Cerebral Palsy

How does cerebral palsy affect me?

I live with severe cerebral palsy:

Athetoid quadriplegia, with Dystonia and Autism traits.

Affects my posture, balance and ability to move, communicate, eat, sleep and learn.

Athetoid quadriplegia basically means it affects all of my body, the severity of my cerebral palsy is a combination of weekness in my hands to things such as writing, tying shoelaces, feeding myself etc. extremely challenging. I have little or no control over movements, i experience uncontrolled and unpredictable movement, muscles are stiff, weak or tight with shaky movement, tremors or spasticity, speech and require 24 hour assistance.

I have difficulties with swallowing, breathing, head and neck control, bladder and bowel control, eating and have dental and digestive problems

Athetoid cerebral palsy is caused by damage to the basal ganglia and/or the cerebellum.

Athetoid Cerebral Palsy

Athetoid cerebral palsy (also known as “dyskinetic cerebral palsy”) is a movement disorder caused by damage to the developing brain.

This type of cerebral palsy is characterized by abnormal, involuntary movement.

My muscle tone fluctuates between

Hypertonia is used to describe unusually high muscle tone, which creates stiffness and tension in the muscles and
Hypotonia is used to describe unusually low muscle tone, which causes “floppiness” in the muscles.

This inability to regulate muscle tone is what causes cerebral palsy symptoms.

Quadriplegia:

Quadriplegia: means it affects all four limbs

Dystonia

Involuntary muscle contractions that cause repetitive or twisting movements.

Dystonia may affect one or more parts of the body and sometimes the entire body. The condition can be mild or severe.

The main symptom is involuntary muscle contractions that result in slow repetitive movements, cramps or abnormal posture.

Treatments may include drugs, injections and physiotherapy.