I'm STREAKING!!!!!

So I realize it's a little early but May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month, and as part of the campaign to raise awareness and funds people are asked to "streak" throughout the month...

"Pediatric stroke survivors work hard everyday, whether it’s doing therapy or finding a way to adapt a task, and we will honor their hard work by committing to a 31 day streak." The streaking is run by the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association (CHASA) and you can read more about what the streaking donation go towards on my sponsor page...

Tri to Streak Sponsor Page

My particular streak will be training for a triathlon. The tri I'm lookin to do is actually the 19th of May which is why I'm getting started a little early! I can use all the training my butt can get :-) Now there are a few reasons I decided to do a Tri as my streak.

#1- For Annabelle. It's hard and it can be painful. It's even harder when the majority of your training days you gotta get up at 4:45am before work. I want to be an example for Annabelle, so she knows that she can do anything and overcome huge obstacles by working hard at it, even if it's hard and not always a ton of fun.

#2- I started going to the gym, just in general, a few months ago because my BMI was creeping awfully close to the "obese" category (no lie, ugggggh). Now that I'm down a few I wanted to do something to keep myself motivated, and what better way than publicly doing a tri and not wanting to make a fool of myself. I want to stay as healthy as I possibly can for my little girl. If she ends up needing a lot of help as an adult I want to make sure I'm around to be there for her.

#3- For myself. Since starting to get more healthy I have felt better about myself, had more energy and overall been a better mom to Annabelle. It's been a great way to channel my frustration, anxiety and sadness over her diagnosis and all that comes with it. Go figure I also have a higher tolerance for her naughty toddler behavior that has started even before hittin the "2 year-old" mark.

So those are some of the reasons. I'll try to update any interesting things about training on here, in addition to Annabelle's awesomeness. Speaking of which, thanks to the hubby, I have figured out how to get videos and pics off my iPad and onto my computer so I can put up Annabelle's before and after botox gait videos!

Brushed our own hair AFTER mama already put it in a ponytail!

Botox round 1

So we went ahead and did it in the beginning of January. I was hoping to put up some pics of "before and after", particularly with her ankle and gait so that I could go "Oh gosh, look at what a difference!" But alas, that ankle still was collasping in a fair amount. And the night splint we had made for her to stretch out her calf muscles was too tight and we had some skin breakdown... so she got casted and I couldn't see her ankle anyway.

Before- Lefty ankle collapsing in and some hyperextension at the knee

     

Her gait did in fact look much better with the cast on. There was a lot less hyperextending of the knee, her hips were more equal and her squats were much better. And once the cast came off, OMG the ability to stretch that girl... it was fantastic, stretches had not been that easy since she was little little!

After- casted and running around

I think lefty arm benefited the most from the botox, Annabelle was much easier to stretch here as well BUT the huge thing has been her paying much more attention to lefty arm! It's kind of funny sometimes because she'll treat her hand like another friend "Hi lefty, hi lefty." and "Lefty open". She's also reaching out from the elbow much more on her own to chase after bubbles and using lefty to help hold her babies, because we need to carry around at least 2! We're still working at her actually grabbing but on her own, because that's the only way girlfriend likes to do things, she has opened lefty and grabbed objects a few times!!!

Overall we will likely continue to do botox in the future as we saw a benefit with a total low dose for her weight. I think next time we will see about increasing the amount of drug that goes into her leg and maybe slightly higher in the arm and thumb, it wore off awfully quick!

Making Valentine's to send out to the fam!