A throne for a prince

A few months ago, we had a sales rep from a company called NuMotion come by our house to take measurements on Ryan. Ryan's PT, Ashley, set it up with this sales rep so that we could get Ryan fitted for some new equipment. She thought it would be helpful for his development to get him a chair and a stander. It takes months to get these things approved through insurance and then made, so we knew we wouldn't get the equipment for a while. Just the other day we heard that our NuMotion rep had a loaner chair that we could use until Ryan's stuff was ready. He came by the other day, gave me the tutorial on how to take it apart, make adjustments, get him buckled in and so forth.

The benefit to using a chair like this is so that Ryan can work on his posture and positioning. It makes him work to sit up and he will be aligned properly so that the correct muscles will get stronger. It makes him bear weight on his legs and feet and forces him to keep his back straight. Ashley and the rep think it will do wonders for him.

It's a little hard to see my sweet boy in this new chair because it makes Ryan's situation seem so REAL. My mind likes to pretend I'm in a world where Ryan's just fine and he will catch up any day now to do all the same stuff that his brothers are doing. In reality, that may or may not be the case. This chair is a precursor to seeing Ryan in a wheelchair and it makes me realize that I need to wrap my mind around that. It may happen. Hopefully not, but it could.

For right now, I've been instructed to keep Ryan in his chair 2-3 times a day for about 30 minutes each time. I can adjust the position to allow him to sit up straight to really work hard or I can lean it back so he can rest a little if he gets tired.

Here's my prince on his throne.