Pull Yourself Up!

Juanita was born with twisted feet and a malformed tendon. Her parents were told, “This is the way she is and nothing can be done.”

She was raised without hope of improvement. When Juanita was old enough to start school, her mother carried her to and from the school. Juanita did not use her muscles and never learned to use the toilet. Her mother made several trips to the school each day to change her daughter’s diaper. After three years of schooling, her parents stopped taking her to school. It was too difficult to make these constant trips to school and Juanita had grown tired of the teasing of other children.

She remained at home for the next 20 years of her life. Most of her time was spent in bed. Her parents could not afford a wheel chair. Eventually, an old wheel chair was given to the family, but Juanita would slip out of it because she had difficulty sitting up.

Juanita likes to paint and draw to pass the time. She has a quick smile and tries to enjoy life. Her father works as a laborer. The money he brings home puts food on the table and is barely enough for the basics.

In 2008, Juanita's mother heard about children receiving surgery at the private downtown clinic that enabled them to walk. She took Juanita to a doctor at the clinic. The doctor sent her to the Gabby Brimmer Physical Therapy Center as a first step towards help.

At Gabby Brimmer, Juanita received free treatments. Most of these treatments involved a physical therapist, painful massages and painful exercises. After several months of treatments, the doctor told her that she could contact Paper Houses Across the Border.

In the past, the doctor had performed surgeries and the parents did not participate in the painful physical therapy required for the surgery to succeed. This time, we know that Juanita will participate in the therapy because she already began and there was some progress.

We agreed to pay for the surgeries needed to change this young lady’s world. The doctor outlined his plan. First, Juanita would undergo three sessions of physical therapy every week at Gabby Brimmer. Next, the first operation would be completed to correct the tendon problem. This would be followed up with a month of additional physical therapy and then a second operation to correct the twisted feet would be performed.

Today, I showed up unannounced to observe the therapy session. If began with work on a large gymnastic mat. A physical therapist guided, monitored, cheered and coached Juanita through a series of routines that stretched muscles, long unused. With tears in her eye, Juanita pushed herself as hard as she could endure. At the end of this session, she was at the far end of the mat. The therapist told her to scoot across the mat so she could go to the next room. Usually, Juanita was picked up from where-ever she was on the mat when this routine was completed. Today, she was told to get herself to the end of the mat, where her wheel-chair waited. She used her hands and legs to scoot across the mat a few inches at a time. Twice, she stopped to rest. Her mother, father and the therapist kept clapping and cheering her on, until she finally reached the chair. Her father lifter her into the chair.

I hoped that there would be a rest between activities, but there was not. An old dining room chair was taken from the conference room and placed in front of white metal bars that were bolted into the wall. The bars form a sort of ladder. Juanita’s father picked her up from the wheelchair and sat her on the dining room chair facing the bars. Ten pound weights were fastened to Juanita’s ankles. The therapist explained, “When she stands, the weights will force those twisted feet to be flat against the floor. There will be pain, but this is necessary to help.”

Juanita took a deep breath, grasped a rung of the ladder and pulled herself up from the chair. Her feet were off the floor, and then she lowered herself until the feet were flat on the floor. Very slowly, she continued to lower her body, until she was sitting in the chair. She instantly began the process again. She repeated this painful exercise ten times. When she finally sat down after ten repetitions, there were tears streaming down her face. She caught her breath and looked at her father.

Her father started to pick Juanita up to place her back into her wheel-chair. Then he stopped and sat his daughter back on the dinning room chair. Juanita looked at him in puzzlement. Her father tightened his jaw and said, “You do it. Pull yourself up. I will put your chair under you. You must pull yourself up.”

Juanita’s face took on a look of determination. She looked into her father’s eyes and without a word, communicated to him that he was right. She must pull herself up. The muscles in her arms and biceps showed the strain. Her eyed quivered from effort and her entire body seemed to tremble. Juanita pulled herself up! As she lowered herself into the wheelchair there was a look of accomplishment on her face that could not have been there except for the heart-aching firmness of her father.

We followed Juanita into the room with the metal whirlpool bath. The therapist and family lifter her from the wheelchair and into the hot tub. The tub seemed identical to the one that was used at the Houston Police Academy when a Cadet strained a muscle. There was one notable difference. The room at the police academy was air conditioned. The room with this hot tub was not. As we watched Juanita perform a series of exercises and watched the therapist push, rush and stretch Juanita’s feet and legs, the sweat pursed out of us. Her parents were soaked from the heat in this tiny room.

After she was dried off, Juanita was taken to another room for a type of electrical therapy for her leg muscles. This would conclude today’s therapy session. Juanita comes three times each week. She and her family confirmed that everything we watched was typical. The only thing differed about some of the visits is that the family and Juanita meet with a psychologist once a month. The cost of the therapy is $5 per session. There is no extra cost for the monthly psychology session. That is included in the $5 cost.

Juanita said that she feels stronger and more full of life than she ever thought possible. She is convinced she will walk. I am convinced that wihat-ever happens, will happen because Juanita pulls herself up.