You are in the hospital. You have a brand new baby in your arms staring up at you. You look back at them with pride glistening in your eyes and excitement in your heart. You realize that you have started on a new adventure and that you feel ready for all of the challenges this little bundle will throw at you. At least that’s how you feel until you get the news. It has been a few weeks since you have come home from the hospital and you just answered a phone call from your doctor. He tells you to sit down and you listen, not quite knowing what to expect. Then you hear something that just about crushes you. Your child has just been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Because cerebral palsy is so life altering and challenging, …show more content…
we need to be informed about the disease to try to make the lives of the people who have this disease better. The major things that you will need to learn about are the causes of cerebral palsy, the treatments and how to make it easier to live with, and some general information including the costs and different types of cerebral palsy.
What is cerebral palsy?
According to an article in “Cerebral Palsy 1”, the definition of cerebral palsy is “... the term used for a group of nonprogressive disorders of movement and posture caused by abnormal development of, or damage to, motor control centers of the brain.” The same article states that eight thousand babies and infants and one thousand five hundred preschoolers are diagnosed each year. As of 2009, approximately seven hundred and sixty four thousand people in the U.S. have cerebral palsy-like symptoms (“Cerebral Palsy 1”). This means that approximately one out of every five hundred people have cerebral palsy. That does not seem like much, but if you take that as in school population wise, and the school has approximately has one thousand students, then each school in the United States has about two people with cerebral …show more content…
palsy.
There are many physical challenges that go along with different varieties of cerebral palsy. If your child has ataxic cerebral palsy, they could be unsteady while walking, or their hands may shake when trying to hold a pen or a toothbrush (“Cerebral Palsy 2”) If your child has spastic cerebral palsy, they most likely have stiff and jerky movements and have difficulty holding or letting go of objects. Spastic cerebral palsy is the most common type of cerebral palsy (“Cerebral Palsy 2”). The third type of cerebral palsy is athetoid cerebral palsy. This is characterized by uncontrollable movements and by slurred speech or drooling (“Cerebral Palsy 2”). This information shows that cerebral palsy can come in many shapes and forms, and have many different symptoms that go along with it.
This disease can be exceptionally costly to the patient and to the family of the patient, in more ways than just money-wise.
(Luitjens) Even though the surgeries that cerebral palsy patients go through are fully paid for by the hospital, they are excruciatingly painful. The pain lasts for multiple weeks. Another way that cerebral palsy is costly to the families is through having to purchase wheelchairs. “Each wheelchair costs about $10,000” (Luitjens). To get a house renovation done so that they can move around easier costs about $26,000 out of pocket. If everything was paid for out of pocket, it would cost the family over $1,000,000
(Luitjens). There are many causes of cerebral palsy and they occur through many stages of life. The first stage of life that cerebral palsy can be contracted during is prenatal, or before birth. This can result from errors in the development of the brain. This results in anomalies in the brain which can end in cerebral palsy (“Cerebral Palsy 1”). Another way that cerebral palsy can be contracted before birth is if their mother contracted an illness such as rubella, or the German measles. An illness such as these could be passed through the placenta, and into the child, increasing their risk for contracting cerebral palsy. Another stage of life that cerebral palsy can be contracted from is perinatal, or during birth. One way that used to be a lot more common than it is now is asphyxiation. The umbilical cord could potentially strangle the child when they come out of the womb, and cause brain damage, which could lead to cerebral palsy (“Cerebral Palsy 1”). Luckily, this is no longer common in developed countries due to better technology. The child could also become infected with a mother’s illness during birth. This can happen if the illness was not transferred through the placenta. This can heighten the baby’s chances of contracting cerebral palsy. A third stage in which a child can get cerebral palsy during is postnatal, or after birth. The most common way that a child can contract cerebral palsy after birth is through neurological injury (“Cerebral Palsy 1”). Cerebral palsy that is contracted after birth is often referred to as acquired cerebral palsy, but this is only accurate if it is contracted from head trauma or through infection. Due to rising technologies, scientist will be able to, in the future, be able to reduce the causes of cerebral palsy drastically. Eventually, the causes could essentially disappear. There are a few treatment options that lessen the effects of cerebral palsy, and there are some prevention techniques that will help reduce the risk. Two ways that will lessen the effects of cerebral palsy are surgeries and wearing braces on your legs. These methods are used to improve nerve and muscle function (“Cerebral Palsy 2”). One method that is used to strengthen muscles is through physical therapy. They work on conditioning the muscles to help the patient walk better and gain more control of their bodies. This also helps with day to day activities such as holding onto a toothbrush or fork. Prenatal prevention is something that will lessen the chances of a child having cerebral palsy. One precaution that the mother should take is to get immunized for rubella (“Cerebral Palsy 2”) This will lower the risk of your child receiving cerebral palsy during their lifetime. The mother should also visit their caregiver regularly to help prevent low birth weights and infections (“Cerebral Palsy 2”). This will again lower the risk of the child ever getting cerebral palsy in their lifetime. Another good thing that the mother should do during pregnancy is to avoid alcohol. Avoiding alcohol and other drugs, such as antidepressants will lower the child’s chances of getting cerebral palsy. A final way to help reduce the effects of cerebral palsy is to spot the illness early. Children have many checkpoints that they meet throughout their early stages of life. If your child is not sitting unsupported by the time they are eight to ten months old, they might have cerebral palsy. If they are not crawling by the time they are one year old, you should get them checked for cerebral palsy. A third major checkpoint that children reach is saying more than one or two words beside mama and dada by their second birthday (Polzin). If they are not then you should get your child screened for cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy refers to a person not being able to fully control all of their motor functions. It is a disease that is quite challenging to live with, and therefore we should all try to help these people as much as possible. Despite it being extremely costly, and difficult to live with, there are ways to help treat cerebral palsy that include therapy, surgeries, house renovations, and braces.
Works Cited
"Cerebral Palsy 1." Gale Science in Context. Gale, 1 Dec. 2010. Web. 7 Apr. 2013. This article goes more into detail than the other ones about how and when cerebral palsy is hereditary. It also shows how cerebral palsy goes by other names, and how it can be a part of a bigger disorder. Another piece of information that i am using from this article is how to tell that your child may have cerebral palsy (this article goes more in-depth on this subject as well). This article also gives a lot of information on surgeries, medicines, and the therapy used to help lessen the effects of cerebral palsy. This article will also be used to identify the symptoms of cerebral palsy.
"Cerebral Palsy 2." Health & Wellness Resource Center. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 May 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. This article informs the reader of how cerebral palsy can occur, when it usually develops, when you can see signs of cerebral palsy in children, the types of cerebral palsy, the symptoms of cerebral palsy, and how you can treat/prevent cerebral palsy. I have used this article mostly for checking back on other sites to confirm information that was said. I also used it to learn about the symptoms and types of cerebral palsy and how these types differ from one another. Another thing that i used this article for is for other ways it can be developed.
Luitjens, Dillon, and Matt Luitjens. Personal interview. 29 Mar. 2013. From this interview, i gained an insight of what it is truly like to have cerebral palsy. I learned that people are always nice to him and go out of their way to make him comfortable. I also learned that you don 't get much privacy, and that you don 't get to do all of the things that you wish that you could. One thing that came into my knowledge that made my jaw drop was how much money that cerebral palsy costs. If you had to pay out of pocket, it would cost you over $1,000,000. I will use this information in my general information section.
Polzin, Scott J., Francisco De Paula Careta, and Luri Drummond Louro. "The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders." The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders. Second ed. Vol. 2. N.p.: n.p., 2012. N. pag. Health and Wellness Resource Center. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. This article tells the reader a lot of statistics. Some statistics that I used from this article are how many people are diagnosed each year, how many people currently have cerebral palsy in the U.S.A, and how great the risk is. This article also tells the reader how some people get cerebral palsy. I also used this article to find even more symptoms of cerebral palsy. Another thing that i got from this article is how to tell that your baby might possibly have cerebral palsy, and then proceeds to tell the tests used to diagnose a child with cerebral palsy.