Caelen's Quest: Project Hovercraft

8 October 2015

Project Hovercraft

Project Hovercraft is complete! It's a DIY project to help C counter gravity pull, allowing his arms to 'hover' and move freely.

Yesterday we did a pilot test without the arm slings. He was quite receptive to the idea. And today, the moment I took out his tablet, C immediately requested for the 'loops'.

This is how the structure looks:

Costs:

Clothes drying rack $28
Set of resistance bands $24.90
(Bands are of different resistance. If you require 2 of the same load, get 2 sets cos I don't see them selling single bands. It didn't matter to me so 1 set is fine. I use the rest them for my stretching exercises)
Carabiners $14
(I use 4 large and 2 small ones. Mix and match different sizes to obtain the length you require)
Harness $11.80
(In video, I used an adult wrist guard. A pair of wrist guards or child arm slings can be expensive so it's up to individual which to use so long it works. As a cheaper alternative I bought a pair of full body harness for miniature dogs haha. The widths are adjustable, I figured they might work. Will update with pics if they really do)
Total damage: approx $78.70 +/-

2 comments:

Unknown9 October 2015 at 10:32
加油 , 闻越 !
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Unknown12 October 2015 at 13:00
Your love makes you super creative in finding ways to help Caelen.
You are amazing Mummy Lowell. =)

Hope you having a wonderful day Caelen!
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Beginning of his Journey

Caelen was diagnosed with Type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) on 13 Jan 2014, at age 10 months.

SMA is caused by a missing or abnormal (mutated) gene known as survival motor neuron gene 1 (SMN1). In a healthy person, this gene produces a protein in the body called survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. In a person with mutated genes, this protein is absent or significantly decreased, and causes severe problems for motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells in the spinal cord which send out nerve fibres to muscles throughout the body. Since SMN protein is critical to the survival and health of motor neurons, nerve cells may shrink and eventually die without this protein, resulting in muscle weakness.

The hallmark feature of SMA Type I is that children are unable to sit or stand without help. They will require equipment such as strollers or wheelchairs for mobility. Swallowing and feeding will become difficult for children with this type of SMA and they will eventually lose the ability to swallow safely without aspirating. Children may eventually require a feeding tube to supplement their nutrition which permits the administration of liquid food into their stomachs.

Children with SMA Type 1 will also experience weakness of the muscles used for breathing, those that help expand the chest and fill the lungs with air. The chest is smaller than usual in these children and they begin to breathe using primarily their stomach muscles (belly breathing). The lungs do not fully develop due to this type of breathing, and coughing becomes very weak. It may be difficult for children to get enough air into their lungs while sleeping, and eventually throughout the day. Many of these children will require equipment to help them breathe; again this is based on what each family chooses. Weakness also leads to problems with the spine (scoliosis) and hips (displacement) that may lead to further loss of ability/function.

Source: Families of SMA