Uck, ok, I am by no means a medical professional nor do I claim to have absolutely any insight into medical matters. Well, Hannah has had problems with motor skills and torticollis. When they were younger, we had both girls evaluated by early intervention. Hailey was fine, they said Hannah needed physical therapy. So a physical therapist evaluated her, decided she needed treatment and said she could come to the daycare to work with her. Great. Well that fell through (she wasn't able to come to the town the daycare is in). While we were still trying to figure that out, our pedi referred us to a therapist for torticolis. The therapist recognized the other problems and we thought, ok, great, we are now in therapy. Forget early intervention. She has always worked with her neck as well as sitting up, stretching her arm, etc. Well, now on their first birthday, the therapist asks me if she is getting physical therapy... I said "um, here" and she said no... I do OT, not PT. I feel like a total IDIOT and like I have horribly wronged and failed my child. We go to the pedi tomorrow for a well baby visit and are to get an order for a PT evaluation. I feel horrible and explained to her what happened and she tried to tell me not to feel bad that it was her lack of communication and it would be ok but I can't help but feel bad. I'm scared to death that the pedi is going to think I'm stupid and a horrible parent for not knowing this. Today was emotional enough as it is and I was trying to stay cheery and then this. uck. Sorry it's so long, I just had to vent.
:hug: No reason to feel like you have failed or wronged your little girl. You ARE getting her the help she needs. I am sure the Ped will not think any less of you. Everyone makes mistakes. Try not to be so hard on yourself.
Basically, the difference is that PT, physical therapy, deals with gross motor--large motion, like movement. OT, occupational therapy, deals with small motor, so that would include feeding, handwriting, etc. Hope that helps.
Both of our twins are in OT and PT...and really the OT does include a lot of PT (in our case)....the OT stuff is way more fascinating...he really emphasizes the core and says everything else will fall into place physically... You are doing awesome, dont worry about it! I still feel guilty that they are in therapy because of ME, because I didnt do the right things with them, give them the right toys etc...
:hug: You are not stupid, I don't know what the difference is either. You are doing the right thing in getting help for your little girl. :hug: I'm sorry you are feeling bad. :hug:
Thanks for the replies, I've been slowly feeling a little better. Sharon, thanks for the explanation. That does help.
Don't feel bad at all!!! There is a ton of carryover between PT and OT with infants in particular. The OT would have spoken up sooner if she had concerns she couldn't address.
I had one twin that needed OT and one twin that needed PT. I found that they did some of the same stretches and exercises on the boys. I found that they really had a thing with thumbs, were they keeping them in, how long were they keeping them in, at what times were they keeping them in. . . It's all very frustrating!
Just wanted to update... we had our pedi appointment this morning and it was no big deal. He wrote out the order for a PT evaluation and that was it. No belittling involved, lol. Guess I was all worked up over nothing... Thanks for all the encouragement though! I guess I need to get myself over to 1-4!
QUOTE(dlong83 @ Feb 6 2009, 06:12 PM) [snapback]1178867[/snapback] Just wanted to update... we had our pedi appointment this morning and it was no big deal. He wrote out the order for a PT evaluation and that was it. No belittling involved, lol. Guess I was all worked up over nothing... Thanks for all the encouragement though! I guess I need to get myself over to 1-4! I am so glad the visit went well. See you on 1-4!!
