Operation Ollie: let's get him walking
Hello my name is Ollie Dodds and I am nearly 5 years old. I have a mom, Hayley, Dad James, a wonderful big sister Imogen, and a baby brother Noah.
I was born 7 weeks early much to my mommy and Daddy's surprise. I spent a little under 4 weeks on the neonatal ward in hospital. Mommy and daddy were always told that by my first birthday I would have caught up with other children my age and meet my mile stones. When I was about 10 months old and still hadn't rolled over by myself, and still had very little head control, my mommy started to worry and knew there was something wrong. After researching on the internet my family realised all my symptoms started matching that of cerebral palsy, a type of brain damage that affects motability.
Just before my 1st birthday I rolled over for the first time!! I was already now under a physiotherapist because of the concerns my family had, and they also thought I had cerebral palsy.
In October 2012 aged 18months, I finally got my cerebral palsy confirmed. (we later learned I had 'spastic triplegic cerebral palsy' this is where 3 of my limbs are affected aswell as the 'overtone' in my trunk.)
I have since had an MRI scan, x-rays, regular physiotherapy, currently still receiving targeted training, a 'kidwalk', I have splints for my feet and legs, a Wheel and power chair and in the past I have had botox injections in my legs, With all of this amazing involvement and support I have come on leaps and bounds aswell as overcoming a nasty near fatal disease called kawasaki in 2013!
After lots of research and fundraising with the help of so many people, family, friends, celebrities and even strangers, my family were able to take me over to St Louis in America in April 2015 to meet Dr Park who is world renowned for changing children's lives by performing an operation called 'Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy' (SDR)
The Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy Procedure involves sectioning (cutting) of some of the sensory nerve fibers that come from the muscles and enter the spinal cord. This now make me less 'tight' in my leg muscles and now allows me to sit without falling, stand up straighter, I am now even learning to crawl, and making huge progress in learning to walk in a walker!! In general I am a lot more comfortable, confident and happy these days, I continue to be my cheeky self with my huge sense of humour and my love for WWE wrestling grows almost as much as my legs seem to these days!
I work extremely hard during my four weekly sessions of intensive physiotherapy to help get me the best results for independent mobility as possible post SDR for my future. This is still very costly and so we need to continue our fundraising further so make sure I receive another 12 months of intensive physiotherapy that is vital and recommend by Dr Park.
During some of my physiotherapy sessions it has been noticed that my standing is no longer as good as it could be. Mommy has been in touch with another Dr Called Dr Dobbs at St. Louis children's hospital who does 'PERCS.' This is an additional surgical procedure for muscle/tendon lengthening to allow more movement in joints. The goal of surgery is to increase range of motion, allowing me to walk with heels on the floor and knees straight, something I'm not doing at the moment and this is holding me back in my progression in physiotherapy and daily tasks. I have been told by Dr Dobbs that I would benefit from this surgery, therefore mommy has had to add another £10,000 on top of my target to cover this.
This is where you being on my page can help! Please if you can help further my dreams of walking and playing independently with my sister and brother then please make a donation, nothing is too small and every donation makes mine and my family's ultimate wish come true and is received with the biggest ever life changing 'thank you' we could possible give!!
Should we exceed the target amount(or if we do not raise enough funds, or if they cannot be used for any other reason) the funds raised will go to the general funds of Tree of Hope to assist other sick children.