callie's first CIMT camp

Wow it’s been a while! There are so many new things happening with Callie, I can’t wait to share all of these updates! And hopefully begin to add more resources to this thing. Life is crazy, but I am going to start prioritizing this more because God has really laid it heavy on my heart to get all of this out there. But first… I am so excited to tell you about Callie’s experience at camp.

This is the first year Callie was eligible to participate in Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital’s High Five Camp. It is a CIMT (constraint induced movement therapy) camp, which is designed for children like Callie who are hemiplegic (having paralysis on one side of the body). The kiddos get a cast placed on their strong arm to encourage awareness and function in their weaker arm. During the week-long camp, the kids do activities together with the therapists and other children all focused on using their affected side. In Callie’s case, it’s her right arm and hand. There is so much incredible research on this type of therapy and how it allows new connections in the brain to be made- it made me so happy to know we could do this at Vanderbilt!

This is the first time Callie has ever had a therapy quite like this. It is intense and can be very frustrating for the kids as their dominant arm is constrained. Callie actually handled the casting very well and was very cooperative in keeping it on. I’m proud of her for not fighting us on it- can you imagine what that would be like?

The hardest part for her was actually being away from us. This is really the first time she ever has. It was hard on me too because I have always been a part of Callie’s therapies, but with still nursing her brother, we decided to divide and conquer. We are very fortunate aunt Chelsea was willing to stay at the clinic to help Callie with diaper changes (and that the clinic was gracious enough to let Brian work remote in their space too). Also grateful to have had my mom’s help with Camden. We could not have done this trip without my mom and sister!

We are also very blessed to have an incredible care team for Callie. Monday, she went to camp but had to leave a half hour early because she was so upset. Tuesday she only made it half an hour at camp but participated in activities in the lobby with Chelsea. I was thankful she was at least trying, but I also felt like we had come too far just to sit in the lobby (the week leading up to our trip was a difficult one - we almost had to cancel). BUT… we are a family that doesn’t give up; we always give it everything we have. And we firmly believe in the power of prayer.

Tuesday, I messaged her PT, OT, and Early Interventionist to brainstorm ways to help get Callie to stay. We implemented those ideas*, requested a lot of prayer from friends and family, and worked with the therapists at camp. Callie was still upset leaving us on Wednesday, but she stayed all day!!!!! She did the same on Thursday and Friday too. We have a phenomenal care team on our side and an even greater God. He is SO good and I am so grateful to Him for allowing Callie to not only stay every day but participate in all the activities! They told us she had a good time and even made a couple of sweet friends. I can’t say enough just how proud I am of her!

We celebrated the last day by letting her make her own lip gloss at Nashville’s Lip Lab. We loved the girl who worked with us (shout out to Kaitlyn!). Callie wanted me to make one with her, so she let us both do one together. And our church was gracious enough to cover the cost of Callie’s gloss through the Callie Fund (read the sweet story behind that here)! I’ll be sure to make a post about the experience on Instagram.

Overall, I am so glad Callie was able to do this camp. It was amazing to see her using her right hand with her cast on. Usually she gives us a lot of push back when we try to bring awareness to it, but with the cast, she was very willing to try even through frustration (we would practice little activities in the hotel room). And since we’ve been back, she’s naturally holding objects with both hands more, she makes more attempts to try to use her right hand in situations where she either needs one or both, and I’ve noticed her holding it more with her left. All of these are encouraging signs to me that the pathways she’s already been rewiring in her brain have gotten a bit stronger. I am SO proud of Callie!

We highly recommend this experience and will be looking forward to hopefully doing this again next year. If anyone is interested in learning more about this camp or would like to be connected to the amazing people there, please message me! We are so excited to see what our girl will accomplish next. ✨

Click here to watch a compilation of Callie’s week at Vanderbilt’s High Five Camp.

*For my parents/caregivers who might be interested in knowing what helped Callie to stay:
- communicating a lot with Callie about camp
- removing total contact from me and Brian after taking her into camp
- decorating her cast and talking positively about it
- having her friends stay near her during the day
- swinging and watching Bluey to calm down from being upset
- letting her know that family members want to see what she makes at the end of the day
- letting her know she will get a treat (whatever is highly motivating) for completing the day/week
- bringing her Pink Puppy (very special stuffed animal) with her
- “casting” Pink Puppy’s paw like Callie’s