Zoe Edge – Athetoid Cerebral Palsy
Zoe Edge – Athetoid Cerebral Palsy
I was born with Athetoid Cerebral Palsy. My disability was caused by a difficult birth and lack of oxygen to my brain. This left me with damage to my basal ganglia. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for processing the signals that enable smooth, coordinated movements, as well as maintaining body posture. This condition causes me to have involuntary, purposeless movements throughout my entire body. These involuntary movements interfere with my speaking, feeding, reaching, grasping and the other skills required for coordinated movements. For example this effects my speech, swallowing, breathing and chewing food. I also had a problem with dribbling. When I was younger, I used to do it continuously. This was the one thing I hated and never could accept about myself. I came up with the idea of having hypnotherapy for it. This worked and improved my dribbling ninety five percent. I still dribble while eating and drinking and sometimes when I’m concentrating or when I’m really tired. My involuntary movements do tend to increase during periods of emotional stress. Sometimes, the more I try to control my movements, the worse my movements become. In addition to this, I have very low muscle tone and I have problems maintaining posture, therefore I am unable to sit, stand or walk by myself.
I use a powered wheelchair and I can only use my right thumb to work my computer. It takes me about twenty times as long as an able bodied person to type. Most people would say I have a very severe disability and they would think that I couldn’t do anything. I know that really I do have a very severe disability, but I never really think I do.
I love my life and I live it to the full, there is nothing I can’t do and I’ll try to do everything I want to do no matter what. To myself, my family, my friends (and the people that know me best) they just see me as Zoë. I admit I am a bit different to anyone else and I like being different, it’d be a boring old world if everyone were all the same!
Involuntary Movement.
An Involuntary movement is movement that is not under the control of the brain. The movement is caused by electrical stimulation of the muscle, and in individuals with cerebral palsy, the involuntary movement happens so often that it interferes with their ability to function.
Muscle Tone.
Muscle tone refers to the amount of tension or resistance to movement in a muscle. Muscle tone is what enables us to keep our bodies in certain position or posture. Changes in muscle tone is what enables us to move. For example, to bend your arm to brush your teeth, you must shorten (increase the tone of) the biceps muscles on the front of your arm at the same time you are lengthening (reducing the tone of) the triceps muscles on the back of your arm. To complete a movement smoothly, the tone in all muscle groups involved must be balanced. The brain must send messages to each muscle group to actively change its resistance.