Making waves

Sophie has been doing well since her big, long seizure at the end of September.  She has only had two more seizures in the last three weeks which is fantastic. 

I signed up Sophie for the Making Waves program here in the city and she has had two swim lessons now.  It is a swimming program for special needs children and we were lucky to get in this fall.  All the instructors are university students who volunteer their time and we pay via a donation to the program to help with costs.  I am very proud that the university I work for donates the pool for this amazing program.  It is a win-win, the kids get fun time in the pool and the students get experience for their program of study.

Sophie was very curious at our first visit, she is used to the pool at the Y so this was all new to her.  She was checking everything out at our first visit.  She had one volunteer the first week and a new one the second week, both young women were lovely and so great with Sophie in the water.  They worked so hard to keep her mouth out of the water and to keep splashes off her face (which Sophie hates).  They sang songs to her and talked to her the whole time to keep her comfortable with them.  So awesome!

Of course the new facility did have some annoying drawbacks. The handicap accessible/family changeroom did not have automatic door opener buttons and their were no change tables in that changeroom either (unless you have an infant) so it is not really handicap accessible for changing at all. So annoying in a brand new facility.  So I dangerously changed her on a shower seat the first week.  The second week I went to the women's changeroom instead and changed her on the counter with the sinks where there was more space to lay her down, not exactly ideal.  I will be talking with the manager of this brand new facility soon. Ugh.
 
We have had issues identical to this at the brand new million dollar outdoor public pool in our city as well, our ward councillor and head of recreation and pools in our city know us by name now. We will keep fighting for our girls right to use publicly funded places until polititicians and administrators start to listen.  One day, something that is called "accessible" actually will be.  Sophie is the most physically involved child in the program but there were other children in wheelchairs there that I know could have benefitted from some basic accessible changing equipment like a simple table or a lift like the Y has.

With all that said, I did make due so that Sophie could enjoy her lessons and despite the cold water (SO glad the moms don't have to go in lol!!) she had fun and that is all that matters.  Sophie showed off her swimming skills and I was very proud of her hard work.