I was awake for a large part of the night worrying about today and how it would go.  I knew Chris did not want to have to do it all again.  Then inspiration struck me.  It would be much easier for Chris if his dad and me got more involved in the exercises by trying to do them ourselves.  This would let us see first hand just how hard they are and it would give Chris the opportunity to see which muscles we were trying to engage and how the spine moved when we got it right.

I also introduced a good old fashioned reward system, offering him a piece of chocolate orange each time he got an exercise right!  This approach made a big difference to the second day.  For a start I really understood how hard some of the exercises were and Chris got to laugh at me trying and failing to hang from the wall bars!  His dad had a go at the exercises too and he also realised just what it was we were asking Chris to do.

We carried on with the note taking and photographs until we had reviewed all the exercises we learnt yesterday.  Debs also taught us some good stretches for Chris’s pectoral muscles which are particularly tight and she suggested we see a physio to work on these and stretch them out. Then we let Chris go and relax in another room while we went through the notes and photos and put together an exercise schedule.

Once we were happy that we understood it all Debs said she would go.  We thanked her for her incredible efforts over the last two days and I just had to give her a big hug when we said goodbye.  She has given me such hope and conviction that we can make a positive difference to Chris’s curve – so much better than the “wait and see” advice we got from the consultant.