A little more about me

After doing my poll a few weeks ago, I realized that a lot of you probably don't understand a lot about cerebral palsy. While some people are paralyzed and unable to communicate that is not the case with me. I'm not paralyzed. I can walk some with the help of my walker.

I've had several people come up to me in the doctor's office and ask if I had an accident. I did not have a car accident. I started having back pains at he end of my sophomore year in high school. What started out as a back ache quickly turned into something more.

After several months of trying to find a doctor that would accept my new insurance, x-rays revealed that I had a stress fracture in my lower back. The formal diagnosis was  spondylolysis. The doctors tried to treat it with two different types of braces with no improvement.  The diagnosis was then changed to spondylolisthesis. After an MRI showed that the stress fracture had gotten worse,  the doctor said surgery was my only option.

In the summer of 2007, I had back surgery. Much to everyone's suprise, my doctor discovered that my vertebrate in my back were actually broken when they were doing my operation. No wonder I was in so much pain!

After the surgery, I was feeling much better. Physical therapy was going great. About three months later, I got an infection in my hip. This is the major reason why I'm still in a wheelchair.

Anyway, I hope this clears things up for some of you. If you have any questions, just feel free to ask.