Terrible Palsy

Terrible Palsy......if a ten year old said that to you when you were trying to explain to his friend about having cerebral palsy, would you find it upsetting or would find it funny?

The honest answer : the emotional me found it flipant and hurtful, I rose to bait when my nephew said it. You can't play airball, he said because you have to throw the ball through a hole that's as small as the hole in Mummy's headrest....you just try me I replied....well you can't do this and you can't do that....and I had the same answer....you just try me, I bet I can do it.

It's pretty amazing really how I've adapted over the years even though I do say it myself. But it hasn't been an easy journey. It's been a long and arduous task to find ways to do every day things so that I could be an independent person. Things people take for granted like tying shoelaces, that was one of my biggest triumphs. I was 17. 17! When I was young and velcro was 'so' untrendy other kids could tie their shoelaces at eight or nine....I was still fighting with shirt buttons and screaming in the process....not a very nice experience for Mummy.

And when I started to enjoy cooking when I first lived on my own...experimenting with different contraptions, onion slicers, tomato slicers, the list went on. I cooked differently, fillet recipes turned into casseroles as I cut the meat before cooking it.

These are just examples and that I now don't even think about it, I get on with my life, just do things differently, although nobody would really notice. And if austen were a fly on the wall he'd see that, but it's difficult job to make kids understand so that they show kindness, sensitivety and compassion.

Terrible Palsy.......I tried to rationalise it, kids say what they mean so austen must have been thinking that it must have been terrible to have cerebral palsy. It's not terrible, it's not even different, because everyone is different whether it's a bald patch like Bart Simpson, a funny voice like Bo Selecta or big ears like old Prince Charley.

And I may not be able to catch a ball brilliantly, but I play a mean game of table tennis.....as regional champion at school, and I bet he didn't know that :-)