On July 17, Lexi had her 4th round of treatment and boy was she ready for it! She was so tight (called spasticity) and kept falling and struggling all over the place. Her doctors even said that they have never seen her so tight! Because of her increased spasticity, the treatment ended up being even more intense than planned. In addition to the Botox (injected into the muscles), she also received Phenol (injected into the nerves). She took longer to wake up from the anesthesia since it was much more intensive and was such a silly head! Poor girl was sore (and still is) and was such a trooper.
Due to her increased spasticity, they already scheduled her next round for November 20, both for Botox and Phenol again. She is also now a candidate for a major surgery called a Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. If she is selected (she's already a candidate, but it's a process to get to the surgery since it's so intense) a Rhizotomy would be scheduled (probably not for awhile, until she's 4 years old or so). A Rhizotomy is where the surgeon would go into her lower spinal cord, find the nerve roots & endings that were signalling her leg to be so spastic, then cut and divide them so they would no longer (hopefully) make her leg so tight. It's kind of like a "permanent" solution. This surgery is a long, intensive surgery, and if done, she would be staying in the hospital for at least a month doing recovery and physical therapy. Again, it is unknown if she will be getting this surgery. Her spasticity evaluation is November 13.
We are so grateful that she is able to get these treatments that help her so much! Even though it's sometimes a sore recovery afterwards, it's a night and day difference in how her legs are. She has another serial casting scheduled for her right leg, but I'm hoping that if she wears her braces constantly that we can just do that instead!
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| A long day after Treatment. |
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| Does this picture not make you laugh? |
