marie's doings at the rehabilitation center.
Also vacation in Pulderbos
Also in type 5 of education (the hospital schools), the school
gates closed. Normally, Ella-Marie gets at least 2 hours of lessons
every day. At that time, she receives almost individual guidance,
as only 1 or 2 classmates join her at school.
In consultation with the teachers of the IMG and the school teacher
of the Pulderbos, Ella-Marie still gets some entertaining lessons.
These are taught by volunteers. We were allowed to bring our
daughter to class once and saw teacher Ines welcoming Ella-Marie
with broad smiles. Together with teacher Griet she made sure that
math and language continue to develop in the half active brain. We
do not know the results yet, because we will have another parent
contact in 9 days.
Even without sunshine Ella-Marie shines
At the living group itself, Ella-Marie is feeling REALLY good. To such an extent even, that we notice more and more that she asks to go to the group even though we are visiting. And let's be honest ... we totally understand. On the list of side activities:
- Braiding hair
- Painting nails
- TikTok dancing
- Karaoke
- Drawing
- Baking cakes
For Ella-Marie, these are one-by-one hits. But also during these activities she is challenged in fun ways. After all, how can you get your nails painted if you hold your hand in a fist? Right, she learns to relax her fingers. A TikTok dance requires a lot of effort, but the outcome is always beautiful. Making drawings, where she learns that a leaf also has a left half, seems like something trivial to us, but here too she learns daily.
And may we also poke fun at the tutors themselves? For how many comparisons we see with special education teachers. They too really live in function of the children. And the concept of 24/7 in this case may really be taken literally, because "care" does not take time off. Every day, every hour and every minute the caregivers are running around, singing, jumping, washing and educating. They know the children inside out and will adapt their approach to the child's needs. Are they having a bad day themselves? You won't notice it from them! We can honestly say that we have never had one negative experience. Again and again we hear laughter and singing. Again and again they look for the best way for the children to forget their medical problems. And again and again they succeed. Chapeau!
Speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and PPD
The core of the rehabilitation story, of course, is Ella-Marie's physical progress. And it is vital that she continues to practice this daily. This is why we see blocks of half or full hours of work coming back on the schedule every day. At the speech therapist, they are extremely satisfied. Ella-Marie talks well and the language center in the brain is not affected. Therefore, they practice mainly on the mouth image itself. The left corner of the mouth sometimes dares to drop a little. When we ask Ella-Marie what she likes about logo, besides the speech therapist herself, it is mainly the facial massages. With the fingertips the cheeks are loosened and recently we received the nice message that "the corner of the mouth is waking up again"!
Then over to the physio, which you have already seen a fun video of. The physiotherapy team has an inexhaustible imagination. New exercises are invented every day to ensure that there is a balance between challenge and success experience. With smiles and thousands of encouragements, the physiotherapists ensure that Ella-Marie learns quickly. And time is also made for a zen moment here, as there are occasional stretching and massage sessions. Enjoy! :-)
At the ergo, Ella-Marie learns to cope with her left arm. The patience shown by the occupational therapist is admirable. With a lot of knowledge and clearly also a lot of love for Ella-Marie, progress is made little by little. Where there was no feeling in the arm after the operation, we now see the shoulder, the elbow and even the wrist already making some movements. The fine motor skills in the fingers will never return, but she has been learning to grasp something since this week. And yes, today she proudly showed how she could hold an object for several seconds anyway!
Finally, standard PPD is also on the agenda. The psychopedagogical service takes care of Ella-Marie's well-being. It is therefore much more than a simple weekly chat. To get through to Ella-Marie, there are all kinds of talks. About that dirty disease "epilepsy," about the surgery and about rehabilitation. We notice that Ella-Marie feels very good and also indicates that she is happy to be able to have the conversations. Sometimes she then also gives a whole explanation of what was discussed, but it can also be that she says "I want to keep that to myself for a while".
Other activities
Pulderbos itself also does a theme week each week during the vacations. Just after our vacation, the Olympic Games were held. With great pride Ella-Marie showed her 2 medals. A wheelchair course was completed with laughter (again, clearly thanks to the supervisors :-)).
And a wonderful bike ride from the wheelchair provided much needed vitamin D (the sun) and vitamin S (the smile).
And also Kazou came to visit. They did a real camp, where we really saw Ella-Marie grow. Socially, she took a step forward, as during a walk she spontaneously asked to sign with the group. Also, the sincere "THANK YOU WELLLL" at the end of the camp, showed that she really enjoyed it. The highlight of the week was the masked ball. Mom and Dad went to the attic to find another mask, because Ella-Marie wanted to be the star of the evening. What do you think when you see the picture below? Successful or not! :-)
Needless to say, thanks to all the positive help from Pulderbos, an Ella-Marie can show a super wide smile during the weekdays. The progress is a miracle in itself ... maybe they do a little magic in Pulderbos after all? :-)