CP

Hi! My name is Chris. I am ten years old and am in fourth grade. I live with my parents, my brother, my sister, and my dog. I like pizza, video games, and sleeping in on weekends. I don’t like liver steak, boring movies, or doing my chores. I have a couple of card collections. I also have CP, Cerebral Palsy, that is.

Do you know what CP is? I can tell you about it, since I’ve lived with it all my life. Yes, people with CP were born with it. Something hurt our brain before or during birth, making it difficult for us to control some of our muscles. Our muscles may be too tight or too loose. That’s why we may make jerky, wobbly or shaky movements.

CP affects different parts of the body. Some people with CP have trouble eating, swallowing, or speaking clearly. Others struggle with learning and may have seizures. I can walk on my own, though with a limp, but some people with CP use walkers or wheelchairs to get around. CP can also affect our arms and hands. I use my left hand to write, hold things and play catch, since my right arm and hand don’t work too well. Sometimes they move when I don’t mean them to move, which is embarrassing.

If we are born with CP, we live with it all our lives. It is not like an illness that can go away or be cured with medicine or surgery. Those are the bad news. But there is also good news about CP.

First, CP is not contagious. Nobody can give CP to anybody, or catch CP from anybody. So, there’s no need to worry about getting it if you share your food or your clothes with someone who has CP.

Second, CP doesn’t get worse as we grow older. The parts of our bodies not affected by CP will not get CP later on. CP doesn’t affect my speech, so I should be able to speak fine all my life. Actually, my teachers would prefer that I didn’t talk as much as I do!

Third, there are all kinds of help for people with CP, so that we are able to do as much as we can do. There are speech and language specialists, physical, occupational and recreational therapists, special education teachers, and counselors. They work as coaches, as trainers to help us do our personal best.

Even with help, CP can be hard to live with. It makes everyday life more complicated. Most people don’t know much about CP and only see that there’s something different or ‘wrong’ with us. Some people treat us like we’re dumb or not able to do anything at all. The worst is when people tease or bully us, as if we had no feelings.

I have all kinds of feelings about my CP. Sometimes I feel sad, sorry for myself, even cry when I’m alone. Other times I feel embarrassed and afraid of meeting new people, going to new places, or trying out new things. I also get angry for having CP, and sometimes feel like yelling, punching, and throwing things. Later I remember what I am able to do, even with my PC, and feel better.

At home, I show my parents that I’m not a baby and can do a lot without help, thank you very much. I guess they don’t know when I need help unless I tell them. I have CP, but I’m a normal nine-year-old.

My siblings don’t have CP, and they can do some things I can’t do, like run fast. But we still have the same squabbles other siblings have. And I can beat them both at video games!

At school, most kids and teachers have known me for a while and don’t make a big deal about my CP. I can think, read, write, and do math like other fourth graders. If I don’t do my homework, I can’t blame my CP for that. I tried it once, and didn’t get away with it. I may need some breaks in P.E., though, for it wouldn’t be fair for me to compete with kids whose muscles don’t have CP. I wonder how it’s going to be in Middle School, with more kids and different teachers. But I know that some kids who don’t have CP also worry about that.

One day, troubled by worries about my life with CP, I realized that I had been telling myself that CP meant ‘Can’t Possibly.’ Believing that made me feel bad about myself and kept me from doing what I could do. So, I decided to change that definition of CP to one that would work better for me. It was then that it came to me: CP can mean ‘Can, Probably.’ Same initials, a whole different feel. I felt better just saying it to myself: ‘Can, Probably,’ ‘Can, Probably…’

Realizing that CP can mean many different things, I kept playing around with the letters C and P until I came up with my own motto. Chris: Courage, Creativity, Patience, Persistence. That’s what it takes to handle life with CP. Courage and Creativity to deal with what I don’t know, and with people who don’t know better. Patience with my body, and with people who get impatient with me. And persistence to keep on keeping on.

My CP now has less to do with Cerebral Palsy, and more to do with a ‘Can, Probably’ attitude!