10/11/2025
HIPPOTHERAPY & SURGERY UPDATE
As much as Hailey loves hippotherapy and being around the horse, her therapist and the lovely ladies from RDA Oakford, this term we had to put a pause on her sessions and say goodbye.
Hailey's rehab team at PCH and her physiotherapist all agree the time has started to take the next step in her recovery. This means she will start getting botox injections in her legs.
This is to help her with the muscle tone she has in her legs that are a symptom of her brain injury.
From my understanding (apologies if I don't get the terms correct), this will relax/freeze the muscles affected by the muscle tone. This then gives her and her team the chance to then work on strengthening the surrounding muscles and hopefully reduce her muscle tone. She will more than likely need to do multiple rounds of this. Unfortunately because of where her muscle tone is, the muscles needing botox are also the muscles she needs for hippotherapy meaning she can only do one or the other.
Due to the amount of muscle tone she has it also means she needs a fair amount in both her legs. This means she needs to go back to theatre and be put back under general anaesthesia, which means technically it's another surgery.
We have already received our surgery date and it's next Monday (17th). This will now be Hailey's 16th surgery since her accident.
