There are times when we lose a proper perspective on life, and then something comes along to restore it. For me, it's the book Because of Patty by Paula Montgomery. Patty was the author's sister who ended up with encephalitis due to a vaccination, and then cerebral palsy as a result of that. As with some people I know personally, her symptoms didn't start to appear until she was two, and it was a while before she was diagnosed. It was heartbreaking for the parents to watch their vibrant little daughter lose her speech and her coordination; heartbreaking for them to watch her be wracked by convulsions and seizures; heartbreaking for them to have dear Patty referred to as "crazy" or an "it."
I have CP too. In the round of daily life, I often forget that my situation is not as bad as it could be, and that I have much to be thankful for. While I can relate to the name-calling and the seizures, I am blessed in that my seizures were petit mals--the type where one is unresponsive and just stares, instead of grand mals, which are accompanied by limb-flailing and so on. I am blessed in that I can speak intelligently, and that I'm not afflicted with drooling constantly. I am blessed in that I am a normal person simply trapped in a not-so-normal body, with all my sensory abilities and mental faculties intact. It's really been putting things in perspective.
Jean
