I Can't Believe He Came Here Like That

Today I had the pleasure of making an unplanned trip to Wegmans. Have I ever said how much I like grocery shopping? Well Wegmans is at the top of my list. If you know me and know my eating habits of the last 6+ months, you wouldn't have been surprised to see me buying 6 Green Giant veggie boxes. People always ask me if I need help when I'm reaching for frozen food, being that most of the time the angles that they are placed into the cases make me have to shift around a lot in order to reach them. I only stand up as a last resort, sometimes passing on something that is too high up, as I'd have to place my basket on the floor in order to do so, and picking it back up if it happens to be full is way more of a challenge then reaching the food while sitting down.

I noticed voices to the left of me, a family discussing which veggies to buy, but as I was both heavily concentrating on wiggling free a box of broccoli with cheese sauce and totaling up the cost of my basket, I didn't pay them any mind. Besides, I didn't get the vibe that there were little children staring at me and they seemed too involved in veggie picking to bother to ask me if I needed help (a relief).

Like any good driver though, when I had my 6 boxes and backed away from the case I turned my head left to make sure I wouldn't run into them. Standing there with his parents was a boy around 14 using a reverse walker. I didn't look at him long enough to notice what his clothes looked like, if he was wearing AFOs, or if the hand grips of his walker were red (they most likely are). I only noticed out of the corner of my eye that he most definitely has CP. I was too focused on repeating "$18.71, $18.71" in my head to think I cared.

[image description: the walker with the red handles, although mine didn't have those hip positioning pads]

Except I did care. The first thought that came into my head was I can't believe he came here like that. The next was, no wonder they understood that I didn't need help... Then I wondered why I thought such a seemingly negative thing about the boy. It was totally a transference thing. Did his parents force him to go grocery shopping against his will? Was he insecure and embarrassed, is he sick to death of preschoolers staring?

I would never have gone out in public using a walker without putting up a fight. People might think I'm r------d. People I'll never see again... But that used to matter to me. I wasn't that kind of cripple, and I didn't want anyone thinking I was.

Then on my way home more thoughts came into my head: Did his parents force him there? Did they force the exercise on him? Doctors have "prescribed" grocery shopping to me in my life. Does he not like his chair? Has he used a walker since he was a toddler so that after over a decade he's OK with it? I have used one only here and there. Did he like not walk until he was 10; has he bought into the "people who walk are better, I'll use my chair over my dead body" rhetoric? Been there done that.

Then I felt sorry for him. Wegmans is the biggest grocery store I've ever been to. As I have trouble finding things and often have to walk back and forth around the store or up and down the same aisle three times in order to find things, I have gone there on foot and left not being able to stand for the rest of the day. Does he not have a powerchair? Is he mortified at the thought of his parents pushing him in public? I most certainly was at that age. He doesn't have to go home and collapse tonight. I didn't.

See what I mean, transference? I was having flashbacks to 1999. All I can hope was that they were flashing forward, noticing that I was alone, doing my shopping independently, and wondering how I got there. Did I drive, take paratransit? I actually had rolled the mile and a quarter from the last place I was, and then took the train to the bus and rolled the last 2 blocks home.

Do his parents have more hope for his future now then they did before we bumped into each other? Do they see less dependence for their son and more independence? Do they wonder if I live alone? The only exchange we had was the mom offering to close the freezer door for me as I was backing away "Oh, I've got it," I said for the 9001th time. That was before I saw her son. Neither of us said anything after. Was the kid looking at me in horror, swearing to himself that he'd never be caught dead grocery shopping in a chair? Flashback, 1999: I would have said that exact thing to myself.

I've certainly grown in the last half of my life, as I obviously don't think that now, and for that I am thankful. But it makes me wonder why all these thoughts came into my head so quickly. Why my memories of these things are so vivid, while memories most people treasure, like summer camp are harder to bring to the surface. Is this a shared experience among people who were born with their disability? Because I thought only people who had serious trauma have flashbacks...

Deficit Reduction on the Backs of the Most Vulnerable

originally from http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/03/pdf/hit_budget_cuts.pdf
hit_budget_cuts

White House Federal Disability Budget Fact Sheet

I'm not going to comment because I haven't even read it, but I thought I'd distribute. Maybe I shouldn't, maybe I'm distributing government propaganda, but I'm not capable of creating original content today.

2012 Disability Fact Sheet

Moms & Botox: What's the Deal? Or, Botox is Relatively PainLESS (and Botox Day is Like Christmas)

I've been meaning to post this since October when Tanis posted about Jumbly's botox appointment. She called the post The Steel-Toed Boots of Motherhood. I read it and thought about other moms that have written about botox, like Ellen and Kathryn. All three of their children have cerebral palsy, all three write about their children's botox appointments with angst, and I wonder why. I am somewhat flummoxed. I thought I wrote a post over a year ago, Botox Day: It's Like Christmas, but apparently I never did. OK, I don't know anything about Christmas (remember, I'm Jewish), but as my appointment gets near I start counting down the days.

In her next post Tanis writes that the day of the appointment was a soul crushing day for her. In 2009 Ellen wrote about being scared for Max. I don't know why Max's doctor puts him under general anesthesia for botox, I've never heard of that. I have heard of using conscious sedation for little children, like what was done with Ellie.

Kathryn thinks that people who think botox is not painful are out of their mind [look at the picture below, it's a teeny, tiny needle]. Jenni and I must be out of our minds then. Kathryn, have you ever had botox? How do you know? She seems to think that the pain produced from a botox shot is 100x worse then a tetanus shot. No, Kathryn, it's not. Tetanus shots are worse. To me, botox shots hurt about the same or less then a flu shot.

I understand that these kids are 7 and 8, and that when I first started getting botox regularly I was 20. I did have botox a few times when I was somewhat younger and unconscious, during surgery, but doing it that way makes it hard to determine whether improvements are from botox or surgery. I also had botox once when I was 18, although hardly any, I think just in my thighs and opted for the numbing cream.

I fully support the use of numbing cream, conscious sedation, distraction like bubbles or I Spy books, or sheer bribery like ice cream, money, or a trip to the toy store for little kids. I might suggest calling in a child life specialist. Getting upwards of 8 shots is a lot for a kid to take. I would have been a wreak at 7 and 8. But for the last five years I haven't opted for anything for pain management. Botox is my pain management. It's a g-d send. I just don't have the patience for EMLA. Having to wait for paratransit to take me to/from my appointment tries my patience enough. Waiting for Emla to kick in might put me over the edge.

OK, OK, I'm being rather misleading. Botox is injected all over my body every 6 months. I get it in 8 muscles, and because they are rather large muscles my physiatrist spreads the shots out and injects more then 1 spot. Of course I feel it. Of course, just like getting blood drawn or a flu shot, my natural CP reaction is that my whole body tenses up even before the needle even hits my flesh. Try telling someone with spastic CP to relax. It ain't happening.

Fortunately, I was told by Dr Gormley, of Gillette, that in the case of botox, tensing the area actually makes it easier for the physiatrist to find / access the correct muscle. Score one for spasticity! Of course it hurts when the needle is in my flesh, but as soon as it is out there is no longer any pain. It doesn't linger. I don't walk out of the hospital in pain. There is some very minor discomfort, but as my current physiatrist suggests, going for a walk afterwards not only helps work the botox into your muscles and helps it to take effect sooner, it also makes that discomfort go away sooner. What do you do if you can't walk? I don't know. Ask your physiatrist.

I always wonder why my doctor always has this look of guilt or something on her face when she is giving me botox. I'm sure the look on my face isn't pretty. I do always utter multiple OWWWs during the appointment. But I always wonder why she doesn't focus on the tremendous amount of pain that she is saving me. Or why she doesn't focus on the giant smile that I'm sure is plastered on my face most of the times she walks into the room. She's there to give me BOTOX! I'm a botox junky. Dr. Alter is one of my favorite people. She's totally got me strung out on the stuff :-)

She should hear the way I talk to other people anticipatorily about botox, with that smile on my face. Or maybe I should tell her that in the weeks leading up to "botox day" I go to bed thinking about botox the way most Christian kids think about Santa Claus (I think I have told her that actually). I'm sure little kids getting botox don't think of it this way, but I know of at least one other person my age (coincidentally a patient of Dr. Gormley) who looks forward to it, although I'm not sure if she looks forward to it as much as I do.

So I wonder why these moms look at botox with such angst, while I look at it as somewhat joyous in a way. Yes, I am injecting diluted botulism all over my body, almost from head to toe (from shoulder to calf), and yes, I'm fully aware that botulism in it's pure form is a lethal form of food poisoning, having done a report on it 8 years ago for 11th grade chemistry class. But the pain I otherwise have, especially from panic attacks, is unbearable. Although I'd like another option, I've rationalized the food poisoning. Why can't mothers?

Another Round Up

ETA: An old post of mine, an old research paper to be exact, Tiny Tims & Supercrips, was quoted here the other day, although in an effort to change the link to this blog from my old one, it no longer works. I still think it's cool, and almost missed it, except that I was reading The Goldfish.

First, I was cleaning out some very old email and found this:

The email said that this was done with a typewriter and that the artist has CP.

Next, I don't remember emailing this poem to someone, or even having read it 2 years ago, but apparently I did. It was recited at the disability pride parade, and is good.

Third, sorry Joe, you non-blogger you, you're off my blog roll because I've added Georgina Dollface (swapped one LP for another... huh... didn't notice that at first) She commented on this blog once, and I must have clicked on her blog then, but somehow I only just now, after doing so again 10mos later, noticed how great she is. You should blog more Joe.

If you want to take part in an amazing love story (I feel like a voyeur reading this blog) check out To the Other Side of Dreaming. I took the last of my disaboom blogs off of my blog roll when I added this amazing blog yesterday.

Fourth, Attila recently wrote about her collaborative craft studio, which employes disabled adults and caregivers / relatives. They make Christmas ornaments, that are the most gorgeous I have ever seen, and I think stuff for Easter too. If I wasn't Jewish I'd have ordered a bunch already.

Fifth, here's another great post from Therese. I'm sorry if you don't like dark humor, but I do.

Lastly, here's 2 more great stories from Joe Shapiro and NPR:

Click here for transcript
A separate story that ran earlier that same day, but wouldn't embed is A New Nursing Home Population: The Young

"School is no longer a haven. It's a place of FEAR."

A follow up video

Sounds too close to my experiences, and that fact doesn't make me feel any better, it makes me feel WORSE.
Here is the 1st one.

"I'm in Jail. I have committed no crime."

There have been many GREAT Olmstead related stories on NPR lately. Here are two. A third, Families Fight to Care for Disabled Kids at Home, is a month older, and I couldn't get it to embed.

Here is the transcript

Here is the transcript
Here also are two NPR stories that are text only:
Katie Beckett: Patient Turned Home-Care Advocate
Justice Increases Efforts to Enforce Olmstead Ruling
I ♡ Joe Shapiro.

Towson University DSS, WTF?!?!?!

This video was posted on youtube on Monday. I found it on my Facebook newsfeed last night. Thanks Paula D-W. Here's an article about it. This situation sadly doesn't have me all that surprised. I haven't ever dealt with the Dean of Education, as I wasn't ever an education major of any sort. However, I have dealt with several high up Towson University officials and 3 different people in Disability "Support" Services (DSS). (yes that is me on the cover of their brochure, and I wish I wasn't anymore). My baggage from this post (#12) is strictly from someone I will not name whom I doubt this student has come into contact with. They strictly divide caseloads up by diagnosis over there.

But, I do know the head of DSS quite well, and I am sure they have come in contact with each other at this point. I am wondering WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?!?! Or I should say NOT DOING. Again DSS is not supporting a student, as their name implies wrongly that they do, but are probably aiding in using this student's diagnosis against her, as was done to me over a year and a half by the person referred to in the post I linked to, not the director. If they are not doing that (MIRACLE) or even if they are, they are most likely standing idly by and not advocating for the rights of this student and the children with which she worked, saying it is not their problem, or just trying to make her go away because it's easier not to deal with her. Telling her to just come back another semester, not realizing the damage that does, dismissing someone.

Of course I am projecting my 3 years of negative experiences onto a situation I know very little about, but I don't see where it would hurt to email DSS to try to light a fire under their ass. They should be working to rectify this and it just sounds from the video like they are not (again, not surprisingly). So, their contact info is here.

Lawyer Takes on Psychiatric Industry For Over-Prescribing to Foster Children

Speaking of Zyprexa... I have a friend, who took it as an adult, who had a MASSIVE heart attack and has serious diabetes from taking that. Which is why I am seriously cautious about anything that's been out for less then 5 years...

Also, Monday I spent way too much time online and stumbled across some articles on childhood bipolar. When is childhood bipolar no longer childhood bipolar and is just bipolar? Anyone know? Because I really wish I was diagnosed at 15 and not 22 (lot of years in between there), not that it matters what it's called though... *end tangent*

from babble.com Are More Kids Bipolar? That article links to articles from the New York Times and Slate, all good reads.

It's The End of Disability Awareness Month

Wendy On Wheels just looks GREAT! Anyone read it yet? Thanks AZ for posting!

CURE PITY!

I realized the other afternoon that it's October, disability awareness month, it's 2/3 over, and I've done nothing for it. We can't have that! So without further ado, here's a video from Gillette Children's Cure Pity campaign. There's a bit of subtle ableism in there, but I still think it's great.

Quote From the Drs Office

The other day I went for a botox appt, and you have to sit there forever. You get seen 1st and then it could easily take an hr for the botox to appear from the pharmacy downstairs. What gives? So of course the Dr goes off and sees someone else while you sit there and find people to text, or just stare at the wall, or whatever. This time he saw a little boy who rather obviously also has CP. I know this because it is standard procedure for a physiatrist to ask you to walk down the hall several times, first with shoes/assistive devices, then without, and my door was open.

It was after his last time, as he was walking back into his exam room that the boy turned to the Dr (out of my view) and said

"Dr N, why do you make me walk on the floor if it's dirty?"

I chuckled to myself. That's nothing I'd ever be concerned with. That, and well, there's dark carpet in the hall. You can't tell.

Facts About Mental Illness

[Source: Medical Assistant]

Guest Post: Just Wondering by Deborah

My second and last guest post is by Deborah who writes at Pipecleaner Dreams and cross posted this on her blog today. Deborah has 4 disabled teenage/ young adult children, and has an interesting view as a parent that I could never share--I'm not a parent. I thank you for writing Deborah as you fufilled my goal of bringing different viewpoints to this blog over my vacation. Right is a picture of Deborah and her family from this past 4th of July.

We parents of children with disabilities spend a great deal of time advocating for our children. And, that advocacy often involves some sort of inclusion for our children with their non-disabled peers. We will say that we long for the vision of all children, regardless of ability level, playing together, learning together, just generally being one big happy group. But what about within the world of disabilities – do we advocate for that same level of inclusion? I’m not so sure…

I’ve noticed over the 13 or so years that I have had children receiving special education services in my school district that even within the disability world we tend to segregate.

Children with milder disabilities, even some with invisible disabilities, do not socialize or learn with children that have severe disabilities. Parents of children with Down Syndrome, for example, usually win the battle to have their children educated in the general education classroom. The children move freely among their non-disabled peers. But my children with significant or severe disabilities are kept in separate classrooms, often in separate areas of the school, using separate lunch tables, and with limited or no access to their non-disabled peers. That seems to be ok with those parents of the Down Syndrome children. But it usually is not ok with the parents of the children with severe disabilities.

And then there are those times and events that include children with emotional or behavioral issues. Parents of children with disabilities that don’t have those issues can often be seen drawing their children closer, away from the ‘wilder’ children. Or, parents of children with Deafness will often only facilitate socialization only with other Deaf children, relying on the whole Deaf Community argument for their rationale.

More and more, I hear about ‘Autism’ classrooms. Are we sure that isolating children with Autism will make their adults lives easier and happier? Are we afraid to have children who are blind, or have ADHD, or who have orthopedic issues interact with the child with Autism? I know that I have heard many, many times that “I don’t want my child around that child with Autism. He will learn even more negative behaviors.”

Umm….So is inclusion only good when it suits us – when we think our children with disabilities will learn positive things from others? Are we being a tad hypocritical?

Some Thoughts on Eli the Bipolar Bear

After receiving the book a few weeks ago and showing it to some of my friends (some bipolar and some with other psyc diagnoses) & my therapist I thought I would share our comments.

1. I had a problem with the fact that Eli's psychologist is the "Wise Old Bear," a male, then one of my male friends made a quick comment on feminism, but I can't help it, I read feminist blogs and I've had experiences with so many different shrinks over the last 2 decades (9, 3 male and 6 female, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s) that I have a very strong personal opinion on what I like. So way to perpetuate a sterotype...
2. AC said she didn't mind the "Wise Old Bear" thing so much, but Eli's medication is termed "special tasty little fish," which hit me as cute at first, he's a polar bear and there's this Rx label on the bucket of fish, but I can see what she's saying about how we present the idea of medication to little children.
3. CM commented on the fact that at the end of the book, it was presented as almost like after just a few weeks Eli was perfectly fine, and the world just does not work like that. To paraphrase what another friend once said, the road to remission is 2 steps forward and 1 step back.
   
4. My therapist thinks that the book is GREAT and that the pictures are GREAT and are what make the book. They are what will capture kids' attention. She also brought up something I had not thought of which is that kids' are more receptive of cute furry animals as opposed to if Eli were a human boy. They find books about kids going through stuff more boring. Really???
5. We both wonder why I had to get it interlibrary loaned from all the way in Norfolk Va and why there aren't more libraries that carry such an important book. Interlibrary loan ships from the closest library and Norfolk is hours away.
6. Lastly I think it's cool that the author of the book has a degree in Family & Child Development. So cool that I even shared it with my class. When you discuss careers that family studies majors are qualified for after graduation, no one ever mentions children's book author.

An Experience

I've been going to the mall an awful lot lately. I live at the mall, you could say, I'm that close, so it's not hard to get to, and I'm looking for a cardigan to go with a dress I got for a wedding (I don't like blasting air conditioning) which you wouldn't think is as hard as it's been to find, a white or off white somewhat fitted cardigan, but it is.

Over the years I've lived here, as I've progressively been using my powerchair more and more, I've of course noticed children staring at me more and more. Not to say that they don't stare at me when I'm walking, not to say that they haven't been staring at me my whole life, or that adults can't be rude too. One time I was in Target with my chair and this kid turned his head around and kept his gaze on me the entire time he was walking in another direction with his dad, until I was out of sight.

When this happens with kids, it's usually from a distance, and so my standard response is to smile and wave and move on. When they're a bit closer I always wish I was able to say something educational, but I'm not good at being put on the spot. I can do a presentation to 100+ people just fine, but put me face to face with one person and I freeze up.

Such was the case at the mall this past weekend when a young girl walked up to me, put her hand on my joystick box (thankfully not the actual joystick, there would have been an accident) locked her gaze on me and asked me "Why do you need this? Why are you using a wheelchair?"

The quick and easy answer is "I can't walk," but that is not true, and if I'm going to educate, I'm going to educate that some people who own wheelchairs have them to use just sometimes. So then what do I say? "I can't walk home the 3 blocks, which includes up the parking garage ramp, especially if I am holding bags of stuff." I mean maybe with my crutches, but then what do I do with my stuff? That answer just didn't seem right in the moment.

What did I end up doing? I went mute, said absolutely nothing, and turned towards the item I was interested in looking at. Although I did not feel good ignoring the kid. So what would you do?

I Know, I Know, My Blog Has Turned Into a Vlog

It's just that I'm too tired to post and vloging is the quickest and easiest way to get posts up everyday, in one day. A well thought out written post could take an hr, while posting a vlog takes like 5mins. I can really bang them out. Sunday's through tomorrow's posts were all posted on Saturday. I'm glad a lot of them are captioned for my Deaf/HOH readers.

I'm taking a quick break from vloging to bring you a bit of AWESOMNESS, because it is a short-ish bit of news.

At my internship last week I started a project that's developmentally appropriate for elementary school kids. It involved pulling pictures of disabled people (tried to keep to kids as much as possible) out in the world doing active productive things. I got things like wheelchair basketball, a young woman with down syndrome in a chef's uniform (complete with food she just made, in a professional kitchen), I was looking for 40 in all. The thing was, I didn't even get half way through when I realized my pictures were incredibly biased towards physical/visible disabilities--a few wheelchairs, a kid with a blind cane, another with a prosthetic arm climbing playground equipment, but I was clearly lacking in representation of invisible disabilities.

It is rather hard to find pictures of invisible things. So I had to get creative and took a picture of 2 girls taking a test, putting the caption "Kids with learning disabilities sometimes need extra time to finish tests." I still had trouble with autism in particular, dead set on staying away from the ribbon.

What I did in the end was go over to amazon and pull off covers of children's books. Taking Autism to School and Let's Learn with Teddy About Epilepsy. Me being me, of course I want to include something about bipolar. I didn't find anything that sufficed when shrunk to 1.4in X 1.4in, but what I DID find was ELI, THE BIPOLAR BEAR, which I am not using, but still, HOW COOL! I am waiting very impatiently for it to arrive via interlibrary loan, and alerted my shrink that she should buy. It's pretty new.

Anyone peruse it? What'd you think?

How to Become a Disability Awareness Speaker

I don't know if I'll ever get through all of the BADD posts, but I tried to at least read the ones from my regular readers, such as Laura from Lefty By Default. The Seahorse left a comment to her post asking how to become a disability awareness speaker, and I thought I would answer as well. If writing is half of my essence, then my ability to publicly speak on the fly is another quarter (ADAPT is the 4th).

So here's how to become a disability awareness speaker in one easy step:

JUST ASK

It's that simple, and basically what Laura does as well.

I received some formal training, but you don't have to. Most of what I did was just go in and talk about myself, until more recently. When you talk to little kids, that's what you do, and that's what I did for my first 3 years of speaking. Or I did teacher trainings and talked about my issues with school and what I did/did not like about teachers I'd had and what the best things are that teachers can do for their students. How hard is it to talk about yourself?

Hi, I'm Cheryl, I'm 17 and a senior at XY high school (yes I started that young). My favorite class is AP psychology. I have 1 brother and my favorite thing to do is horseback ride (that's how they instructed us to start).

I have cerebral palsy, which is a neuromuscular disorder (older kids / adults) / that means that when I was born the part of my brain that tells my body how to move didn't work right (young kids). Go on to explain more about the spectrum of CP/how it manifests itself to me. Talk about school/work, whatever it is you do. Talk about how things were for you when you were their age. Give advice for

interacting with peers with disabilities. Open up to Q&A

It is just that simple. Little kids want to know if you like soccer (no) or what your favorite color is (purple). It's cute. Now of course I also talk about bipolar

So the asking part. When I was a freshman and lived in Long Island New York for a year there was a professor who always went through disability support and had students come in to talk to his special ed masters degree students. A friend who had been doing it asked me to join him, not knowing that I had 3 years experience under my belt. I jumped at the chance. Did it for a few classes both semesters.

After I dropped out of school (the first time) I didn't do any speaking for about a year and a half, and I was missing it. Then, through my mom I found out about a program where high school students were being trained to be buddies to younger kids with "special needs" (ick) so that they could participate more in hebrew school and youth group activities. In Maryland you need a certain amount of community service hours to get your high school diploma, so they got hours for this.

What did I do? I jumped at the chance and emailed the coordinator and asked if I could come in and speak. They weren't planning on having any "real worlders" (for lack of a better term) and I think they were taken aback, but decided to have me. I talked some about myself and my experiences in youth group and gave advice for how to interact with the kids, get them involved with their peers. When they asked the kids what the best part of the training was, many said me. This lead to several other experiences speaking to students/professionals through this organization, even after I moved to Baltimore, until the coordinator left for another job.

[left is a picture I used to illustrate that even visible disabilities aren't always visible. Who else in that picture has a physical disability?]

Which leads me to after I moved to Baltimore. In the last 4 years all of the other times, except for 2, that I've guest lectured have been because I've asked. I've actually gone up to professors after the first day of class and asked them if I could give a presentation and clarified that I wasn't asking for extra credit. I got shocked looks and then yes. I've also emailed groups of professors and said that except for XX times I was available to anyone who wants me to talk about whatever they want.

Since I've done some research on ableism, abuse in the disability community, family dynamics, human development, etc I've been able to tailor my lectures more and make myself sound more professional. My resume says

Presentation topics include disability & education, community inclusion, disability & the family, and disability/ableism awareness, among others

But you don't have to be that formal. I think the best way to start is to just be as open and honest about yourself and your experiences as possible. That seems to be what resonates with people the most.

So, if you're interested in becoming a disability awareness speaker, I say go for it! Jump in with both feet, be outgoing, keep an ear out, and pipe in. People might be apprehensive to approach you for a variety of reasons, but I have never once been turned down and have never once had a bad experience.

Kennedy Krieger Introduces I-Skate

I found out about this program a few weeks ago and this is the first chance I have to post. I am SO jealous. They say there is an age cut off of 21 and I am 25. My friends say lie and go for it. I can still pass for 19. They have extra wide ice skates that are supposedly wide enough to accommodate AFOs, which might keep my right ankle stable. I had trouble with that the one time I tried ice skating over 2 years ago (where does time go?). For more info go to www.i-skate.org Oh how it irks me when videos are not captioned!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Here is a picture of me attempting to ice skate 2 years ago. Boy could I have used one of those walkers. The thing that I am using was designed for little kids, was not height adjustable as I imagine KKI's are, and was really hard to adapt to be able to use at 5'1". Oh and I was wearing hockey skates.

HOLY COW!!!

This just barely still being child life month I thought I would point my readers towards a very timely entry from Micropreemie Twins from a week ago. The post doesn't mention child life at all, but it is about a kid in a hospital having surgery. I wouldn't be surprised if that hospital has a good child life or therapeutic rec or creative arts therapy or whatever you want to call it department because what 5 year old kid says that their surgery went "GREAT!"? Can I have my next 2 surgeries (whenever they are) at that hospital? My usual response is that I feel like death.