Vera,

Not to discourage Charlotte at all from exercise or swimming (best exercise
of all), but if she has that "competetive" spirit engrained, as I did, she
might have problems later on.  I won't get windy and bore you with the
details, but I was a competitive athlete throughout my youth and early
adulthood.  In fact, I qualified for the Paralympics in Atlanta (cycling),
but ruptured my achilles tendon a week before positioning time trials.  From
that time forward I've been on a rather steady downhill run with respect to
spasticity and pain.  After consults with many, many PTs, neuros, physical
medicine docs, et. al., we've come to the conclusion that my body is now
paying dearly for the abuse it took earlier.  None of this may ever be
applicable in Charlotte's case, but I just wanted to throw it out as a
caveat.  Would that I had it to do over again--I wouldn't be taking four
Percocet / day.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vera Osborne [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 1999 6:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Listserv research article, again


<snip>My daughter Charlotte spent 3 years on the swim team - we did not
have a diagnosis of cp at the time but an orthopedic man that recommended
she
get as much exercise as possible - he was right.<snip>

Vera