Physical Improvements
From idiopathic toe walking and “tics” to expansion and strength...the physical changes have been mind-blowing!
Toe Walking
One of the first things our family and community noticed after my son started wearing the patches was a significant decrease in his "idiopathic toe walking" (or ITW.) If you're unfamiliar with the term, "idiopathic" means "of unknown origin."
It is a term that many parents become familiar with when their young children start walking on their toes...and don't stop.
Because while anywhere from 5% to 25% of children in the general population are diagnosed with ITW at some point, the percentage of children with ASD is significantly higher: anywhere from 20% to over 60% depending, of course, on a variety of factors.
For our son, there was no other option. If he pushed himself to stand flat-footed, he could - but his back would bend forward almost 90 degrees.
If he tried to walk down the stairs like "the rest of us," he literally could not do it without putting himself in danger of toppling down, head first.
All until the X39 patch.
Within weeks, his symptoms of ITW significantly decreased. His calf muscles were looser, his heel was dropping. After two years of wearing the X39 patch, he will still stand on his toes out of sheer muscle memory. A gentle prompt along the lines of, "Hey bud...your legs feeling ok today?" and they fall right to the floor.
We've even been able to bring the blessing of the Lifewave patches to other children with different symptoms of all sorts of diagnosed and undiagnosed health and wellbeing issues.
Why?
Because our son's toe-walking was so intense and so apparent that people are just literally stunned when they see him walking now - and they think to themselves, "Wow! There really might be something to those little stickers after all!"
Expansion
The condition of our son's feet were doubtlessly connected to the intense toe walking he had experienced for nearly a decade by the time we tried the Lifewave X39 patch.
They were so tight that his toes essentially retracted inward towards the arch of his foot. Space between the toes was practically non-existant.
We had tried so many things to relax the foot: localized stretches, full body bodywork and hands-on therapies, and every herb and tincture you could imagine.
All to no avail, and usually just leading to more misery.
Once again, we introduced the patches and everything changed.
Within the first two months, his foot relaxed and essentially "grew" (i.e. expanded) two full shoe sizes!
We hadn't bought him a new size shoe in...quite frankly I don't know how long. The main reason we did buy new shoes for him was because the sole of the shoes would wear out so fast right at the ball of the foot because of all of the intense toe walking.
This was something we were quite aware of, as we do have other children and we were buying them all larger shoes every so often as needed.
So it felt like a victory to order the next size shoe for the fall! But the sweetest, most special moment came when we bought him his first pair of flip-flops.
I am a chiropractor's daughter: flip flops are far from my gold standard of footwear! But I could go back in an instant to exactly where I was standing in the store the very first time he put on a pair of flip-flops and they stayed in place! I can see the look of sheer joy on his face right now as I close my eyes and type to hold back the tears that memory always brings.
Speaking of tears, there were plenty that day, try as I might to hold them back. The other moms shopping around me gave really sweet, encouraging smiles. I'm sure they couldn't figure out why that little boy's mom was getting so emotional over a navy and gray island print summer slip-on.
Little did they know I was fighting back tears of joy for my son to finally feel a bit more "normal." But little did I even realize, I was releasing the tears of frustration, dashed hopes, helplessness, and disappointment for him that had been collecting for quite some time.
I know that buying flip flops is a common summer thing to do for most people. But for us, that cheap piece of rubber between the toes was a sign that life was getting better than we had ever imagined!