A little piece of heaven

It was definitely a series of fortunate events that brought us to Ramon Cuevas…and how happy and grateful we are!  Today Nathan had his first appointment with Ramon.  It was AMAZING!  The man is a true master, an artist of his trade.  There is no one like him in the disability world.   He played Nathan like a master musician plays a violin..it was amazing to watch.  Nathan did things that he’s never done before, just because of the skill in this man’s hands and attitude.

After Nathan’s appointment with Ramon I was able to go to dinner with him and Simona, his #1 student.  We had a lovely time discussing CME, its history and future.  I learned all about how CME was conceived and what Ramon hopes to accomplish.  It was so amazing!  Can you imagine having dinner with someone like Mozart or Van Gogh?  That’s what it felt like, having dinner with Ramon Cuevas!  I have no doubt that in some year’s time, CME will be the standard of therapy and Ramon will be treated like a hero.

What I loved about watching Ramon work is the passion with which he approaches his trade.  By the time I met Ramon and Simona for dinner, he had worked 14 hours with about as many children.  I figured he’d be exhausted – I was wrong.  He was full of joy and energy.  He told me that working with the kids gives him joy and energy, that he LOVES working with them and empowering them, and he never gets tired for the excitement of watching children progress.  You can sense that energy in him, it is contagious.

I know this post is a bit aimless…I guess I am saying that CME (Cuevas Medek Exercises) is AMAZING, and it’s creator a true artisan, a true magician and wizard of his trade.  I am excited to see what he can do with Nathan.

As for Mr. Nathan, he did very well in his appointment with Ramon today.  He was a little bit off, with a low grade fever and just a general lack of energy.  But even with that, he did well.  Tommorrow and Tuesday we have 2 appointments each day so we’ll see how things go over the next 2 days.

As for me, I can go to sleep tonight feeling sure that I found the very best person in the world to help Nathan with his gross motor issues.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…..what a relief………..what a joy, to go to bed knowing I did the very best I could to help my boy.   SIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

My trip to Canada started with a most exciting adventure.  My alarm decided not to go off in the morning.  I got up to go to the bathroom and calmly went to the bathroom, stretched, grabbed some water..and decided to check the time.  I almost passed out when I noticed that it was 5:15 am – and my flight left at 7:02 am!  I took a 2 min shower and ran out the door.  I made it to the airport at 6:15 but by the time I parked the car and went to check in – it was too late to check my bag in (you have to arrive at least 45 min before departure time).  If I missed the flight, not only would I have to postpone seeing Nathan, which I just couldn’t handle, I would’ve also have had to buy a new ticket.  So I ran to the car, ditched my suitcase, grabbed a pair of jeans and a couple of shirts and stuck them in my handbag, and RAN.  I got to the gate 2 min’s before closing time.  I got on the plane, they closed the door, and off we went.  It was quite exciting.

I made it to Toronto without further incidences, late on Tuesday night, and found Nathan healthy and happy.  I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life!  Between my meditation retreat and the Canada trip, I didn’t see him for 2 weeks!  He was happy to see me too, if I say so myself 🙂

Wednesday morning, on our way back from breakfeast, I noticed a sign that said “Blue Balloon” at the hotel we were staying at.  I recognized the name because Blue Ballon is the name of a physiotherapist in Toronto who practices Medek too.  So I read the sign and it said something about Medek and certifications.  Curious, I asked at the front desk and they told me there was something going on at one of the conference rooms in the hotel we were staying at.  Even more curious, I decided to go upstairs and check it out.

To my sheer amazement, I met Ramon Cuevas there – the founder of Medek!  Can you imagine the coincidence?  There are 365 days out of the year, and out of those 365, he chose the same 14 days to be in Toronto that we chose to come for Nathan’s Medek therapy.  And then, of all the hotels in Toronto (there have to be at least 200), they chose to stay in this hotel.  And of all the hotels I looked at, I chose this one out of about 20 choices that were very near Esther’s office.  So all of those things coincided to bring us to Ramon’s door.

So we spoke with Ramon who told us to bring Nathan on Friday.  But this morning, since we didn’t have our first appointment till the afternoon, we decided to drop in and observe while they did their training.  And, surprise surprise, only 1 of their kids had showed up and they needed another child to use in their course!  So we volunteered Nathan.  They had a group of 4 therapists go through an evaluation with Nathan, supervised by Ramon.  Then, they created a home program for him.  We were there for about 3 hours.

During that time, I got to talk to Ramon, observe him with Nathan and the other kids, and learn some more about his theories and the history of Medek.  I was fascinated!  He is brilliant, and charismatic, and WONDERFUL with the kids.  When I introduced him to Nathan, he said, OH, like Mission Impossible!  And I laughed and said, yes, that’s my Nathan.  Mission Impossible.  And he said, Not Anymore sweetheart.

So now I am torn.  I love Esther and I think she is an INCREDIBLE therapist.  But now we’ve met the CREATOR of the therapy.  This is the man from whose mind this whole program was created.  This is the man who saw and felt it in his bones, who created the exercises, who had the brilliance and creativity to invent this.  Of course it would be amazing to have him work with Nathan!  But unfortunately, it turns out that him and Esther no longer work together so we can’t work with both therapists – we either work with Esther, or we work with Ramon.  Ramon said that he has changed some of the exercises and the ways he does things so things are different from the way Esther learned 10 years ago.    Can you see the dilemma?  We love Esther, she’s helped Nathan a LOT, we think she is WONDERFUL.  But we also loved Ramon and the way he handled Nathan and the way he’s doing some of the exercises.

You’ll have to keep an eye on this channel for further updates as the situation unfolds.  In the meantime, I managed to get some pictures up – they’re terrible quality, but at least they’re something.

On another note, Nathan is doing very well.  I do have videos but the connection is too slow for me to upload them while I’m here.  I’m sorry to say you will have to wait until I get home to see pics and videos.  I have noticed 2 things.  One is that he is definitely stronger and more capable of doing the exercises than he was 8 weeks ago.  The other is that he is less willing to cooperate.  Last time he wasn’t complaining much and was willing to work hard.  Now that he’s had Medek in his life for 2 months and knows how hard it is, he likes to play possum when we get to Esther and it’s time to work.  He just goes limp and doesn’t help with the exercises.  Esther has to be VERY creative to get him to “kick in”. It’s hard to see but I totally understand him.  It’s very hard work for him!

I made the decision today not even to care whether he cooperates or not, and not to look for progress.  I decided to commit wholeheartedly to the therapy (whether with Ramon or Esther) for at least 1 full year before trying to evaluate or look for changes.  Then after a year I can make a decision.  But for now, we will keep doing it and working hard and know that, even if it’s by osmosis, he is improving.

I was hoping to write and say, oh my god, nathan can now sit up! Or, oh my god, Nathan can now stand!  But that’s not the way of mission impossible, is it?

So overall, it’s been a fascinating couple of days.  I still can’t get over the absolutely insane coincidence to have met Ramon Cuevas in Toronto.  Even though Nathan screams bloody murder in therapy, the moment Esther says, “All done” and gives him to me, he’s happy as a lark.  Other than the time in Medek, he is just happy and cheerful and chatty.  So I know it’s more of a moral objection than physical pain.

But if you forced me to give you an answer to whether or not he’s improved, I’d have to say – yes.  He is a little bit stronger.  He can do some exercises now that he couldn’t do before.  He can stand for longer periods.  In Ramon’s assesment, he didn’t score 0’s in everything, like he did the first time.  So there is progress!

Tommorrow we have another full, busy day.  We see Esther at 9 am, Ramon at 11am, Esther at 2pm.  I’ll keep you guys posted! I’ll try to take pics so you can see…the videos are hard to upload, but pictures are quick, so at least you’ll have something to look at 🙂

A mom in one of my groups posted an article about bath, or epsom, salts.  The health benefits are amazing!

A while ago I posted about Plantlife Bath Salts.  Well if you are interested in trying out bath salts, I highly highly reccommend these.  I’ve been using them for a while and I LOVE them.  The salts are VERY high quality and they are aromatherapeutic as well.  I will sometimes take a bath when I feel tired, off, if I have sore muscles, a headache..and come out of the bath feeling much better!  I know they have a similar effect on Nathan.

Anyways, I thought I’d share this information as well as encouragement to use bath salts!

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