GREENSBORO, N.C. — After 18 months, the Littles were frustrated.
“We could go on and on and on about how many doctors wasted our time, wasted Caitlin’s time. ‘Sure, bring her down. We’ll take a look at her,’ when they have no medically-recommended approved methods of dealing with this,” said Chris Little, Caitlin’s father.
Caitlin suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was accidentally hit on the head by a teammate at cross country practice for Southeast Guilford High School on Oct. 12, 2017. From that injury, she developed anterograde amnesia. That’s an extremely rare condition in which, at first, Caitlin had a hard time remembering what happened five minutes ago. But over the course of six months, she was able to remember what happened during each day as she lived it but her brain reset overnight as she slept and she’s woken up every morning since the accident thinking it’s the next day – Friday, Oct. 13, 2017.
After seeing a number of doctors throughout North Carolina and talking to many more over the phone and via email, nothing they’ve tried – when they have tried anything – seems to work.
“Most of the things they would propose that might help are things we’re already doing, healthy nutrition, stay away from any kind of pesticides or whatnot and hyperbaric therapy,” Chris said.
So, when they decided to go see someone Chris found in his research, they went to see him in Texas with:
“A lot of anxiety, a lot of anticipation, scared to have hope,” said Caitlin’s mom, Jennifer. But when they got there and Caitlin spent time with the doctor, “It was like they had known each other forever. She just trusted him and talked to him and she understood everything he was saying.”
One thing the doctor introduced them to was, prolotherapy. The American Osteopathic Association describes it as a, “non-surgical ligament and tendon reconstruction and regenerative joint (process) that is a recognized orthopedic procedure that stimulates the body’s healing processes to strengthen and repair injured and painful joints and connective tissue.”
“This involved an injection with a tiny little needle just under the skin, like do any allergy tests on about 30 spots on the back of her neck and down her shoulders where the nerves and the muscles run,” Chris said. It did wonders to relieve Caitlin’s pain and restore the movement in her neck that she’d lost months before.
What upsets Chris is why he’d not heard of this before. It’s been around for decades. But they are happy the found some relief.
“We’ve taken a bunch of lumps and we’ve learned a lot and now we’re more prepared than we were a year and a half ago,” Chris said.
See how much the new process has helped Caitlin, and the setback she suffered recently in her road to recovery, in this edition of the Buckley Report.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the Little family.
Subscribe to the Caitlin Can’t Remember podcast in the iTunes store or Google Play and get updates on Caitlin’s condition and her family’s search for answers, or you can just click on the podcast player below.
