Living with CP: the early years part 24.

Hello everyone.  I hope you all are having a wonderful day today. I don't know about the weather everywhere else today but it's going to be about 68 degrees here.  Down south last night they had some bad weather so please pray for everyone.  Let's get started with today's entry. 

A power wheelchair.

In today's entry I'm going to talk about one year when we had the Christmas play at school. I'm also going to tell you a story about when the school talked my mother into letting me try an electric wheelchair.  In the beginning the occupational therapist (OT) and physical therapist (PT) at school just wanted me to use it at school and not take it home so I could get use to everything.  From the very first day I sat in that chair, I did not have any problem maneuvering that chair. I did not hit anyone or anything and they could not believe it.  After that, they let me take the chair home and try it there for a week.  It was no problem for me at home either.  Soon thereafter, they helped me get an electric chair of my own so there was no more having to push me everywhere. 

A Christmas Play.

Every year at school we would put on a Christmas play and we would have all the parents and grandparents come.  Every grade would do something different.  The week before, every grade would practice in music class. All that week, everything went great and then the night of the play came.  Everyone in my grade had to wear Santa hats, so my grade got on stage and everything started.  My hat was too big for my head so it started to go over my eyes and I could not see.  Since I have mobility limitations, I could not fix it myself so I started crying.  They had to stop everything and get me fixed up again.  After that everything went great! 

I really do hope this blog is helping someone out there. I'm trying not to forget anything so see what happens next.  Have a great day.

Living with CP: the early years part 23.

Hello everyone. I hope you all are having a wonderful day today, and had a great weekend. I went to a Dayton Gems hockey game this weekend with some of my friends.

A Dayton Police Car.

I'm going to talk about some of the very special events they would plan for us at Gorman School, like Career Day and Breakfast With Santa downtown every year. When we had Career Day, we would have Children's Medical Center, the Dayton Fire Department along with the EMS and the Dayton Police Department. They would actually bring all their vehicles and have the kids sit in them. They even had companies come in and give the boys haircuts, and also do the ladies' nails. It would last all day and everyone looked forward to that every year and having a day away from school work.

Breakfast with Santa.

Also every year, usually in December before Christmas break, they would close down the whole school for a day. They would get about 10 school buses and everyone would load up and head downtown for Breakfast with Santa. Sometimes some of the parents would come to school and ride with us on the buses. Everyone received one gift from Santa.

The school did these special events because most of the kids would never get to experience those things. The school tried to get everyone to experience real-life things.  Have a great day!

Living with CP: the early years part 22.

Hello everyone.  I hope you all are having a wonderful day today. It's really windy here today and it's getting colder, too.  I can't wait until spring. 

The Dukes Of Hazard,

When I came home from the hospital after my surgery, my family had a hospital bed waiting for me right in the middle of the living room.  I used to love The Dukes Of Hazard television show and I watched it everyday when I was little.  When I was in the hospital my grandma told me that she wrote the television show a letter, explaining I just had an operation and what a big fan I was of the show.  Then that day when I got home from the hospital, my grandma told me I received a letter from The Dukes Of Hazard television show.  It thanked me for watching everyday and they hoped I got better soon. Here's the kicker.  Grandma told me that Bo and Luke from the show brought the letter to the house in the General Lee car.  I found out many years later that was not true and my grandma had written the letter!

In my next entry we will get back into some stories about my great school. I just remember so much and don't want to miss anything.  Have a great day, everyone,

Living with CP: the early years part 21.

Hello everyone.  I hope you all are having a wonderful day today. Where I live, we have not really had a winter season this year and I'm loving it!  Now let's get started on today's entry. 

What I looked like.

When I was in Children's Medical Center for about a week after a operation, I had to lay flat on my back with my legs wide open in a full body cast.  That was difficult for everyone, because if I wanted to turn over there was a bar between my legs and 3-4 other people had to hold other parts of my body and flip me like a pancake. 

So I wouldn’t get bored laying there and not able to move, my dad went out and bought me two remote control cars.  One was a Corvette and the other was a school bus. Everyone knows how short the cords are that come on them.  My dad took those home and took the cord off and put a new 40-foot cord on both of them.  After that I could go where ever I wanted with them. 

After a week, it was time to come home where I would spend another 4-6 weeks in the cast.  They had to figure out how to get me home because I was still laying flat on my back.  They got a friend's van and unfolded the back seat so it was flat, and home I went. 

In my next entry find out what happened after I got home and hear more about my great school.  Have a great day everyone.  

Living with CP: the early years part 20.

Wheelchair Basketball.

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend. I had to referee one of my group’s wheelchair basketball games.  I’ll write more about this group in later entries. Now let's get started with today's entry. 

Once my mother was able to get me on the school bus that day after I stopped crying and I got to school, it ended up being one of the best days of my early life.  When we all got to school, there were people that came out to help everyone get off the buses and go inside the school.  Let me give everyone a little background information first. 

Gorman School. Dayton, Ohio. 

As I previously said this was a special school just for handicapped kids. We had kids in manual wheelchairs like me at the time, walkers, electric wheelchairs, and kids that had to wear a helmet in case they fell.  Because of all this, every classroom had an aide to help the kids and the teachers. We even had people that would help with personal needs like eating or even restroom help if needed

What I looked like.

I have one last story today. This is back when I was about 8 years.  My mother along with the doctors at Children's Medical Center had decided to do an operation on me to stretch my heal-cords and hamstrings.  When I was young this was a routine operation with kids with Cerebral Palsy. If I remember correctly, I was in the hospital about a week.  I was in a full cast up to my waist for 4-6 weeks. 

In my next entry, I’ll have more stories about school and I’ll tell you what happened when I came home from the hospital after surgery.  Have a great day, everyone!

Living with CP: the early years part 19.

Hello everyone. I hope you all are having a wonderful day today, before I get started on today's entry I want to let everyone know that starting today every entry will be somewhat longer. With that said, it might take two days for one entry, so let's get started. 

Gorman school. Dayton, Ohio.

In this entry, I'm going to talk about when I started school the first time.  Before the first official day of school, my mother and grandma took me there so I could get used to everything and meet everyone. I would be going to the Gorman school in Dayton, Ohio.  This school was very special. All the kids that went there were disabled or handicapped.  I cried the whole day that first day until I met the principal, Pete Lanasa. He picked me up and started talking to me and said we will be just fine and I stopped crying. I went to that school for my first 6 years . 

At this point, I want to back-up a little bit and talk about Children's Medical Center since they got everything started for me after they discovered that I would be able to speak. I went there for years, and had O.T, P.T and Speech therapy. Without their help and that of my grandma, I would not be as well off as I am today.   

A School Bus like mine.

I have tell you all a story about my very first day of school. I did not want to go like any other child even though it was only a half-day in the beginning. I got all ready to go and my mother and I went outside to wait on the school bus. It pulled up and the bus had a lift on it because I was in a wheelchair. My mother took me to the bus, got on the lift they started pulling me back into the bus and I just started balling. They actually had to take me back off the bus and my mother took me back in the house to settle me down. Believe it or not, the bus waited on me until I came back out about 20 minutes later. See what happens in my next entry. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Living with CP: the early years part 18.

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I also hope that everyone that you wanted to win a Grammy last night did so.

I was getting better at some things. I still had somewhat of a difficult time being around other kids, though. My Grandma decided to take me to United Cerebral Palsy’s facility in Dayton, Ohio.  She did this for two reasons: First, to get me used to being around kids and second, to get me used to being in a school setting. I did not want to stay there at all, so I only stayed a few hours a day. Little did I know, Grandma stayed right there in the hallway for the first several times. After awhile, I got used to being there and my Grandma did not have to stay anymore. In my next entry I plan to start writing about going to school for the very first time. Have a great day.

Living with CP: the early years part 17.

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is having a great day today. I know I have not posted anything for a few days. The day I did two entries in one day I hurt my hand so I had to take a little time to rest because it is difficult sometimes for me to maneuver a computer for long periods of time.

When my Grandma was taking care of other children during the day, we had to take small trips in the car. One day, my Grandma decided to take us all on a picnic to Whitewater State Park in Indiana. She made us all lunch. We all got in the car with all the stuff we had, got all the way over there and everything was fine. Everyone got out of the car and we set up everything and got our food out and started to eat. All at once it started pouring rain. Now, keep in mind all these kids were only 2 to 3 year old including me. Everyone started to cry and get excited, but did my Grandma get nervous? No! She just packed everything back up in the car including all of us and we went to McDonald's, instead. I hope you all have a great weekend. Enjoy!