Yesterday, a friend brought a Panthera wheelchair for Callie to try. Weighing about 8 lbs, the Panthera is one of the lightest manual chairs in the world. We put Callie in it and she immediately grabbed the wheels and propelled herself forward. It was very exciting.

Since we now know Callie is strong enough to use a manual chair, we’ll be looking for the model that’s best for her. A manual chair is very important because it will help with maintaining strength. We are still in the process of getting a power chair for outside and community activities.

Speaking of wheelchairs, we now have a new concrete pad in our backyard, the first step in building a wheelchair ramp for Callie. This was made possible by Steve Stewart who shared his time and expertise to make this happen.

This coming week, Callie has three appointments at Duke. She’ll be seeing an orthopedist for the first time and a neurologist who knows a lot about SMA. Callie will also have some lung-function tests and see her pulmonologist again.

The pulmonologist is aware of Callie’s feeding problems, and he’s determined to help  figure out what the problem is: She could be eating less because she’s not hungry, or she could be hungry but unable to eat much because eating takes a lot of energy and she could be getting tired. We hope that by the end of the week we’ll have some good guidance about her diet.