Craig by his mother
Developmental Delay and epilepsy
My pregnancy was problematic, as at the first month I started to miscarry and was placed on hormone treatment for three months.
Although Craig was a happy and contented baby he was developmentally delayed and he only started walking at the age of two. At the same time he started having febrile convulsions which were precipitated by frequent attacks of tonsillitis. At three years of age we had his tonsils removed and the convulsions stopped.
The nightmare of epilepsy
When he reached school going age and he was referred to a special school. At the age of 17 he started to have strange episodes of sudden tiredness, when he would come in from playing outside and lie down to rest. This was so uncharacteristic of him that I became worried and took him to a neurologist who diagnosed epilepsy. The doctor prescribed an anti-epileptic drug for him and assured me that he would be fine once on the medication. This is where our nightmare began.
Craig’s epilepsy became more and more severe with each increase of the medication and a process of trial and error started with many different specialists all trying different combinations of various drugs. During one of the drug withdrawals he went into a very serious status epilepticus and lay for five days in continuous seizures. After he was stabilised he was sent home on cocktail of drugs.
No specialist seemed to be able to give us any hope of recovery.
TST brings a new understanding of how to help
When Craig was 27 years I heard of Scotson Therapy and Linda is someone who truly can understand the pain of living with this debilitating condition. Linda explained to me that the reason the seizures started at the age of seventeen was due to a sudden growth spurt at puberty.
She also explained why there was a possibility that Craig’s lungs and diaphragm could be under developed which could affect the levels of oxygen made available to his brain.
Linda’s gentle method of stimulating the diaphragm muscle to strengthen the respiratory system and increase the lung capacity, which assists the blood supply to the brain, made so much sense.
Craig tolerated the respiratory massage well.
Reducing the anti-convulsant drugs
Since then Craig’s neurologist has been happy for us to withdraw 1000 mg of Keppra and 0.5 mg of Rivatril successfully. This withdrawal was done extremely slowly so as not to shock Craig’s system.
Craig woke up
On our first trip to the Advance centre this year Craig could not hold up his own head and was sleeping for most of the way. Last week on our journey to see Linda, we noticed the immense difference that Craig is showing. His head was up on his shoulders, and all the way there and back he showed great interest in all that was happening around him.
He is full of joy and enthusiasm for life
Craig is now able to talk coherently, his speech and vocabulary has immensely improved and he is full of joy and enthusiasm for life.
We are all very grateful that we have had the opportunity to learn this therapy. We have learned that there is no quick fix to his problem but this steady, gentle and holistic approach has given us new hope to be able to improve Craig’s overall state of being.
Thank you Linda for all your love and dedication to this work.
Mary
Johannesburg
South Africa