Anyone with experience with functional *******ity?

[BoltMama]

My son is 5, and within the last 6 months we've noticed marked *******ity in his legs/feet. At first I thought it was weakness, because it looks like he has severe foot drop, he trips and falls constantly and has a really tough time with stairs, but after seeing the neuro, she says that it's actually rooted in *******ity stemming from behind the legs/heel cords.

So, they've ruled out MD (or, at least, the worst ones Duchenne and Becker's) based on a negative CK in blood tests. She doesn't suspect tumor/growth either, because it would have progressed over weeks, not months.

When I read about *******ity in children, most of what comes up is regarding CP, but that doesn't make sense either, as it seems like it would have been obvious earlier on... not suddenly when he's 5.

So, does anyone out there have experience with *******ity in a child that's just... unexplained? He had an MRI on Friday, so I'm sure I'll hear about the results of that tomorrow, but honestly... I don't expect to really find anything out. Nothing that an MRI would detect really seems to match up with what my son is experiencing.

 

[BoltMama]

Argh. I didn't realize the auto-thing would see s pastic ity as a derogatory term. I can't edit my post, I don't know if that's because I'm a brand new member, maybe?

Anyways, what I was trying to say was.... hypertonia and contractures, maybe?

 

[mommy2lilmen]

I dont have experience, but read your post and seen they **** it on alot of them.. weird. I dont see anything wrong with the word tho??

 

[BlueHadeda]

Was the MRI taken from his lower back (lumbar and sacral)? Do you have the results yet?

My daughter had the same legproblems, although her progression was slower and not as severe by the end. She had a slight toe in, and she fell down allot during the day. It started around age 4 or 5, and by age 7 we were sure there's something wrong. So quite a slow progression. Hers was caused by an occult tethered cord. Usually children with her problem has a quicker progression. She has been operated for it 2 years ago, and it improved her legs somewhat. Unfortunately some of the nerves has been damaged permanently, so she still stumbles/falls allot, especially going up stairs. We took a video of her feet, and it clearly looks like dropfeet. But when she walks and concentrates, she walks normally. So the doctors could never "find" the problem with her. She also had bladder/bowel involvement, but this isn't a given in all tethered cord cases. Each individual has his own list of symptoms.

Another thing you can maybe research that I know of, is Bethlem Myopathy. It's also an MD, and usually people don't show symptoms in childhood. But I have a friend who's daughter started showing symptoms from this at age 5. Just in her feet as well (she walked on her toes).

Keep us posted? Hope you get to the root of his problem!