Some of you know that Alex was scheduled for a little outpatient surgery today at Gillette. He is getting what many kids with CP get in this country, botox injections in especially affected muscles and phenol injections on a couple of nerves. The idea is to weaken the hypertonic muscles and interrupt the message the muscles are receiving from his brain to overtighten certain muscles. The effects are temporary but usually significant. It should help him walk better and stretch his arms better, although the bigger issue may be making sure his muscles can stay relaxed enough that his legs don't contract out of his hip sockets.
Anyway, the phenol requires general anesthetic, so I was a little concerned, but Alex sailed through like a champ. I was able to go back with them while they put the ether mask on him, and he was very calm throughout. Waking up later, he began crying. I asked him if he hurt (I even threw in the Russian to make sure), and he emphatically said no. I asked him if he was scared (we think he knows the term now), and he also retorted no. Our best guess was just that he felt disoriented and "weird" from the anesthesia. He calmed down in 5 minutes with the help of a promised popsicle. Halfway through the popsicle, he began asking to go home now. OK, then here we go!
We should see some kind of results in a week or maybe less, gradually increasing until the 1-2 months out mark, and then decreasing. This will likely be a 3x a year thing, although not always with the phenol, which lasts longer. We'll keep you posted!
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