Patrick

Patrick is here now, working out hard in the gym.  He is in Year 9 at school and he is about to turn 15 years old.  This is the our fifth year of knowing Patrick and of him attending the Heartwell Foundation.  Boy, has he come a long way in that time.  In many areas.  He is now an absolute pleasure to work with and a great conversationalist.  I think it would be fair to say that his session time here at Heartwell, is mutually enjoyed.  That has not always been the case!

Patrick has Cerebral Palsy (CP).  CP is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious conditions that cause physical disability in human development.  Cerebral refers to the cerebrum, which is the affected area of the brain and palsy refers to disorder of movement.  CP is caused by damage to the motor control centers of the developing brain and can occur during pregnancy, during childbirth, or after birth up to about age three.  It is a non-progressive disorder, meaning the brain damage does not worsen.

Patrick has spastic diplegic athetoid CP.  This means his lower extremities are affected more than his upper extremities.  It also means by having athetoid CP he has trouble holding himself in an upright, steady position for sitting or walking.  For Patrick it also means he has significant involuntary movements, especially of his legs.  If Patrick’s legs are not strapped into his wheel chair they will kick out.  His feet will be constantly moving and unable to stabilise his body.  He takes medication to help control this movement and at the moment there is a noticeable difference in the “calmness” of his body.

Back to Patrick’s improvement over the years. 

Today a very different boy than five years ago came Through Our Door for his session.  Patrick has grown into an engaging and motivated young man, driven by (in his words) “limitless opportunities”.  As a 10 year old primary school boy he was not always an obliging happy chappy.  What we were asking him to do was, for him, boring, unnecessary and time wasting.  Skill work was hard, arm cranking was even harder, stretching was no fun.  Heartwell’s goal was to find an activity that Patrick could feel successful doing and allow him to be physically active.  We want him to develop a life long love of activity.  Thank goodness for perseverance (on both fronts).

Patrick now attends two sessions weekly with us.  He is concentrating on a resistance training program to develop his upper body strength and endurance.  He does interval work on the arm crank to further develop his aerobic fitness.  He has started to pop some nice bicep/tricep action which we are all quite admiring of.  The days of stalling and questioning seem far away and we are proud of Patrick’s achievements.  Keep going Patrick - onward and upward.

Too cute.  Patrick in 2007

Patrick today working that arm crank.

Today, working those triceps.

Today, pull down.

Cheese.

Today, I am focused!