Swimming update

Yes, the boy is still swimming!

I have a lot of people ask me how Curtis' swim lessons are going. I realize that I haven't given an update or shown video in a while. So here is a blog post that will give you both!

Curtis is having a great time with his lessons. He absolutely loves to swim! He is comfortable in the water and is getting better with his "digs" (moving his arms) and his kicks. Obviously, he is better at "digging" with his right arm than with his left, but he does use both arms.

For the past few months, Curtis and his instructor have been working on getting him to take a breath while swimming. Currently, he can swim all the way across the short distance of the pool without taking a breath, which is awesome, but if he needs to go any further he's going to need that breath. So the question was, "How do you get a kiddo with hemiplegia to lift himself up long enough to get that breath?" Since he doesn't "dig" all that well with his left arm, they didn't think he had the strength to lift his head out of the water for a breath. After his swim teacher consulted with the main instructor/swim school owner, it was decided that it would be best for Curtis to learn to flip to his back to take a breath. He'd float there for a few seconds, catch his breath, then flip himself back over on to his belly to swim. Complicated? Yes. But he had to learn to take that breath.

First things first...he had to get comfortable floating on his back. That took a while. Probably 3-4 lessons at least. At first, he'd curl up into a ball and his left arm would tense up. It was crazy--you could really see his CP during those moments when they'd first put him on his back. He had to learn to relax. He's doing much better now.

Learning to chill

Below are some videos of him swimming--they are not the best quality since they were all taken with my phone. You can make them full screen by clicking the little box in the lower right hand corner next to where it says "YouTube" :)


Video of him learning to flip and float:

This one shows him floating on his back and then flipping to his front (notice the nice strong kicks at the end!)...

And, finally, one more where he flips and floats and rolls and does it all across the whole length of the pool (with help from his swim instructor)...

As you might imagine, all of this flipping and floating and going back and forth is not easy! Like...at all. The instructors tell me this technique for taking a breath is really difficult and sort of a "last resort", because the swimmer often gets disoriented after flipping onto his back. Still, Curtis has chugged along and is doing pretty well, all things considered. He definitely struggled at first, but I really think he's getting the hang of it. The hardest part for him is flipping onto his back. In order to flip his body over, he has to have his head looking straight down before he flips. He always wants to be looking up toward the instructor, which makes the flip harder. Still, he knows what he has to do and how to do it. It's just a matter of perfecting the technique.

Which brings us to a few weeks ago...

The main instructortook Curtis for a few turns during swim lessons and decided that maybe Curtis COULD take a front breath after all. He thinks he has the strength to do it. Since then, they've been working with Curtis on lifting his head up out of the water to take a breath after taking 3-4 strokes. He has to be able to use both arms and "dig" really fast. He has to doggy-paddle or tread water, basically, and he has to hold his big old noggin up. It is no easy task!!

I'm not sure what I think about this yet, to be honest. On the one hand, I'm glad they are giving him the chance to swim and learn to take breaths the "normal" way. Any chance that Curtis gets to do something "normal", I'm on it! I feel like it's a definite plus! But on the other hand, he is struggling so much with it so far that it's hard for me to watch. Not to sound dramatic, but at times I sit there and it feels like I'm watching him drown. I have to take a deep breath sometimes. So far he hasn't been able to pop his head out of the water far enough to take a breath, so his body just sinks. I've seen his face when this happens, and he is scared. He is wide-eyed and reaching for his swim instructor. She says the problem is that he's really only "digging" with his right arm. He has to use both of those arms to stay upright long enough to get that quick breath in!

Here's a video of him swimming and attempting to take a front breath (and then getting some instruction from his awesome swim teacher)...

As you can see, he didn't make it up on his own in that video...but I am hopeful that with LOTS of practice he will be able to take that front breath. And the good news is that they are still working on the back breath technique with him during every swim lesson, so he is getting better and better with that, as well. 

I'm so proud of my little fish!