Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a term used to describe a group of disorders affecting body movements and muscle coordination.  CP is a non-progressive disorder, meaning the damage in the brain will not get worse.  CP is not a disease but is an injury to the brain that has happened at some point in life.  (could be at birth or sometime after birth)

CP results vary widely from individual to individual.  It may be as mild as slight awkwardness of movement, or as severe as no muscle control, profoundly affecting movement and speech.  Spastic Diplegia (the type Spencer has) affects all four limbs, however both legs are more severrely affected than the arms.

A book I once read described having CP like placing 3 pairs of socks on your hands then trying to do up a button.  People with CP have difficulty doing so many of the little things that we take for granted every day.  Every movement, every step has to be calculated and performed with a lot more thought and effort than we could think possible.  You can imagine how exhausting that would be every day.

How did Spencer get CP:

Children born prematurely are at a high risk of getting CP because they are so week & underdeveloped.  It could be as simple as not having enough oxygen when he was first born.  Or maybe because he had some small bleeds in his brain shortly after birth (Very common in premies) We feel in our hearts that Spencer got injured during a severe infection he had at 2 weeks old.  Spencer was doing quite well until one day a nurse did a blood draw from Spencer's forehead.  Considering how delicate these kids are you would think that they would be so careful about germs but during our time in the NICU I seen hundreds of times how careless they are.  I beleive that like many of the times I witnessed before the nurse did not clean spencer's skin prior to poking him, did not wash her hands again prior to poking him and did not wear gloves while poking him.  The next day when I came in for a visit Spencer had a large weird looking red mark on his forehead in that exact spot.  When I  questioned them about it they said oh that's just a birth mark.  I knew that it was NOT "just a birth mark"  but they would not listen to me.  That night when I came back in the red mark had grown much bigger and was starting to travel down his nose.  when I mentioned it again they chalked it up again to being "just a birth mark."  I told them again that it was NOT  a birth mark and that I wanted the doctor to look at it when he came on rounds.  The next morning when I went in to see my healthy little boy he was on deaths door.  Turns out it was NOT "just a birth mark" but a staph infection that because he was not treated for it became a life threatening infection that affected his entire body & was in his blood stream.  If it weren't for the new doctor that came on shift that night being so aggressive with him I am convinced that Spencer would not be here with us today.  THANK YOU DR SANKARAN FOR SAVING MY BABY'S LIFE!!  This is how we believe that Spencer injured his brain and why he is who he is today.  (try proving that one though!)  Lesson here: ALWAYS TRUST YOUR INSTINCT and always insist on investigation when it comes to your health or someone you love.  You are the only one with best interests at heart and the only one who can get the job taken care of properly.  Dont back down, you never know how serious it can be.