Tuesday, July 3, 2012

ABR Faith

Back in a post in May, I mentioned the changes in Missy's arm, shoulder and hand functions. These negative changes in Missy's function brought some very dark days for me especially and but of course huge frustration for Missy.

With the mainstream therapy options, offering very little for Missy’s Dystonic CP Rehab, we have been doing ABR for 6 years now, and obviously have a lot of faith in Leonid Blyum's ABR Therapy:

'The objective of ABR is to restore proper tone to the smooth muscles/internal myofascia, which in a cascade effect restores proportions and alignment of the skeleton. During this process, the muscle tone is normalized and the arms and legs develop increasing muscle mass, normal range of mobility, and finally: sufficient strength - so that the children can develop their movements in normal spontaneous ways'


We have been focused of Missy's arms and shoulders for the last two years in particular and have seen the ABR techniques change and evolve of the years with the recent upgrades to the ABR Techniques // TransFascial Viscoelastic Applications proving really powerful.

In May, after working around Missy's elbows and between her shoulder blade and C7 for a couple of months we saw Missy arm function become more difficult and started getting locked in arm positions and the more she tried the harder it got. I took a short video of Missy struggling and sent it to Leonid for his advice; a quick and detailed response came back. Leonid explained the changes happening and while the negative outcomes seemed frustrating, he could see some positive changes and assured us we would get pass this and assigned us some new target areas.

Supported by ABR Asia- Sarah we got stuck into our new exercises, all the time answering questions from the on-lookers in Missy’s life – why is this happening? Will this get worse? When will we see an improvement?

I tried to remain focused and determined that we would get back on track with Missy’s function but while I tried to get rack up our ABR hours, we had to look at ways around Missy’s frustration, so the Eye Gaze System and Missy’s teachers aid – Miss H came to the fore with working around making the school curriculum accessible. Missy’s friends were quick to adapt as usual, picking up the eye gaze chart to get Missy’s answers.

Last week after about 50 targeted hours we could see the positive changes coming back into Missy’s function; her arms were coming forward easier with increased controlled direction and the re-emergence of the pointer finger. Missy would look at me, smile and sign my arms are good, her relief and excitement was so encouraging. She is very keen to get on the floor now and crawl, feeling more strength and control over her body, this is something she hasn’t wanted to do in 12 months.

So just as Leonid prediction we are now in a good place with hopefully more arm and hand function to come for Missy.

Thank goodness for ABR and Leonid Blyum.

2 comments:

  1. Susan, Mum to MollyJuly 9, 2012 at 11:21 PM

    So glad you have made it through the tricky stage and into the awesome stage.

    Makes all that hard work and frustration worthwhile...

    Well done team Missy!!

    Hopefully more good news (of the canine variety) will follow shortly.

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  2. Thank you for sharing that great story. It gives others so much hope and encouragement to keep going with the treatments we think will help, even in the face of some difficult times and contradictory opinions. Well done. Also a big hi five to Missy, because she is a big part of the success. Regards Matt

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