Jon, Laura, and a bag of Spicy Doritos

Last weekend, Jon got out on his therapeutic trike for the first time this year. His development continues, he was very strong and really didn’t seem to notice the trip (uphill) to the corner store.

Because of the nature of Jon’s version of cerebral palsy (version 3.2.1 beta, I believe 😉 ), his inside leg muscles are much stronger than his outside ones. He’s always had to struggle with his legs “wanting” to cross. His surgery a while back was partly due to this cerebrally-triggered pulling.

One of the reasons we got the bike was that we were told it would strengthen his outer muscles, but when we do activities like this, the inner ones get stronger faster, and he ends up crossing his legs a lot more later on during physio with me and other everyday routines.

Checkng with Kathy, his consulting physiotherapist at school (meaning that she can no longer work with him; thanks former Tory government for taking away daily physio from kids who need it!), we may have solved that mystery.

Jon’s feet are strapped on to the pedals to make it easier to keep them on. Well, it turns out he’s not pedalling down, he’s pedalling up! Well, he might be putting in a little downward force, but most of the work is being done in the pull. I can’t even imagine cycling like that.

In our latest journey I only strapped his toes, but that still allowed him more than enough pull. And when I removed the straps completely, his feet just flew out wildly. I guess I’ll try elastic bands, and slowly try to ween him off his current technique! As always, Jon refuses to be pegged into a standard hole :-). Time to get creative…