Ty's Journey with Cerebral Palsy

Hi, my son Ty Exline is 7 years old and a 1st grader at Lucas Elementary. Ty was born 11 weeks early weighing 2lbs 15oz due to myself having placenta previa. Ty stayed in the University of Iowa Hospital for the first 6 weeks of his life. His last head scan showed a brain bleed that doctors didn't inform us about until Ty was 14 months old. He was then diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy with Spastic Diplegia.
 
Link to Cerebral Palsy with Spastic Diplegia: http://www.cerebralpalsysource.com/Types_of_CP/diplegia_cp/index.html
 
Ty was told he would never walk without surgery. At the age of 3 he started to walk, but he is a massive toe walker. This causes pain for Ty in his hips, legs and feet. He tires easily. Ty has been through speech, OT and still continues to get Physical Therapy at the Children's Center for Therapy in Iowa City. He also was able to enjoy 4 years of horse therapy at Miracles in Motion in Swisher, Iowa.
 
Ty has worn SMO's and still has them in his shoes and we have tries AFO's but he can only tolerate them for short period of times. We have also done some Botox injections but they have helped a little.
 
We had the great opportunity to be seen at Gillette Hospital in St Paul, Minnesota. We found out that Ty uses four times the amount of energy as another child his age. We also talked to doctors who said Ty would benefit greatly from having the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery. This will be happening very soon as we have scheduled surgery on April 22nd, 2015.
 
Link to Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy: www.gillettechildrens.org/.../selective-dorsal-rhizotomy-sdr-surgery
 
This surgery is very important for Ty because if we don't then by the time he hits his teens to early 20's they say because of the pain and arthritis in his joints he will end up in a wheelchair.
 
A year following the SDR surgery he will have yet another surgery to correct his femur bones due to the way he walks his bones have turned inward. They will have to go in, cut the bone and straighten it. Then they plate and screw it and cast him from the waist down.
 
Ty is an energetic child who lets nothing stand in his way. He figures out a way to move his body to keep up with his daily life. He loves playing baseball at City Park and enjoying running around with his friends and family. He pushes himself to keep going but does tire easily, but don't tell him that. He will just keep going.
 
To aid in his tiredness at school, Lucas Elementary had a fund raiser to get him a motorized power wheels to drive in the hallways. He loves it and I have a much happier child when I pick him up. Being able to drive the power wheels in the hallways saves his energy and helps cut down on the pain he did have before just walking in the hallways.
 
For the SDR surgery Ty will be away from friends and family for 6 weeks as we start down a new journey in life for Ty. I will be taking a leave from work to stay with him the whole time. This will be a hard time in many ways when this time comes.
 
If you have any questions please email me at: [email redacted]
 
Anything donated with help with travel costs going up to Minn and coming home as well as his family coming up to see him. It will also help with any remaining bills that insurance doesn't cover and whatever else Ty may need while he is up there and when he is able to come home.
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
 
Amanda Exline (Ty's mom)
Kevin Kaplan (Ty's dad)