I can tell you guys that Drugs Are It at U-M Hospital.  When I moved to
Michigan, the first thing these people wanted to do is shove baclofen down
my throat because they wanted to "control" my spasticity.  God forbid we
should be the least bit spastic.  Das ist verboten, ja!  It's as if
spasticity is an evil, bad thing.

Needless to say, I have minimal contact with the MDs at UMH.  I would not
trust them to deal with my disability issues.

But, more importantly, I chose to let my disability be a long time ago. I
was sick of fighting to control my body.  I am by no means therapeutically
correct and a lot of functional control I might have had is gone.  I have
no regrets.  Education and intellectual development has always been first
and foremost to me.  No, I can't straighten my legs very much(even U-M
told me not to try it anymore!).  But, so what?  I had to make a choice.
Yet, I think if I had had a more positive experience with the medical
system(including my parents), I might have stuck with therapy and other
things.  The fights that I had with my physician father over that stuff
are legendary.  PT always hurt like hell.  Is it supposed to?  I wonder.

Yet, when parents of CP kids come to me for advice, I try to tell them
to make therapy and other interventions as fun as possible.  I believe
that it is important to do so in order to prevent much psychological
stress from occurring for kids and parents alike.

Rambling as usual,


Matt