Head and Shoulders

Paxton slept well overnight. It was easy to tell that he was completely exhausted from his last few days in the hospital. He loved that no one was waking him up every three to four hours to take his vital signs and blood pressure. Susanne loved this as well. They were both so thrilled to be back in their own beds. There was nothing like the comfort of our own mattress, our own sheets, and especially our own pillow. It was a little slice of heaven.

Paxton played for a short time on his play gym before he was ready for his morning nap. It was a quick one because he had a therapy session scheduled before noon. Today the therapist focused on working his neck, shoulders, and arms. She agreed with Susanne that he seemed tight in this region and even appeared uncomfortable. He had been crying whenever Susanne would extend his left arm over his head. He usually loved this especially when she would show him that he was SOOOOO BIG. Unfortunately, he didn't care too much for this recently. The therapist felt lots of resistance with any kind of manipulation of the shoulders. She worked on shoulder depression, shoulder extension, shoulder retraction, and general range of motion. She felt that he also had tight muscles at the base of his neck. She taught Susanne how to do different massage techniques to loosen them up. It was amazing the improvement that had occurred by the end of the appointment. He was much more relaxed and the mobility of his arms was so much better. The therapist thought that some of this discomfort could actually be from a strained chest muscle. The location of this discomfort could just be referred pain. Since he did not have much strength in his head and neck, it affected the rest of his body negatively. Hopefully with the new techniques, he would continue to improve and feel better.

Paxton slept most of the afternoon. When he was awake, he would only play for a limited amount of time. This was his typical routine after any kind of stress inducing experience. It was times like these that Susanne made sure to follow Paxton's cues and let him dictate what he needed. Since he napped so much today, Susanne was able to catch up on multiple things that had to be put on the back burner while Paxton was in the hospital. She felt very productive.

Susanne put Paxton down for the night. It was shortly thereafter that she heard a scratch at his door. She quickly realized that Figaro had accidentally gotten shut in the nursery. He was a master of flying under the radar. He often got himself into trouble because he was so sneaky. Susanne finished up what she was working on and then went to rescue the feline in distress. When she opened the door, she could not find him. She first thought that maybe she was hearing things and he wasn't really in the room. Just as she was about to leave, she noticed a furry kitten sleeping on the changing table pad. At least he made the most of being locked away.