Keeping things straight...

Contracture's are an annoying part of DMD, it's a process where as muscles die off they tend to shorten tendons and become so tight that walking becomes nearly impossible. It can be alievated by stretching the legs and arms early in life, but even this can become unsuccessful and tendon surgery may be indicated. I had it on my ankles, hamstrings and hip flexors, it was effective as my feet are much flatter on my foot plates. However my hands and elbows are pretty bad, stretching now may break something, so I'm stuck with it. It's interesting the technology out there to help, so even this can't stop us!

Extract;
... That makes it impossible to completely straighten your arms or legs without causing huge damage and pain. So in an effort to prevent the worst of these effects on my legs, the orthopaedic surgeon who saw me ... said he was going to cut my hip flexors, hamstrings and ankle tendons...

Find out more in my book DMD Life art & me here; http://duchennemen.net16.net/buymybook.html




Foreword

I’m Ian Griffiths from South Wales. This book is a story of my life so far up to the age of twenty five years. I live with and suffer from the ill effects of DMD which stands for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It is a severe muscle wasting disease and a life limiting terminal illness. It won’t kill you in six months in the traditional sense of ‘terminal’, but it’s far crueller than that, it steals every muscle in your body first and then kills you, anywhere up to the age of thirty. There have been cases of men living past that into their forties and fifties but only with drastic interventions such as ventilators and tracheotomies, more on this can be found by reading on.
I hope to cover a few things in this book, from a history of my childhood years to a more detailed history from sixteen years onwards and finally onto my current problems and triumphs. At times things I write may make you smile or may make you pause and think about the seriousness of life with this devastating disease. I really hope there will be a cure but currently for us supposedly ‘older’ guys with DMD (over twenty one), there seems very little hope. If I don’t see a cure in my lifetime, I hope my campaigning helps in some way bring it about for future generations, so another child won’t have to see their body wither and die before their time.