Emily’s story. One year on! Emily has Cerebral Palsy and Functional Neurological Disorder. When we first met Emily, she had been housebound for approximately eight years after a period of ill health that resulted in her needing two carers five times per day to support her with her daily needs. She was using a standing aid to get from bed to wheelchair. Previous to this Emily was living independently at university studying Geology. She contacted MOTIONrehab and described that she wanted to “get her life back”. We began to work with Emily in November 2020.
Emily’s rehabilitation journey started at home, where she progressed enough to be able to transfer into a car using a stand/turn aid. This meant Emily could attend MOTIONrehab’s Hull Clinic for an 80-hour Intensive Package. A mix of traditional hands-on Physiotherapy with the use of our Robotics Suite. At the end of this time Emily had progressed to using two walking poles to continue practicing walking. She was practicing stairs with supervision of two therapists, getting in and out of bed with little assistance of one person (no equipment), and working towards getting off the floor using her arms onto a chair behind her- she desperately wanted to be able to help herself if she fell in the future; to not be as reliant on others in all ways possible.
Fast forward to July 2021. Emily has continued with regular physiotherapy session with MOTIONrehab. Emily started to practice household tasks whilst standing such as making hot drinks and washing the pots. By September Emily went to a supermarket and walked with her walking poles down the aisles. Something which Emily had not done for those 8 years! She also walked down the path using walking poles to her Church, which was such an important goal for Emily to achieve. She has continued to work on her mobility since then and can now walk indoors with only one walking pole.
Emily can now walk up and down the stairs with one walking pole, with one foot on each step in a normal pattern. To this day Emily at best has only been able to achieve the stairs with two feet on each step, one step at a time so she has even surpassed her best in this goal! She is also now able to get herself off the floor into standing completely independent with no assistance from any person or furniture.
However, one of the biggest improvements we are happy to share has to be the changes to Emily’s quality of life. She now has a personal assistant each day instead of a full care package at home. She has returned all of her equipment she needed for getting from A to B and also her hospital bed (which needed to be on the ground floor of their family home). Now Emily is walking up the stairs to her own bedroom and sleeping in her own bed. Each morning she gets out of bed independently, and stands to choose her own clothes from her wardrobe. Emily is so happy with this change. Plus, Emily has been on holiday in her family caravan, which has not been possible in years.
Her support from her personal assistants means she can now continue her independence at home and also access the local gym. Emily is now working towards more and more household tasks such as hoovering and food preparation and she can now pick up her small dog (still working on the larger, wrigglier one!)
Emily continues to make improvements in her walking and is now working towards walking to her grandparents house using her walking poles and we are happy to share she is almost there! Just a few more houses to pass now Emily! We will continue to support Emily to achieve her next set of goals such as getting back to swimming, using an exercise ball independently for balance goals, and walking without walking poles. Watch this space!
We are so proud of your achievements Emily, both physically and personally. Keep that determination going.
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