Living with Cerebral Palsy

A few days ago, I told you that I had a difficult week both professionally and personally. Part of my problem is that according to personality tests I am 90% emotional, and my mom always told me that I had a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve. Unfortunately, she never warned me about wearing my sleeve on my leg!

Ok, at the time it wasn’t funny! It seemed like everything was going wrong. I was frustrated with work and frustrated with being stuck in the house all winter. But, there is no way around it, I couldn’t do this again accidentally, if I tried:

My very good friend, who is actually like having a second mom around, decided to sew me a homemade ‘snuggy’ for my birthday. I sit around so much, and I get cold. But, I need my arms and hands free to type, so it was the perfect gift. I have it draped over me most of the time.

Now, it is better than the store-bought versions. It is about twice as thick, with pockets, in case I need to carry something. Plus, it is a beautiful leopard print. But, I swear this leopard attacked me last week!

Draped over me feet and lap, I was working. But, natural called and I had to answer. I went to pull the ‘Judy blanket’ off and throw it to the side of my recliner, so I could get in my wheelchair. Unfortunately, it was STUCK! As you know, even if we are considered incomplete paraplegics, we have feeling. So, I was sure I would feel it if I was laying on the blanket.

So, I just gave it a little tug. Wrong move! Next thing I know, I realize I had draped the blanket on sideways and I was now wearing the sleeve on my leg. Unfortunately, a few days before, I had also busted my ‘pinchy sticks’. You know they are my favorite tool for dressing and everything else. How was I going to get this off my leg in a timely manner? Remember, I had to go to the restroom.

Now, imagine me grabbing my thigh with my hands and manually shaking my leg up and down until the sleeve fell of my leg. Trust me! I am more careful about how I drape my ‘Judy blanket’ (as my kids affectionately call it) today.

Do you have any funny experiences of living with CP that you wouldn’t or couldn’t have done on purpose, if you tried? Phil Stephens says cerebral palsy isn’t for sissies. I will have to add to that and say the people with CP definitely need a sense of humor.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 9:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.