Good day STEM Hiveans. So yesterday, I went going through my posts and I ran across a movie review I did some time back, Triumph. The review was so good that I went back to rewatch the film😂.
Anyways what caught my eye in both the movie and the review was the medical condition of the main character and the main actor.
𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐒𝐘
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture.
Although in some cases, it may also affect vision, hearing and sensations.
The word Cerebral means it has to do with the brain while Palsy means body weakness or movement issues.
Cerebral Palsy is the most common cause of motor disabilities in childhood. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it affects 1 to 4 out of every 1000 children worldwide.
C͟a͟u͟s͟e͟s͟
In most cases, the specific cause of Cerebral Palsy is unknown. Although it is known that CP is vaguely caused by a problem with the brain/white matter of the infant that occurs before, during or after birth.
Some incidents that could lead to CP later on in a child are;
- an injury to the unborn baby's head
- stroke
- choking or drowning at such not enough oxygen is gone to the baby's brain.
S͟y͟m͟p͟t͟o͟m͟s͟
The symptoms of Cerebral Palsy isn't really noticable immediately after 5he baby is born. It becomes noticable from 2 to 3 years of infancy.
The symptoms mostly and commonly revolve around one particular aspect;
* 𝙼𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙳𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚙𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝
The main symptoms of Cerebral Palsy are problems with movement, correlation and development.
Possible symptoms under this umbrella may include;
- delays in reaching development milestones.
- hypotonia
- weak arms and or legs
- sudden jerky uncontrollable movements
- tremors
- walking on tiptoes
The symptoms vary from child to child and according to the axis, not all of the body may be affected but parts.
* 𝙾𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚢𝚖𝚙𝚝𝚘𝚖𝚜
Patients with Cerebral Palsy can also have a range of other problems
- swallowing difficulties
- Constipation
- Epilepsy
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep (insomnia)
- Gastro-oesophagul reflux disease or GORD
- Scoliosis
And a lot more...
T͟y͟p͟e͟s͟ o͟f͟ C͟e͟r͟e͟b͟r͟a͟l͟ P͟a͟l͟s͟y͟
There are 4 main types of Cerebral Palsy and a doctor may refer to a patients type, particularly based on what the patients symptoms are;
* Spastic Cerebral Palsy
This kind of CP is found when the Cerebral cortex is damaged. When a patient has this kind of Cerebral Palsy, the patient's muscles are stiff and tight, especially when their trying to move them quickly. Making it difficult to move and reduce the range of movement that's possible.
* Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy
This is associated with a damage to the Basal Ganglia. In this type of CP, the muscles switch between stiffness and floppiness, causing random uncontrollable movements or spasms.
* Ataxic Cerebral Palsy
This is found when the Cerebellum is damaged. Here the patient would be found having problem's with balance and coordination. This would result in clumsy, shaky movements and sometimes tremors.
* Mixed Cerebral Palsy
This is a combination of two or more of the previous types of Cerebral palsies. At that it means two or more parts of the brain would have been damaged and the symptoms would correspond to the types of Cerebral palsy identified.
Other terms that may be heard when a doctor is diagnosing a Cerebral Palsy patient is terms used to diagnose the parts of the body affected.
- Hemiplegia: Hemiplegia means one side of the body is affected.
- Dipeglia: diplegia is where 2 limbs are affected.
- Monopeglia: monoplegia is where one limb is affected.
- Quadripeglia: quadriplegia is where all 4 limbs (and usually the whole body) are affected.
- Pentapeglia: This is where the whole body is affected.
- Tripeglia: This is when three limbs are affected.
Pentapeglia and Tripeglia are relatively rare cases
D͟i͟a͟g͟n͟o͟s͟i͟s͟ a͟n͟d͟ T͟r͟e͟a͟t͟m͟e͟n͟t͟
𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴
For diagnosis, the options are rather limited. Until the child starts showing more definitive symptoms, any diagnosis made may be rather faulty.
When the symptoms are clear though, specialists would run the patient's through a series of tests and assessments to know how severe a case may be.
They would also use brain scans to look for signs of any brain damage or Cerebral Palsy. E.g MRI, CT, Cranial ultrasound.
𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵
The treatment of Cerebral Palsy is quite numerous and detailed. Like other special diagnosis, they have a long list of how to be cared for to produce the optimal life style.
First we start with the most basic treatment.
* 𝑃ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑦
This involves exercises and massages to help maintain and improve movement.
This is also one of the most important treatment for Cerebral Palsy.
It helps encourage movement and stops muscle shortening.
An ataxic Cerebral palsy patient before and after physiotherapy
* 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑦
This therapy is for cases who have trouble talking and communicating.
A speech and language therapist can provide exercises to help practice speech or if after consideration decide to teach alternative means of communication. E.g Sign language or use of pictures.
* 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑒
Some medicines are prescribed to help people with their symptoms. Some medicines used are;
- Medicine for muscle stiffness, diazepam or baclofen that can be taken as tablets or liquids.
- Melatonin for sleeping difficulties.
- Laxatives for constipation
- Anti- seizure medicines for epilepsy...
Surely all these medicines are relative to the doctors prescription.
* 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑦
Some cases may need surgery to help their movement difficulties and or other problems.
Surgery may be used for:
- Restoring movement to a body part that is restricted by a tight muscle or bit of connecting tissue
- repair a joint that has popped out (dislocation)
- Correct Scoliosis further reading
*Treat problems with bladder control further readingAlthough of course surgery is a big step, so one should know the risks about any procedure.
👨⚕️🩺🏥
One should note though that there is no cure for Cerebral Palsy. These treatments are just used to make the patient as active and self reliant as possible.
L͟e͟a͟v͟i͟n͟g͟ N͟o͟t͟e͟
Unlike most Special Needs ailments that are widely rampant and well known. Cerebral Palsy is so unknown and yet everywhere.
Cerebral palsy occurs in one to four per 1,000 live births globally. But the prevalence is higher in Africa. Here, it is two to 10 per 1000 live births. In Nigeria, there is no sufficient data to show accurate prevalence, but some estimates say at least 500,000 citizens are affected. - Source
In Nigeria alone an estimate of 500,000 citizens. I know in my daily movements to and fro school, I see at least 10 Cerebral palsy diagnosed, begging on the streets and sidewalks and I didn't know anything. I also remember making fun of them when I was much younger. so embarrassing 😞
This is also another reasons why I decided to make this post despite medicine posts not being my forte.😅
𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖐𝖘 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖎𝖓𝖌 For further reading;
https://www.healthline.com/health/cerebral-palsy#risk-factors
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cerebral-palsy/
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @seki1 ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
I'm very familiar with cerebral palsy. It can be a result of traumatic brain injury at birth or in the womb.
Often the most difficult part is ignorance of the public, as you describe in your blog. When you were a child, you didn't understand. At least you understand now and are trying to in some small way help others to understand. Your blog is important for that reason. I also respect you for acknowledging what you did in the past. A lot of people wouldn't do that.
Why thank you @agmoore . I agree, ignorance of the public does make things very difficult.
One would think that the regular public would know about a disease as widespread as this.
If I hadn't decided to do a research on this, thanks to my earlier post. I doubt I would have learnt anything about this, while I walk past people with this defect daily😢
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).
You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support.