Personal narrative theory , on any personal narrative topic such as prostate cancer - Research Paper Example

After a few weeks, my aunt started noticing something strange; John’s movements weren’t like normal children. For example, he wasn’t able to hold up his head properly and even his suckling abilities were hampered and strained. The day we received the sad news is still vivid in all our memories; John had cerebral palsy (CP). Cerebral palsy is “an umbrella term for a group of disorders affecting body movement, balance, and posture” (Cerebral Palsy e-medicine-health). John basically had brain paralysis and couldn’t properly control his motor activities due to “abnormalities in parts of [his] brain that control muscle movements” (NINDS Cerebral Palsy).

Because of this, John had trouble with moving and turning his head, holding it upright and suckling (Cerebral Palsy KidsHealth.org). My aunt had to mostly feed him milk with a spoon, since he wasn’t getting sufficient nutrition just by suckling. After a while, when John was about 6 months, we noticed that his body would be very stiff, his legs and arms becoming tense and hard. The doctors further informed us that he had the most common type of CP, known as spastic CP. It is where a muscle involuntarily contracts and the child is unable to relax it (Cerebral Palsy KidsHealth.org). At times like these, with John only a helpless baby, my aunt carried him around trying to relieve the tension in his muscles.

She would often cry, not sure of what to do and blaming herself for his condition. We all tried to console her and let her know that it was never her fault. Through out the following months we all tried to be as knowledgeable as possible about CP in order to be there for our aunt. There are many things that we can’t control especially during pregnancy. Nothing was ever picked up on the routine ultrasounds and John was not even born prematurely. Abnormal brain development in the uterus, genetic disorders, blood clots, and a variety of other factors could’ve contributed to John’s condition (Alvarez, Norberto).

There wasn’t any way that my aunt could’ve predicted, controlled or prevented any of these things from happening. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. We celebrated John’s 1st birthday. It was an occasion marked with both happiness and tears. Though John was growing physically in height and his teeth had come in, he still laid there unable to sit up, support his neck or even turn on his own. After a year of stressful doctor visits, my aunt finally decided to see a specialist dealing in children with CP.

She took John to see a developmental pediatrician in order to determine his progress and growth compared to other kids his age (Cerebral Palsy KidsHealth.org). Following John’s development closely for a few weeks, the specialist started him on physiotherapy exercises in order to keep his muscles loose and prevent his joint’s from stiffening (Cerebral Palsy Treatments and Therapies). Everyday my aunt would dedicate hours of physical exercise for John, such as, stretching and folding his legs, rotating his shoulder joints, flexing his fingers, and helping him to support his head.

In the beginning John often cried all through out the exercise routines causing my aunt more pain and anguish. However, day by day he became used to it. I would help sometimes by holding down his body in order to prevent his spine from arching too much. John was a very special child for all of us and we all wanted him and my aunt to be as happy as possible. After a few months of