A Customized Wike

I have posted before about our love for the Wike Special Needs bike trailer/stroller that we have for Sophie.  I found it on Kijiji a few years ago and we use it every summer at the cottage as Sophie's mode of transportation at the beach.  It is made by a company in Guelph, Ontario and they made the price very accessible, usually something like this the price skyrockets when it is labelled "special needs".  Wike is coming out with a new special needs bike/trailer combo and I am excited to see what it looks like in its' final form.




As Sophie has grown it has become difficult, almost impossible to get her in the Wike safely.
The photo above from a couple years ago shows how high Sophie sat up in the Wike before customizing it for her. 


We have always strapped her into a car seat in the Wike in the past.  Now that she is so big, her head skims the roof of the trailer when we are putting her in and she barely fits in the car seat anyway.  So I approached our seating clinic to see if they could custom make a seat or insert for the Wike for us.  One of the techs took it on as a project over the winter.  We talked through what I did and didn't want, the safety aspects we both felt were important and comfort for Sophie too.  He loved the challenge and boy did he deliver. 


In March we went in to see how it was going and to have a test.  This is what it looked like.  The old bench seat was ripped out and there was a new seat that was lowered and velcroed in.  There is a new seatbelt bolted to the base, so it is still usable as a bike trailer.  We re-used a few pieces of equipment.  We used all the harness strapping, clips and seatbelt from the old car seat.  That saved us a bunch of money.  We also took in an old wheelchair seat we had but they ended up using a larger one someone had donated to the centre.  They constructed the new laterals and made the back.











Here it is all complete with a new contoured seat and colour matching covers!  I was so excited when I saw it, I knew how much effort had been put into her new Wike and it was fantastic!








Sophie now has lots of growth space and it is easier for two of us to get her into the seating because it has been lowered so much.





Here are some action shots from our first summer with her new customized Wike.

Checkout those storm clouds, time to pack up and beat it.

Sometimes your cousin wants in on the action too, it is a nice ride after all.  Sophie is happy to share :)

What a lucky girl, even Nana and Papa and her Oma love to explore at the beach with her.  It is such a relief knowing that we can easily tour around with Sophie at the beach for years to come.

Therapeutic Riding

Sophie had been on a waitlist for a local therapeutic riding place nearby for well over a year.  We had waited three + years before that for her seizures to stabilize so that we could even apply.  We finally got a call in October that they had a spot open up for her.  I used to ride competitively when I was a teenager so I was over the moon that my girl was going to ride horses!  When we arrived Sophie was visibly excited and didn't want to take her eyes off the horses.

Lucas gettting in on the horsey action. lol.

We took her out for an assessment and we were sooooo excited.  Unfortunately that excitement was blown to smitherines pretty quickly.  We got her up on a horse and they expected her to hold her trunk up mostly by herself.  Sophie doesn't have that muscle tone needed to keep herself upright and she was a rag doll without any support.  It went downhill really fast and before I knew it we were being told that she wasn't a candidate for the institute.

I was devastated, we had been excited for this for so very long and it was gone just like that.  I was a mess, crying right there.  Sophie had a cut on her nose from the helmet when they let her head smash on the neck of the horse.  They were obviously not prepared at this facility for someone with such severe CP and it showed right away.

I have a number of friends who have successfully enrolled their children in therapeutic riding/hippotherapy with kids as severe as Sophie or more so.  Once we lick our wounds we will start looking for a new place to try.  In the meantime I have these adorable photos of Sophie in her riding helmet.

This photo was when the OT finally went in to help.  They took her off the horse shortly after as they thought she was in distress.

Special Olympics

In June, just before summer vacation, Sophie was able to be part of the Special Olympics day for the school board.  She had a blast!!!

The volunteers were just amazing and really made it a fun day for all the children that were participating.  What a fabulous group of people!  Sophie's EA was also by her side helping her do her best.

Sophie concentrated and worked really hard at each event.  She was covered in ribbons by the end of the day.

These are just a few of the events she participated in....

Success!!!  Look at all those ribbons and of course the huge grin!

Fractured

Sophie had some swelling on the back of her hand two days ago and was having some pain when we touched it but otherwise seemed fine.  It was a tiny bit red but wasn't bruised so we kept an eye on it but were puzzled by it.  After school yesterday it was more puffy so I decided to take her to be seen by the doctor.  So we went straight to the urgent care centre that is a couple blocks away.  I was afraid that she had some kind of infection under the skin or something like that.  We were sent for x-rays and to my shock we found out that Sophie has a fractured wrist.  I was not expecting it to be that because there is no bruising and she hasn't been complaining other than when we touched her hand.  We have no idea how she broke it and unfortunately probably never will.  She is such a strong little girl and I hate that she got hurt and wasn't able to tell us and can't tell us how it happened or when it happened.  She hasn't had any crying or upset periods with us so we really don't know if it hurts when not being touched or not.

She has a cast which covers the fingers to the elbow on one side and it is all wrapped tightly from top to bottom.  When I picked her up from school today all of her classmates had signed it.  I am sure she had a tale to tell them today!  She has such great friends to help her get through this.

We are feeling so guilty that we weren't able to keep her safe and we keep trying to think of how this could have happened.  We know that she most likely has more brittle bones than most because she is non-ambulatory but we hate that this has happened to her.  She was finally feeling healthy and just finished her latest round of antibiotics for a double pneumonia two days before, she has had such a rough winter health wise. I hope that she heals quickly and my girl never has to go through something like this again. :(

Sophie's new transport chair

Sophie has her new Rodeo!  We were so excited for it to arrive, I was super impatient and was so happy when we received the call that it was in.  After some minor adjustments for her size we had it home.  Sophie has been using it now for just over 2 weeks and it has been working really well.

Sophie seems very comfortable in it, sometimes too comfy.  She has quickly found a way she likes to sit in it, one leg up in a funny yoga pose with her knee sticking out the side.  She does this each time she is in it, always the right leg up.

The harness/seatbelt system and special headrest add-on supports her head and torso well and the rigid seat with contouring we added has helped immensely to hold her in the chair properly.  Considering she had never been able to try this chair out before we ordered it, it functions very well.

We added a rain/sun canopy and a medical basket/tray for underneath for her feeding pump.  I still have to find a caribaner to hang the feeding bag from but otherwise we are good to go.  It rolls really nicely up into the back of the van so I haven't had to figure out how to collapse yet, but apparently it is fairly easy.  We chose a nice dark burgundy for the colour of the chair and I love it.

I hope this will provide her with many years of comfy touring on our many adventures.

A new ride is on its way

A few weeks ago, a short time after Sophie was released from hospital, we had a follow up seating appointment to make the final decisions about the transport chair we are ordering for Sophie.  We had decided on the Convaid Rodeo after the last appointment and now we had to figure out a size and exactly what attachments she needed.  Sophie was a worn out girl but she was so patient and let us configure everything around her.

Sophie needs a lot of support for her trunk so we needed the firm cushion insert that will keep her pelvis and back supported properly.  We didn't have a Rodeo to try out but an older model Cruiser worked fine in its place to figure out sizes.  Sophie's Oma was able to help me make some decisions at the appointment and Sophie loved showing her everything for the first time.

I am so impatient for her new chair to arrive but I am hopeful it won't be long!  Her old Bingo has worked for the last 5-6 years but it is definitely time for something new that fits this long lean string bean of mine!