Andrew's Blog

Our first post in the progress of Andrew through the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy Procedure (SDR).

Andrew was born at 29 weeks. 11 weeks premature for no apparent reason. As a result he suffers from Mild Diplegic Cerebral Palsy. He has been in Physical Therapy for almost 3 years and started with Occupational Therapy about 2 1/2 years ago to help with his fine motor delays and Sensory Processing and has been seeing a Speech Therapist for a year. He started preschool last fall and seems to be progressing quite well and seems to enjoy his classmates and teachers. Andrew has a wonderful team of therapists, doctors, teachers and support staff. He has made huge progress since his diagnosis and therapy regimen started. Andrew was delayed in his gross motor skills which prompted a Neurologist to examine him and in turn an MRI was done. The MRI was consistent with the Neurologists diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. Andrew did not start to walk and take steps until after the age of 2. Since then he has progressed nicely, but not enough for him to be able to climb stairs independently or be able to run, jump and skip as his peers do. He has a difficult time on uneven ground and tires very easily with much walking.

Andrew underwent 2 rounds of botox at Shriner's Hospital. The Botox treatments were like a miracle. But after much research it has been found to be damaging to the muscle tissue since the Botox actually paralyzes the muscles to release the spasticity. Then with having to be casted for 2-3 weeks after each round of injections and the back and forth followups for injections, casting and cast removal.... the Botox only lasts about 3 months. After about of month of appointments surrounding the Botox treatments, he really was only getting 2 good months of "good walking" out of it. Since Botox is only temporary, we wanted a longer term procedure to help him achieve his goals. The only other options that we could find that would benefit him at this point are a Baclofen Pump or a Heel Cord Release. The pump is not permanent and has many side effects including fatigue, which he does not need! and the Heel Cord Release is actually cutting into muscle that can cause future muscle damage and most likely will have to be repeated. This surgery also would not be done until the age of 8... which is too long to wait for help for him.

So after a year of research we decided to see what the Neurologist thought of the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. He thought that Andrew would be a good candidate. So we began the application process with The St. Louis Children's hospital and after review, Dr. Park there thought that Andrew would be an excellent candidate for the surgery. It took us about a year to decide to go through with it. He was accepted for surgery and now we are on our way to St. Louis!

The initial review of Andrew is on June 18th and the Surgery will take place on June 19th.
We will keep you all updated with his progress so check back often. This is the best way we know to keep everyone up to date. We hope to keep a video library of his progress along with pictures and other information.

If you would like to read more information on this procedure, please visit http://www.stlouischildrens.org/tabid/89/itemid/1539/Cerebral-Palsy-Spasticity--Selective-Dorsal-Rhiz.aspx