Oh happy day! Ashton is back in the water again:)!! And yes, I have Back in the Saddle Again music playing in my head while typing this lol.

Ashton was in a warm water 92 degree therapy pool and worked with an aquatic physical therapist for the first time early this morning. He was able to safely enter and exit the zero entry pool while being pushed in an onsite manual wheelchair. I was able to transfer him with an onsite hydraulic hoyer lift using one of his slings from home. We realized that we should have brought both of his slings so we had a dry one to use after changing him into dry clothes lol.

Now this was a long time coming! When Ashton was in second grade at Marathon Area Elementary School he started being taken to the pool at Marathon Area Swim Association with other students as part of his adaptive physical education program. Yes, that meant that he lost some classroom time but this was very much looked forward too. It usually was at the end of the day on Friday. When he got back to school he just stayed on the bus while the other students loaded for the ride home.

When we moved while Ashton was in fifth grade this swim time was discontinued. he was in fifth grade. I did get Ashton in hotel pool once every four weeks when traveling for clinical trial. As he became nonambulatory he felt too unsafe being transferred to and from the pool lift. The pool lift was not properly functioning a few times, the water often was too cold for him and some trips we were too exhausted to add swim time.

Ashton’s Neurologist at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital wrote a letter of necessity for Ashton to have weekly session in pool for therapy and exercise. The obstacle was finding a somewhat nearby pool well over a year ago