types and signs of ataxia

This week I'm going to talk about something that I've already talked about a few months ago.Except this time I want to talk more about the different types about and less about my personal experience.The topic is ataxia,which is a neurological side effect and Greek for "lack of order".It causes lack of muscle control,most seen in walking.It's a dysfunction of the parts of the nervous system that control movement,a example of that is the cerebellum.

There are three major types,cerebellar,sensory and vestibular.I'm going to focus more on the first of these because that's the one most common with people with neurological disorders.People with cerebellar ataxia tend to have problems with muscle contractions,and problems with gait and eye movements.People with it may also have balance problems,which may be hard to figure out if it's ataxia or not because it's also common with brain trauma and brain surgery survivors in general.The common way that it can be determined by how someone walks is either by widened base and high stepping,or by staggering and lurching from side to side.Another common sign is speech impediments.some of the most common of these are slowed speech,stuttering, irregular rhythm and  of the voice.Another common sign is tremors which may include the head,torso and limbs.One of the more interesting ones is abnormal writing,which often include large uneven letters.

Sensory ataxia is usually caused by the spinal cord and signs include stomping gait and postural instability.Vestibular ataxia is caused by caused by the dysfunction of the vestibular system.Common signs include eye movements,problems with walking,,vertigo, nausea and vomiting.

The most common medical conditions that causes ataxia are stroke,brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord disorders,niemann pick disease,chiari malformation,and wilson's disease.Other causes include exogenous substances,radiation poisoning.,and vitamin b12 definceny.Treatment includes both Physical therapy and ,occupational therapy and meds.

 Below are links to where I got my info and my own personal experience with ataxia.Next week I will have a guest blogger because I'll be busy at work  with the summer holiday.Thanks for reading :)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataxia

http://timothy-landry.blogspot.com/2012/01/ataxia.html

ataxia

I've decided that I'll be posting on Mondays and Thursdays on a regular basis.Thursday because it's usually my day off and Monday because it's about half way through my work week and I already know I won't be able to post during the weekend. However sense I have to post them from the library for right now I won't be able to post on bank holidays,but I'll let everyone know ahead of time.

Today I want to talk what has affected me the most,as least when it comes in hydrocephalus.It has affected how people see me more than anything,and sometimes it's affected how I function.It's also the main thing that caused me to take longer to learn things that other kids were able to learn alot earlier.It's also something that my parents were never told about when I growing up,causing them to wonder if it could be because of how long it took them to diagnose me or if it was something worse.

My topic for today is ataxia,which means "lack of order".It's a neurological symptom that usually stops after treatment (shunt placement or ETV for Hydrocephalus).However along with other symptoms it's not something that always goes away. It causes the nervous system to not work properly,and that results in a lack of Motor coordination.This may have been part of the reasons why I couldn't even hold myself up until my shunt was placed,but I know it has to do with alot other problems I have or had. I couldn't even speak until I was in preschool and it took years of hard work before I even got to the point where people could understand me,which is really disappointing now because of the chronic headache and daily migraines during the last couple years because my ability to speak is back to being worse as it was when I was about 10.So after all that hard work I'm back to the point where people can't understand what I'm saying.It also has affected my hands,to the point where I couldn't open door knobs as a kid,and that's something else that I've started to struggle with that again.It caused me to not be able to tie my own shoes until the fifth grade,something I was really ashamed of.The last thing it really impacted me as a kid was getting potty trained.I caught on while I was still young but it was after elementary,and it ended up being one of the things that started years of constant bullying.

Ataxia caused my hands to shake constantly started when I was about 8 or 9 something that was thought to be caused by early signs of Parkinson's,something that I'm very thankful that it's not.It was also thought to be caused by being hyper,I've always been borderline adhd.I was diagnosed in elementary school but I was tested again my senior year and found out that I don't have it.Something else that I thought that I had caused it was my late diagnosis,and that caused me to be angry with the doctors that had told my parents that I didn't have hydrocephalus,and that there was nothing was wrong me.I'll never know if ataxia would have affected me differently or if at all if I would have been diagnosed earlier but it's also something that I'll rather now know,thanks for reading.