The Letter I've Waited For Forever

After a wonderful day out with a friend and her new baby in beautiful Richmond in north Yorkshire, I came home with the giggle-monster (also known as Wriggles) and found a nonchalant brown envelope sitting on my doormat. 

This letter I have been waiting for in some form for a long time, at least 15 months if not more. In many ways, nearly 2 years. I didn't know what it would look like, the exact words or when it would arrive but there has been some level of expectation that it would come at some point or something similar.

In bold type, amongst some other headings read the line:

"Diagnosis: Emerging central motor defect-cerebral palsy with mild asymmetry and developmental delay"

Since our recent development review when the consultant confirmed brisk reflexes and spasticity in both legs and the left arm, I have increasingly suspected that this would happen sooner or later. Both our consultants and physiotherapists have mercifully always been very open and honest with me which has lessened the blow, although I was surprised to still feel it keenly when I read the words in black and white. It is mild enough to have taken this long to diagnose, and to look at Wriggles you would be unlikely to suspect something slightly different at first, second or even third glance. By all means, as conditions go it is far from severe and because of this is very unlikely to hold her back definitively in anything. Yes, she might have to work harder and take longer to achieve physical milestones particularly involving lower limbs, but there is no reason seen now why she should not achieve anything. So given this, why do I feel so funny?

It's a label, I suppose. Bam, slapped on. Something to live with. A name. A condition. A reason. In many ways, I welcome the "answer" but in as many ways I mourn the confirmation. I've known since practically 'term' that Wriggles finds gross motor skills more difficult and that her reflexes and some core strength is not what it could be. I suppose the surprise, if could call it that, is that this isn't something which is going to disappear. This isn't our bit of prematurity that needs to just catch up. This is something that she will carry to school, to adulthood and beyond. It invites even more unknowns and fogginess to the future.

Thankfully, cerebral palsy is not degenerative. What you see, is what you get in that as it originates in the brain, it is not going to change. 

"Children with cerebral palsy have difficulties in controlling muscles and movements as they grow and develop. The nature and extent of these difficulties may change as children grow but cerebral palsy itself is not progressive: the injury or impairment in the brain does not change. However, the effects of the brain injury on the body may change over time for better or worse. Physiotherapy and other therapies can often help people with cerebral palsy reach their full potential and become more independent." Taken from Scope's website.

In cases like ours, diagnosis is not immediate because it doesn't have to be. It isn't that Wriggles has degenerated, it is just that it was not blindingly obvious before now especially given her prematurity and frequency of illness. Many 'symptoms' of cerebral palsy can also be attributed to different conditions and developmental progress that in some cases can be resolved. We have for some while now been receiving a physiotherapy programme similar to a child with a CP diagnosis because Wriggles was displaying the traits which are treated as and when they are prominent or seen to be hampering developmental progress. Her treatment will not know differ because of this letter; it doesn't need to. It just means that everyone will be aware that there are no quick fixes and she will probably remain on the books longer than expected. It's not just going to be resolved with a ta-da! Look she's walking now! as had been thought whenever she does start walking unaided. And I think that is what stings. 

I'm so glad, grateful and relieved that the linked-up health care and services in my area have enabled her so far and will continue to; I just wish we didn't have to be in that position in the first place.