I was reading our local newspaper a couple of days ago and I came across an article about an 11 year old boy that has Spina Bifida. The article went on to describe how Spina Bifida affects the nerves in a persons spine and how it usually results in varying degrees of paralysis, absence of skin sensation, and poor or absent bowel and/or bladder control. I thought to myself, hmmmm that sounds familiar.
Not knowing much about Spina Bifida, I started researching it and from what I'm understanding now it is a developmental birth defect involving the neural tube: incomplete closure of the embryonic neural tube results in an incompletely formed spinal cord. In addition, the vertebrae overlying the open portion of the spinal cord do not fully form and remain unfused and open. This allows the abnormal portion of the spinal cord to stick out through the opening in the bones. I also read that any nerve damage is permanent. Read more about Spina Bifida here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spina_bifida As far as the nerve aspect of Spina Bifida and TM are concerned, it sounds like there are some similarities. Anyway, this article I was reading described how this boy that had Spina Bifida was not able to urinate on his own because of the condition. He had to catheter himself. The article went on to tell of a medical procedure that was pioneered in China, that involved transplanting a nerve from a persons leg to an area near or around the bladder. It went on to say that when the patient needed to void, they would scratch or pinch an area of their leg or buttock and that would signal their bladder to urinate. Over time the bladder function actually got to a point where it basically worked on it's own and also bowel function increased. I started researching this procedure and I found an excellent article where it also describes where this procedure is also being tested on adults with spinal cord injuries... Read the whole article here..: https://www.beaumonthospitals.com/news-story-beaumont-results-urina... I've also written to the study coordinator to see if there is any possibility that this procedure might work on TM. I think I'd be up for this if it would help fix the bladder and maybe the bowel issue. At least that would lessen some of the daily discomforts. What do you folks think..? Kevin ________________________________
