Thread by @Kelll_belle

Today was world Cerebral palsy day. Fittingly, it is also dysautonomia awareness month. CP is one of three things that like to make my life more challenging it's hard to say how it alone affects my life. Mostly because of dysautonomia. tweet 1/n

The "angry phase of CP, as it was called by my physical therapist, probably lasted about 5 years beyond the 7-9 age it typically does according to her. From 11- 17, I was dealing with chronic illness symptoms that no one could explain almost constantly to some degree. tweet 2/n

It took the isolation of being "the girl in the wheelchair" in almost any group and put it on steroids. Those chronic illness symptoms were a form of dysautonomia called; postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. tweet 3/n

I got a year and 1/2 of well-managed, for the most part, healthy life before meningitis happened. Now, even with management tools learned post-diagnosis, I still deal with a lot of symptoms. Your autonomic nervous system controls many different systems and reactions. tweet 4/n

Symptoms are unpredictable, my main issues are gastrointestinal issues, brain fog, fatigue and dizziness, and severe allergies, even with medications. Ironically medication absorption and processing is its own issue. A group of things you wouldn't think is connected, tweet 5/n

Anyway, I would Say CP alone affects my life in two ways. One obvious Negative and one hidden positive that has saved me so many times. The obvious negative is the things I legit can not do. I can't walk, bathe and dress, type or handwrite quickly tweet 6/n.

So many small fine motor tasks that I can't even list them. Most frustrating for me the processing issues that came with brain damage. Visual-spatial and motor planning or dyspraxia are my big ones, I have never pictured squat in my head besides faces, tweet 7/n

I get confused by very familiar things. No matter how many times I practice, I get confused by some things that wouldn't phase a five-year-old. I've wondered if I'd trade the areas where I'm above average to not struggle with the processing stuff if I had the chance tweet 8/n

But the part of CP that has saved me from the hard parts of CP and the other diagnoses is the people I've met. My former TAs and therapists. I still meet with my elementary school TAs for lunch at least once a year. My middle school TA is helping with paralegal stuff. tweet 9/n

In the case of my adaptive PE teacher, she and her former students are beloved girlfriends. The "support group" run by my therapy clinic that is now part of my soul. Even during my angry phase, if you asked me to name a positive about CP, my answer would be them. Tweet 10/n

Of course, there is also everyone associated with the U of I and Beckwith. I chose this school for accessibility and Beckwith. This obviously wouldn't have been needed if I didn't have CP. @AaronBrannen2 and @CrippledChic are my two best college friends. Tweet 11/n

U of I is also one of few schools that offers a degree in Global Studies, Which means U of I is also one of few schools that offers a degree in Global Studies, Which means ironically my CP helped me get my perfect major and lead me to Spain tweet 12/n

It wasn't for CP factors I would have finished rhet 233 with another professor, and never met @cjp_still. I wouldn't even be on this site, let alone writing this extensively about my disability for a group of people I do not know in real life. Plus, she is awesome. Tweet 13/n

This is not to say my CP happened so all those positive things could occur, If it helps other people cope fine, but that type of reasoning makes me want to hit people. I'm just saying thas what's gotten me through, and it's not all bad. End of thread