Living with Cerebral Palsy and Intersectionality

In my first post, I laid down an introduction to my life with Cerebral Palsy and the other parts of my lived experience that intersect with the CP. The wider context is important to me because I want to honor the role CP plays in my life every day, I also want to honor my other life shaping experiences, and I want to bring awareness to the whole human being living with a disability.  I was born with Cerebral Palsy. To the best of my knowledge, I have Spastic Diplegia CP. I put it that way because I'm piecing parts of my story together with missing data. I no longer have access to my earliest medical records, which is part of the story, but I've been doing lots of homework over the past few years. How it started – I had other conditions along with the CP, which is not uncommon. I had amblyopia (AKA Lazy Eye) and I've never had depth perception (driving and 3D movies are the biggest casualties of that). I also had surgery twice for Craniosynostosis (my skull didn't develo...

When I talk about living with Cerebral Palsy in person, sometimes I begin with the statement “I've spent over 40 years seeking to be seen, heard, respected, and more. Over the past couple of years, I've made it a goal to learn more about the condition I live with and to use my voice to talk about it. In no way am I an expert, but I have lived with Cerebral Palsy for over 40 years.  Living with CP impacted my entry into this world. Living with CP shaped my childhood along with some other things. Living with CP has impacted my medical journey. Living with CP defined my professional trajectory. Living with CP has been an obstacle that created defiance. Living with CP shapes how I see the world and how I move in it.  How it started, a brain injury before, during or after the birth process. I was born 2 months premature. I've always had other related conditions in addition to the CP. I'll share about those in future posts. I was born 3 lb 11 oz. By all rights, I shouldn'...