Moving around was very painful at times. As I said, I had no feeling from the elbow down because of the 24-hour nerve block they administered (I’m not sure if it was an intravenous drug or something else), so I didn’t have any pain apart from muscle aches in my legs from where I had been laying still for so long during the operation, but that didn’t last long. The nerve block started to wear off the next morning. I don’t remember exactly what time the feeling started to come

Along with not having a shower, I had to change my personal care and my standing transfer routines as well. As part of my routine I have to roll onto my side, and I have always rolled onto my right side because it worked better for both me, and my carer. As I had my arm in a cast and sling, I couldn’t really roll onto my right side due to the pain and the sheer awkwardness of my arm being immobilised. It was really weird for both of us, and kept having to think about which wa

I arrived home around 8 o’clock that night and I was absolutely pooped! I was also still hungry, so I had a tin of Ravioli. After that, I just sat and chilled before going to bed. I can’t remember if it was the next morning or the morning after, but I got up and attempted to have a shower… For those of you who don’t know, I have a shower chair. It’s quite basic, the only thing that isn’t basic is the pommel. Due to my Cerebral Palsy, my knees gravitate towards each other. Thi

I was visited by about four different people when I was in my room waiting for the surgery. I don’t know why, but I had three mini panic attacks; one with each consultant and I think I had another with the surgeon. They asked me if I had any allergies, and I almost said no because I didn’t think about the mental health drugs I tried over the past couple of years. I have tried a few medicines in the SSRI and SSNRI categories, and they made my involuntary movements worse. I kee

At one point, we had to play around with the timing of my Botox injections because 6 months had become too long in between, but 5 months was too soon. Unfortunately, we never found a happy-medium. I had been having meetings with the Hand and Wrist surgical team to find out if there is a surgical option to combat the spasticity permanently, without the need for the Botox. Over the last few months, there had been a lot of speculation about whether or not surgery would be the be

Having Botox for my shoulder is relatively simple and painless, and having it in my forearm is not too bad either, but I hated having it in my thumb because it hurt like a bitch! I think it’s the worst pain I’ve experienced. Don’t take my word for it, but I think this is because it’s such a small group of muscles. To inject the Botox for my thumb, my mum had to hold my hand open and force my thumb out to the side to enable the doctor to inject the muscle in the base of my thu

As I mentioned before, I had Botox for my right hand and shoulder to relax the muscles. I have had this procedure since I was 18 years old. Botox is a muscle relaxant. Botox is a toxin and its full name is Botulim Toxin, and most people know it to be cosmetic; for example, when people use it to get rid of wrinkles in their face. When I first started having Botox injections, we joked around by saying that I need to bring some back for the older people I know, but I’m not sure

For me, AFO splints can mean the difference between walking and not walking. I don’t technically have spasticity in my legs, but I do have high muscle tone. To put it simply, muscle tone is basically the amount of effort your body puts into moving the muscles. People who have high muscle tone either have spastic (tight) muscles, or a mixture of tight and loose muscles causing involuntary movements. People with low muscle tone struggle to move because their muscles are too loo

Eventually, I got plastered. When I got plastered for the old splints, I remember having two casts taken for each leg; one set of casts was for the full-length splints, and the other ones were just casts of my feet. This time, he only took one cast of each leg. He said that they would make the inserts from the original casts. I didn’t want to speak too soon, but I was quite optimistic that I would get what I needed this time. I know that I said that last time, but we’d just h

My first pair of new splints didn’t have any heel on them at all, which caused rubbing and awful bruising on my heel. When I tried these splints on at the hospital, I knew that they didn’t feel right, but I went with it because I wasn’t used to them. I had suspicions right from when I saw the moulds of my legs because they didn’t look like my legs at all. I was sick of the constant battle just to get splints that actually work for me. I was sick of not being listened to. I ha

Eventually, I got back on my feet once my blisters had healed on 10 December 2024 but I only walked a short distance before having to stop. Apart from the feeling that my feet were moving in the splints, it felt fine to start with, but as I walked further, my feet began to hurt again. I stopped straight away because I didn’t want to put myself through all that with the blisters again. Funnily enough, I knew exactly what the problem was: Besides from the new splints not being

As I mentioned in the first post, I have had three pairs of splints in the last few months. The original pair of new splints did not fit the shape of my feet at all… Something drastically went wrong with the mould. I think the Orthotist (the person who deals with Orthotics) forced my leg and foot into an unnatural position when they took the mould. It was painful too, which isn’t normal. When I looked at the mould, I thought that it looked weird (it didn’t look like my leg at

A couple of years ago, I saw an image of a girl wearing a pair of AFO splints with the caption “If you give a girl the right pair of shoes, she can conquer the world”. I didn’t think much of it until my recent issues with my splints. I can walk without splints but not long distances because I get tired easily when I have no support to control my movements, so I wear splints on my legs called Ankle-Foot Orthoses, also known as splints, but there are many types of splints. You

I haven’t always known, but I experience burnouts and shutdowns. When I was at college, me having a burnout looked like I was isolating myself. I wouldn’t want to talk to anyone, not even the staff. I would just sit there doing my work without talking. When it came to break time and lunch time, I would talk to people, but only on and off. I sat in the cafeteria because my friend liked to sit there to eat, but I really didn’t like it because it got so loud and crowded, it felt

April is Autism Acceptance/Awareness Month. Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disability, which affects a person’s understanding and communication, as well as how they view the world. Yes, I have CP and you can see my CP. Yes, I am Autistic, but you cannot see my Autism. People are so quick to judge a person on their behaviours and not accept people for who they are, but in fact, if they bothered to get to know the person inside, they would see a whole different p