A happy reunion

Posted on: 12/09/2016

I am forever delaying posting updates, in the hope of good news to report. We do have some good news, although not as much as I had hoped. Our trip to Spain was fine, if a little hard work. Ava is having increasing difficultly with her posture, owing to weak core muscles, essentially through not walking enough. So being away from home can present many problems, as she struggles to stabilise herself on different chairs and there isn't always somewhere to sit where she can feel secure. Her difficulties with balance mean that she has a heightened sensation of falling, so she is constantly tensing herself in anticipation. She has therefore been quite stiff on holiday and harder to physically handle. Thankfully we were able to loosen her up with a lot of swimming and walking in the water. On the plus side, it was lovely to see our old friends and Angelina's Godparents, Hilario & Angie. They are not in the best of health, but they always welcome us as family and are great company. Angelina was also thrilled to do some more waterskiing and showed remarkable skill for someone of her age and experience. Once home, Angelina started senior school, which has been extremely positive. She has settled in immediately and made some nice new friends. Ava went back to school a few days later, but unfortunately things haven't gone so smoothly. Her new teaching assistant is unable to walk with Ava without hurting her back, so Ava is spending most of her day sitting down. This is far from satisfactory, as it will only serve to weaken Ava's core muscles further. I'm going into school more to walk Ava across the playground regularly and on Wednesday we are going to do a trial of new walking frames which could fully support Ava without the need of assistance, in order that she can take one to school and get back on her feet. If successful, there will likely be a delay of several weeks in actually getting one, but let's hope we can at least find something that works.