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