My name is Michelle, I have a 20 month old little boy who has tri-
peledgic spastic Cerebral Palsy. He has it as a result of being 3
months premature and suffering a severe brain injury. He also has
hydrocephalus ( water on the brain ). He is a wonderful child, his CP
is mild compared with a lot of other kids with CP. He doesn't walk
or stand independently. In fact just last week he started to pull up
to his feet, but cries the entire time. His right side of his body is
weak, they think the damage to his brain was the most severe on the
left side of the brain. He can crawl, and sits up but not normally,
he sits up by using the "W" sit, meaning his knees are folded under
him making his legs look like a "W". He is delayed quite a bit in
all his motor movements, but his speech and cognative ability seems
to be slightly delayed to no delay at all. He goes to a wonderful
facility here in Cincinnati, called the "Pearlman Center" they
specialize with kids mainly with CP although facilitate other
developmental delays. He goes twice a week for 2 1/2 hours where he
gets to interact with his peers, and recieves OT, PT, Speech, and
developmental therapy.We don't really know how he will turn out,
personally I think he is going to be a brain, he is so smart, I think
he will just have trouble with the physical. Which is a lot better
then the prognosis he got when he was 2 weeks old, which was
basically that he could be a vegitable, so needless to say we are
pleased with his progress. Right now we are trying to get some
equipment for him the insurance wont cover, but as you all know I am
sure, it is hard to come up with extra money for that stuff when you
are paying so much just for his basic treatment. It feels like we
have been on an up hill battle for him since he was born, whether it
be a doctor telling us to not expect much of his recovery after his
birth, to fighting with insurance companies and finding good doctors.
does it ever get easier?