Shepherd Gilchrist's Travel & Medical Expenses

God has been so faithful in taking care of Shepherd and helping him progress in his uphill battle to use his muscles! As many of you know, Shepherd suffered an accident at 3 months of age, resulting in an anoxic brain injury. The part of his brain that was injured directly affects his muscles, specifically his ability to transfer messages from his brain to his muscles. It’s long and complex; suffice it to say he was diagnosed with a fifty-fifty blend of both spasticity and dystonia in his muscles and basic movements such as walking or chewing food are like performing a pull-up for you and me. It takes a lot of intentional practice, time, and repetition. Also, as many of you know, he spends a lot of his time in therapy to learn how to do these types of simple tasks like sitting on a bench, or holding a fork. Essentially, he spends many hours a week pumping iron at the gym  The dystonia and spasticity in his muscles present themselves in an over-working state in his muscles – basically, they stay tight and contracted whenever he goes to use them. His brain is over firing those muscles. This “tightness” is something that only increases as he grows. So, at his last checkup with his neurologist, she noted that with his last growth spurt, the muscles in Shepherd’s legs have become so tight and his range of movement (aka flexibility) has decreased, to the point that progress in therapy could be hindered and he’s at risk of injury. She said she thinks he could benefit from SPML surgery.

What is SPML surgery? I’m so glad you asked. SPML stands for Selective Percutaneous Myofascial Lengthening. It’s a fairly new, minimally-invasive, highly-specialized surgery. It’s so specialized that only TWO physicians in the country perform the procedure. We did some research and decided to go with the doctor in Galveston, TX: Dr. Yngve (sounds like ying-v). We called his office, submitted the paper work, mailed off his x-rays, and prayed our guts out! About three weeks later we received a highly anticipated call from Dr. Yngve himself telling us he thinks Shepherd is a great candidate for the surgery! So, back to the question – what exactly is this surgery? Essentially Dr. Yngve is going to go make small incisions in the myofasica (the outer lining of the muscle), allowing the muscles to lengthen. He will also perform alcohol nerve blocks that will essentially help his tight muscles to not over-fire as much. The main goal of the entire procedure is to reduce the tightness and allow his legs to move more efficiently, so as to maximize the hard work he puts into his therapies.

Ian and I feel so hopeful that this procedure will be one step towards the goal of walking and being able to use his lower extremities more efficiently. We are so excited and so grateful God is opening all the doors! Being that it is such a highly-specialized and not well-known procedure, we will be documenting every step of the way to raise awareness and spread the word of this amazing opportunity to other families who might benefit from it, too! Would you join us in our journey? Would you please pray for us and consider donating towards the traveling + medical costs? We are eternally grateful to all of those who have been a part of Shepherd’s story and who are rooting him on! Thank you! Amanda