Botox, most well-known for references in Hollywood and pop culture, isn't just for wrinkles.
In the same way that Botox relaxes the skin to reduce wrinkles, when injected into muscles, it can relax the tension that's common in cerebral palsy to help Zoe's movement. In cerebral palsy, muscle issues are caused by injury to or the absence of certain parts of the brain affecting motor development; as a result, the brain sends the wrong signals to muscles - in Zoe's case, making them a lot tighter than they should be, so that she has to fight against muscle stiffness for every little movement. Botox blocks the chemical signals between the brain and those muscle groups, so the screwy signals don't get received by the muscles.
In other words, her brain will keep saying, "Tighten up!" and her muscles will put their fingers in their ears and shout, "LALALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
For our girl, it'll be the hamstrings and forearms this go-round, and we're waiting to hear back about the scheduling of her injections. Baclofen, an oral med designed to relax muscles, is on the table too, but we're thinking that a more focused -- that is, muscle-group specific -- treatment is best right now, given that her tightness is severe in a few specific places and more mild everywhere else.
Plus, she is quite a diva, so Botox seems fitting in other ways too, right?
{I wonder if they'll spare some for me...}
