THE STRONG SILENT ONES

I'd like to introduce two incredible ladies who are another big part of Team JM. Meet Stacey Aspinwall and Jen McGaffic. I call them the strong silent ones because I rarely take pictures or make posts about their therapy. These ladies started working with John Michael a few months after we came home from Shepherd. Stacey is a PT and Jen is an OT. They are not just trained and educated therapist, they are incredibly smart, kind, willing to go above and beyond and extremely flexible with our schedule.

Stacey and Jen come to our home 2-3 times a week for 2 hours at a time - they co-treat John Michael. We have an air conditioned garage that we made into a therapy room. It has a ceiling hoyer system, a large work mat and a million devices. They focus mostly on core stability and strength. They do a lot of exercises while he is in prone and they work on sitting and standing balance. Like Shannon, they use multiple therapies and devices at one time. They use the laser, the Rezzimax and they also work on eye tracking with the Motion Guidance. I love and appreciate how open they are to all the new crazy things I find out there.

Making sure John Michael is comfortable and sitting properly in his chair is a big part of what they do as well - I tease them that they could be engineers. If anyone is at all familiar with a power wheelchair, then you know there are constant issues. I have tried to learn how to trouble shoot some of the problems, but I am so grateful they know what they are doing. They too will research devices, and trials and they strive to help John Michael recover his life.

I probably should have titled this post "What happens in the therapy garage stays in the therapy garage". They are always cracking up, solving life and world problems, or discussing the latest binge show on Netflix. I think John Michael is going to be the best husband and dad, not just because he has been raised to be, but because he has learned so much from Stacey and Jen these last 5 years. He hears all about the trials - and victories - in raising children. He listens to complaints and compliments for their spouses. Lord only knows what all they talk about, but John Michael is going to be ready for anything after spending so much time with them! They are awesome moms and have great families - he is learning from the best.

Thank you Stacey and Jen, although you may not be mentioned often in these posts, everything you do with and for John Michael is a vital part of all of his progress everywhere else! Thank you for indulging me with all of my questions, comments, new devices, etc..

You guys truly are the best!