Growing older with cerebral palsy doesn’t come without its difficulties. Taking advice over the years from consultants who thought they knew what was best, like walking barefoot potentially hasn’t been the best advice.
Although walking barefoot nowadays has a lot to do with earthing, (connecting to the Earth’s natural energy by walking on grass barefoot) the consultant wasn’t referring to earthing. He wanted to make sure I was sturdy on my feet.
Having a leg length difference was always going to impact my back, hips and spine. Now I have pain in my lower back. I have always known I need to exercise, it wasn’t something I could ever cut down on or stop.
But it has become clear that the types of exercises I have been doing such as step, rebounding and skipping haven't been good for me. This is something else I've had no guidance on.
Scoliosis is another problem I didn’t think about, primarily because I didn’t know I had it until I was 25, but that has also had a marked effect on my gait and how I walk and has impacted my leg length difference even more.
I have never given my disability any thought around my exercises because I was never that bad. Now when I am able to go back to exercise, perhaps I need to be mindful and think about my disability too.
This was something that I had hoped to be able to work through with my daughter for her issues, but things didn't work out that way.
Now she has been complaining to another one of her aunt's (my brother's wife) about how she is being treated, so there may be hope in the future that I can mend fences with her and help her address her physical issues.
Somehow I seem to understand what it is that she needs on an instinctual level, which she doesn't seem to realize, but hopefully will be able to trust in me once again in the very near future. She wasn't pushed by her mother to do what she needed to do, so now she has a lot of catching up to do.
I hope and pray that she can learn how to do things while she's young enough for them to make a real difference in her life, so she won't have to continue dealing with so much pain in the future.
Thanks Randy. You have empathy, you understand. That's all it takes. I feel for your daughter too and hope that it won't be too long before you and her come back together again.
When it comes to cerebral palsy we have no choices around exercise, but if your daughter is already experiencing pain, obviously it's something that needs to be addressed.
I believe that with the right input from the right people around your daughter it will be completely achievable.
Don't give up. I believe in time your daughter will begin to see things as they really are. We do eventually, even if we won't admit to it.
It's important to exercise, more so with a disability like cerebral palsy, but it is equally as important that those exercises are appropriate otherwise you can do more harm than good.
For example, as we age as our bodies change anyway and what is good for a 20 year old is probably not so good for a 60 year old, even though we might think it is.
I remember reading one of your blogs a while ago about exercising as we age, and that would be a good starting point for anyone.
Thanks, yes I agree. I have always done my best around exercise, I am going to have to take more care now.
My health has always been an issue for me because of what I deal with, but I do need to be a little more mindful that my disability exists around exercise.