What we do now "MAY" help improve Meg's quality of life.
STEM CELL THERAPYIt is believed that Stem Cell Therapy is the only therapy that can actually replace/repair damaged cells. In Meg's case we hope that some of the brain damage that was caused during her birth may be able to be reversed by using stem cells to replace/repair the damaged brain cells. It is believed that stem cells find the area in the body which has damage (much like they grow bones back after a break). By injecting stem cells into an area that has been damaged, they can turn themselves into that type of cell in the body and replace/repair it.
WHAT CAN STEM CELL THERAPY DO FOR MEG?
We are not sure exactly what stem cell therapy will do for Meg. The studies done so far by the Xcell-Centre in Germany on patients with Cerebral Palsy have shown that the majority of patients show some form of improvement. Studies done on their treatment of patients with a variety of problems indicate that approximately 30% show no sign of improvement 30% show a small improvement and 30% show a large improvement in their condition.
CAN IT IMPROVE MEGS FUTURE?
We believe that as Meg's current status is such a severe case of Cerebral Palsy, that even an improvement of as little as 5% will make a huge difference to her future quality of life. The what if's are endless: what if she could eat orally, what if she gained the use of her arms, what if the tone in her trunk improved - she could sit unaided and even potentially walk. Megs Hips are forming abnormally because of the tightness of her leg muscles inwards, causing the hip joint to develop outside it's socket causing a hip dislocation. This will require surgery in the future, what if we reduced the spasticity in her legs and we do it early enough we may prevent this from happening. Because Meg had seizures at birth and at 4 months of age had infantile spasms it is believed that she only has a small chance of NOT developing Epilepsy as she grows older, what if stem cell therapy could prevent this from happening her quality of life would we worlds different.
Current conventional medicine has very little to offer severely affected Cerebral Palsy children. It mostly involves injecting Botox (a poison) into their muscles to reduce the tightness (spasticity) and for a short period of time allowing more normal movement, or performing surgery on the most affected areas of the body to release locked tendons and muscles. These, in our opinion, are not very good options. The sorts of procedures performed on the individual depend on the severity of the child's disability, if it is believed by the surgeon that the child will not walk and will spend their life in a wheelchair the surgery is performed to allow the child to sit more comfortably in a wheel chair. The problem is that this surgery often then prevents the child from being able to walk at all.
Quality of life is our main goal for Meg, if she does end up wheelchair bound for her life, then if she could just weight-bear enough to move herself from a wheelchair to bed/car/toilet/bath etc, her quality of life will be much better than someone who, as a adult, will need two carers to do these things for her.
At this stage we are focusing on these small things because we know in the long term they are the things that will make all the difference to Meg's quality of life and her best chance to live an independent life.
WHY WE HAVE TO DO IT NOW!
Megs Brain is developing in they same way a normal child's is developing. It is growing as she grows and NOW is the time to make the most improvement. Alot of the damage to megs skeletal structure is done in the first few years, as she develops because her muscles are not acting normally and pull in one direction and not in another - this can cause scolliosis of the spine, hip dislocation, rib deformation (we are already seeing this in Meg) To reduce the spasticity now will make the most difference to avoid deformities forming. If we wait till later the only way to correct these things is via surgery.
As the saying goes: use it or loose it! Every day we try to feed Meg orally even though she struggles to eat, but if she doesn't use her mouth, tongue, jaw, etc. she will loose the skill and her chance at any sort of speech or even being able to have tastes of food will also be lost.
It is the same with all areas of her body. We continue to do things with Meg every day to simulate what a normal child would do so that her brain will not shut down those areas. But there is a limit to what we can do.
The sooner we can get these areas of her brain stimulated and working again the better Meg's outcomes will be.
Link: http://www.xcell-center.com
