ityiws

Let me begin by backing up 23 years. My first attention-grabber was when he sat in a carrier. He did just that...sat there with his hands in his lap. When I wound up the swing, he didn't fling his arms around like most babies do. He looked like a little man sitting there.

I noticed that through the night, he never kicked off his blankets. He'd lay the same way I placed him the previous night.

When he FINALLY learned to crawl, he never got on his knees the way other babies crawled. He moved as a GI crawling under barbed wire.

He ran with his right arm tucked into his chest and his left arn flailing around without rhythm; and as though he was almost skipping. His classmates yelled, "Run, Forest, Run!" when he ran. He ran almost like Forest gump did in the movie.

He didn't learn to ride the bike until the summer before 7th grade.

I took him to the ped and explained my concerns. The doctor asked me if anything unusual occured during the pregnancy or delivery. I did explain that his heart dropped suddenly while on the monitor and they ran in to give me oxygen. When that didn't work, they increased the oxy. After that failed, they moved me around on the bed from side to side. Finally his heart rate increased.

The ped then asked if I ever noticed any incidents of movement in me during the term of the pregnancy. I explained that he was very active until one point when I thought he died because there was no movement for two days. The doctor reassured me that he was alive, but "lazy". After that point, any movement was sparse and weak.

He explained that most likely, the cord had wrapped around his neck and he lost oxygen.

At that point, I did bring up a coment the doctor made about the cord being wrapped around his neck, causing the plummit of his heart rate.

The ped explained that if it happened while on the monitor, it most likely could have occured during the pregnancy also; when I was not being monitored. That the point in time the movement decreased may have been one of those occurances.

Ped diagnosed him with mild cerebral pasly. I thank the Lord every day that it wasn't worse than it is. Ped said Donny was very fortunate that it wasn't worse; this could have left him in a wheelchair. I asked the ped if I needed to do anything special for him. He said, "Certainly! Don't baby him or hold him back. Encourage him to be as active as he can...climb trees, slide down a slide, ride skates...take chances of getting a scraped knee,-- as all everage kids do.". I never babied him...

Fast-forward to today. His ortho said that his legs are still very spastic. He can't straighten them out all the way, even when the ortho tries to manipulate then passively. His spine is VERY s-shaped. I felt bad because I never noticed the curveratur until it was too late to correct.

Donny is very VERY forgetful. He misplaces things much more than usual. He's our church janitor. I walk into church discovering dirty rags left on the pulpit, spray bottles left on a pew, tied up trash bags left beside a pail. He often forgets to return to the can to replace the liner after taking out the trash. He seldom completes a job...forgets to put away the tools, ie. He loses tools, keys, anything in his hands. He'll lay something down and immediately forget where he laid it. If he borrows something, he forgets to return it. If we request for the return of the item, he can't remember if he returned it.

He has incidences of dey-ja-vu that can last a few days, then all is 'normal' again.

He stutters excessively. Not the "st-st-st-stutter" type of incomplete words, but the "stutter stutter stutter stutter and and and and" type of word repetitiveness. He drools more than usual; often needing to wipe his mouth.

Are these current activities indication of his cerebal palsy, or would these incidences have occured if he weren't cerebral palsic? My husband is also forgetful, but certainly not to this extent. Both Husband and I have ADD, as well as he and his sister (my house is a MESS!) So I'm not sure how much of Donny's problems to discount due to ADD or heredity.

I'm not sure why I'm asking. I suppose I'm asking to find out if there may be exercises or some way to help him with these problems.....if they're preventive or something he has to get used to?

Aside from his remembering skills (or lack therof), he is very good at playing and designing computer games. But, of course, he doesn't need his legs to play, and everything he could possibly lose is tethered to the computer via cords (his reason for NOT buying cordless items).

Does any of this sound familiar? Any suggestions or input? Thanks!