Hey guys,
I have (some more) exciting news. This week I’ve been a guest blogger for Eille over at CP Teens UK about why I personally enjoy blogging about having Cerebral Palsy.
If you want to read the post, then you can do so here. You’ll find it written in green underneath Eille’s post about tiredness.
Thank you Ellie for having me as a guest blogger!
Happy reading everyone.
I had a lovely surprise when I went to see the physio this week and she said that she was pretty pleased with the way that my ankles and legs were feeling in terms of muscle tightness. I was worried that they might have stiffened up a bit since the last time I saw her but she seemed pretty happy with them when she did my stretches so I was impressed. I decided to take that as a good sign. I guess my day splints and my night splints must be doing some good.
The day splint I wear on my left foot is still feeling a little tighter than I want it to and is rubbing a bit, although it hasn’t blistered me or anything so that’s good. It just makes my foot a little red in places so I’m going to go back and see my orthotist so he can tweak it a little more for me. I’ve been back about this a couple of times now, and I can tell that we’re almost there with it but I know that it’s important that we keep going until it feels as comfy as the one I wear on my right foot does.
It’s no one’s fault that I have to keep going back, it just happens sometimes.
I’m willing to continue having adjustments made a little bit at a time until we get there.
After the success of my ponytail challenge that I set myself, (which you can read about here and here), and some discussion with my friends I’ve decided that I should embark on another one…to be able to do my own shoelaces.
This is something that I don’t think I’ve ever managed to do for myself, because it would require work from my left hand as well as my right, and this is the kind of task that I find really hard to do with my left one.
Over the years I’ve found it kind of frustrating that I haven’t mastered this for myself to be honest. If I’ve bought footwear that has laces instead of Velcro or zips, then I have to ask someone to tie them for me so that they are loose enough for me to be able to slip my feet in and out of them, but not so loose that they fall off my feet when I’m walking.
I’ve tried and tried to do this and I’ve not had success yet. When a friend saw my post about doing a ponytail, she sugguested I try doing the same thing with my shoelaces and I think this is a really good idea so I’m going to give it a go.
I’m not sure if or when I’ll manage this, but I’m willing to try. Let’s see what happens. As always, I’ll keep you all updated.
So last week I set myself the challenge to get the hang of tying my own hair back. This is something that I’ve always struggled with and I think I only ever managed it once before. I have some news…
I went out and bought myself a huge pack of bobbles to be able to do this because I couldn’t seem to find any of my own anymore, which shows how often I actually ask someone to put my hair in a ponytail for me. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I did.
Then, I started trying and after the first few goes at it I took a break because my shoulder started aching and decided to have a few more attempts later. During that second session I actually managed to get half of my hair into the bobble! It was really loose and not all of my hair was in it, but I still got really excited and reached for my camera to take a photo to show you all my progress. Then I realised the batteries had run out so I had to go and get some more. Sadly, by the time I found some, my hair bobble had slipped out completely and landed on the floor before I could stop it. I’ll admit that I was a little bit annoyed that I didn’t get the picture in time. I made sure that I sorted the camera out anyway.
Feeling spurred on by my recent achievement, I decided to try again. After a few more fails I actually managed to get my hair into a ponytail! Most of the front part of my hair was in too this time so it was even better than the first. I had a quick go a trying to take a photo but I found it hard to get the angle right, so I went downstairs to ask someone else to take one for me, hoping that it didn’t all drop out on the way.
“Quick, someone take a picture before it all falls out” I said as I burst into the room. They all looked at me and realised what I was taking about and they were all really pleased for me. Not only did my hair stay in place while they took the picture for me, but it’s mostly still in place as I’m sitting writing this too. Because it actually surprised my by not falling out before I made it back upstairs to my room, I decided to take a picture of it from the front too. I think ‘selfies’ are clearly not my strong point but I gave it a go.
As you can see, my hair’s not perfect, but that’s what practice is for, right? It still took me quite a lot of tries before I achieved this, but I’ll admit that I got there faster than I thought I would. I was expecting it to be a couple of weeks yet before I got to write this post, if I did manage it at all.
I think I should try taking my friend’s advice and set myself the challenge of trying to get the hang of tying my own shoe laces next. More on that soon.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the advice that I would give my younger self if I could. By this I mean me about ten years ago at the age of 13. I’ve put in a lot of hard work in lots of different ways and I’ve achieved so many things since then. I surprise myself (in a good way) on a pretty regular basis. There are so many things the me of today would like to tell the me of the past. I thought I’d post some of them here:
1. Always do your physio even though you don’t want to
I am the first to hold my hand in the air and admit that I did not do as much physio as I could, or should have done in the past, despite my parents and the physios always telling me how important it was and encouraging me as much as possible. The fact that I didn’t work hard enough was no one’s fault but my own. I wish I could tell myself not to have that attitude towards physio.
2. You’ll start to enjoy physio, you know. Yes, really.
Thankfully, I did hit a turning point with this one after I had my surgery at sixteen. I found that I liked pushing myself to try and be able to do more and more and watching myself get better at all of the different exercises I was given. Also, I knew that I wanted to be back on my feet as soon as possible. I started working much, much harder at my physio. I still enjoy watching myself improve, especially at the exercises I find really hard at first. I will admit though that I could still do more now too.
3. Your hard work will pay off
I wish that I could go back and tell my younger self just how far my hard work has got me these days. Of course, I haven’t done this alone. I’ve had lots of support from lots of people along the way for which I’m grateful .I personally feel that I can do so much more now than I could back then. I don’t think 13-year-old Nic would believe me if I told her just how far we’ve all come together. Let’s hope it continues for a long time yet because I still feel like I can achieve even more as long as I keep trying. And, as long as I still feel that way, I know I will keep trying.
4. It’s okay to feel proud of yourself
Often, when I achieved something, I would always try and brush it off and act like it was no big deal rather than letting myself accept that I’d done well. These days, I do allow myself to feel proud of things I achieve and use that as motivation to keep pushing forward.
5. Everyone needs help sometimes
Because I think I needed to remind myself of that a whole lot more. This brings me on to…
6. No one can do everything
Maybe this is actually the same point as the one above, but I think that I probably needed to phrase it both ways to myself.
7. I know you don’t believe me now, but one day, you’ll see
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