Going Alternate.....

Yatish’s school was going fine, but then I was concerned about his head control, which he had not still achieved and sitting in the chair and to keep the head upright was quite a task. We had a therapist coming home to work with Yatish, but we felt the therapy he was getting was not adequate. As Yatish was almost 4 years old, we thought we should explore Biofeedback again. Now the EMG biofeedback facility was available in Asha Rehab.


http://www.ashafoundation.org/asharehab/emgbiofeedback.htm


So what is EMG biofeedback?? Surface electrodes are placed over muscles which have limited or no function. These electrodes do not provide any stimulation, but actually receive the motor neuron activity from the brain, brain stem and spinal cord as it arrives at the muscle site. These electrodes are connected to specially designed computers which process these motor signals accurately and rapidly and present them on a monitor in front of the person. In this way, an individual can actually see how they are utilizing brain, brain stem and spinal cord cells. The feedback is usually in the form of visual or audio signals. This goes hand in hand with physiotherapy.



The process itself was quite intimidating. Yatish would have these surface electrodes connected at specific areas on his body which needed to be stimulated and in his case they were working on the neck muscles and every time he would lift his neck, there would be a beep and if he held it longer, the beep would go longer. Yatish was still too small and it was a big effort to keep the electrodes in place. Each session would cost about 1000Rs and would be done once weekly. The success of the feedback depends a lot on the therapists involved and even though there was an enthusiastic team which was in charge of rehabilitation, we were not sure about their competency levels. So we had to let go of one more attempt.

Yatish had his summer holidays and we thought we should try Ayurvedic treatment. We went to Ayurvedic College run by Adichunchungiri Mutt and the doctor there suggested an oil massage and hot fomentation with some medicinal leaves followed by rubbing the body with rice porridge which had special herbs and a hot water bath. The whole process was laborious to say the least. But for any treatment to be effective we have to give some time to experience any visible changes. They suggested a masseur who would come home to do the massage. He also did Basti or enema therapy which involves introduction of medicated oils or medicinal preparation to the rectum. My study table doubled up as the massage table. The onus of getting the porridge ready and cleaning up the mess after left me completely exhausted. We did this for almost four months, but it showed no visible results in Yatish.

We were really getting desperate, while the mainline therapies were not giving us result; every alternative therapy we tried to follow was equally not working. Somebody suggested us Pranic Healing. It is a healing system developed by Choa Kok Sui. His healing method is derived from ancient yogic and chinese medical systems which helps in accelerating the body’s inherent recovery process. So off we went every weekend to  Master Iyer to take healing sessions for Yatish. Hubby and I also did basic and advanced courses in Pranic Healing. I am not sure if it helped Yatish, but for me it was a good distraction.

http://www.pranichealing.com/what-pranic-healing

I also took him to Yoga Therapy at Vivekananda Yoga Kendra and there was this old grandmotherly lady who actually took care of few mentally challenged older children, whom Yatish called “OM Ajji “, because she made him do OM chanting.

A friend of mine suggested Dr. Ramakrishna, who is a renowned homeopath in Bangalore. While I am not sure it helped his condition, it definitely helped his immunity. He was much healthier than before and slowly the doctor became our family physician.

My journey of demystifying alternative therapies left me totally confused and disillusioned. My observation is that these therapies are very subjective and every person’s experience is different. It may work for some and may not for some. It did not for me!

A ray of hope................

We were going through the net and found this school called Head start School of Montessori and also got to know that along with normal kids they also had a resource room for special kids. We met the Principal, a pleasant lady called Samina Mahmood. She put us on to the Administrator Geeta Nithyanand. They were apprehensive as they had never previously taken in any such child who was so severely involved. All the special children they had, fell into the categories of dyslexia, slow learners or autistic, but none of them with cerebral palsy. It took us three months and countless phone calls and visits before they finally agreed to admit Yatish. They told us that they would take him on a trial basis for two months and if they felt it was not working they would take him off. We were not sure too, as to how it would work. It was just not about going to school but we also had to find a way to make him sit in the school.


http://www.headstartmontessori.com/

We had heard about Mobility India, which made equipments for the disabled. So we fixed an appointment with the Occupational therapist there and got a wooden chair made for Yatish. To say that it was uncomfortable is an understatement. It was made with very basic materials. It had foam, which got really hot and Yatish was absolutely uncomfortable in it. But we had no choice and he had no choice too.

http://www.mobility-india.org/

Yatish was all set to go to school; we also took a house closer to the school, but then the resource room teacher who was in charge of Yatish quit. Again Yatish’s future was uncertain. The administrator told us that they could take in Yatish only if they found a new special educator or else they would not admit Yatish. Between all this we had met Dr. Pratibha Karanth, a Speech Language Pathologist, who runs a programme called Deall for autistic kids. She suggested an Occupational Therapist for Yatish and we met Bhaskaran, who had just started his practice. He is one of the most dedicated therapists I have met. He introduced me to one of his patient’s mother, who happened to be a special educator and she was looking for work. Thus I not only found a school for Yatish, but also a teacher for him.

Yatish started with 45 minutes classes. I would drop him at school and wait outside for him to finish his 45 minutes. This went on for 15 days and slowly increased his time to one hour and then slowly to 3 hours and I would go in between to feed Yatish as the teachers were not sure how to do it or you can say it was not part of their job. Anyways I did not mind it much. I was very happy that he was schooling and seemed to enjoy it. The two month trial period was over and Yatish had settled well and he went on to complete two academic years in this school.

This was one of the happiest periods for Yatish. He loved going to school and was part of most of the activities in school. He also had play dates with other kids and I made few friends as well. In his second year, two young teachers who were twins joined the school and one of the twins Dipti was in charge of Yatish. I have not seen so much commitment in such a young person. She worked with Yatish tirelessly to make his stay in school worthwhile. Yatish was the darling of most of the teachers who were predominantly women because Yatish never missed a chance to compliment them on their dress and jewellery.

The Montessori Method is quite suited for disabled kids. In fact it was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, based on her research conducted on the disabled children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_method

This whole experience resolved me to make a decision that I would strive to school Yatish in an inclusive environment.