Cerebral Palsy A disease or condition

 Disease or Condition

So there are various ways that cerebral palsy has been boxed as either a disease or a condition. Below are the definitions by dictionary.com of each word or group of words.

Disease

noun

a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavourable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.

any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavourable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.

any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society:

His fascination with executions is a disease.

decomposition of material under special circumstances:

Condition

a particular mode of being of a person or thing; existing state; situation concerning circumstances.

state of health:

He was reported to be in critical condition.

fit or requisite state:

to be out of condition; to be in no condition to run.

 

Cerebral palsy

noun Pathology.

a form of paralysis believed to be caused by a prenatal brain defect or by brain injury during birth, most marked in certain motor areas and characterized by difficulty in control of the voluntary muscles.

My thoughts

As a person with cerebral palsy, I don’t consider it as a disease as it's not like an illness such as a cold or cancer which has two different options of either getting better or not.

I use those examples as the simplest form of the disease because they are the most common. Although there are many more.

But cerebral palsy in my point of view is a condition as the initial brain damage has already happened but its secondary effects continually change as the person gets older. 

It also means that there are differences in every different case of cerebral palsy and there is no way to cure a person with it. Whereas with a disease you can be cured or not. But a condition you live with. 

And things change daily and you either have a good or a bad day. And you have to continue with whatever you are doing. The same goes on with people with fibromyalgia or MS and other lifelong conditions. Whereas someone with some types of cancer has limited time, not decades. Although that is possible.

The Effects of Cerebral Palsy

I talk about those throughout the whole of this blog as I live with the condition and the following is a list of some of the posts

What is spastic cerebral palsy?

Ataxic Cerebral Palsy What is it?

Life with diplegic mixed cerebral palsy

Common Questions for me

And many more just check them out.

Final Thoughts

So you see it's slowly changing as the effects are less evident unless the initial brain damage is severe enough when the cerebral palsy is spotted. Especially if the condition happens as a baby during the early months. Or when it occurs from an accident later.

But also seasons and age affect the way cerebral palsy reacts within the body. This is mentioned in the series of posts that started with The Seasons and how they affect cerebral palsy. 

I hope you see my point of view and understand why I class it as a condition, not a disease.

A Smal Change

 When it was regarding this, I wanted to do a quick podcast and blog at the same time using Recording. So that I could actually be more productive and make sure that I have enough time for everything else throughout the day.

I wanted to talk about how things have really changed for me regarding things because life is a lot harder having any disability such as cerebral palsy which I have.

I also wanted to talk about how things have changed for me recently, as this is a general post for this week and I wanted to make sure that it was clear that I was talking about the changes for me. That's why it changes for me, at least. So I had started with Herbalife a while back. which is in Three Weeks With Herbalife. And I will be putting a stronger, more impactful post about that in the future.

Another one was to do with the way that exercises are to do with me as well. Which I've also mentioned. So my goodness. What a change, things have been. After a year of trying to get anxiety out of my situation and just living through a pandemic and a move, I felt better just living and trying to de-stress throughout that entire time. 

During that time I found that Fitbit was actually able to do exercises on top for disabled people now rather than just able people. So I have been doing a few of those exercises and made them my favourites on the app which you can get from Google Play and Apple iOS. 

And they will be put out on another exercise post that will connect to the original one that was done during the pandemic. Which is here exercise or no exercise. Here in the UK, we are coming out of the pandemic and back to almost normality.

This is so true

This is a good quote to think about your own life

Does cerebral palsy affect intelligence?

This is one of the most common questions I get

So what do I mean by that? 

Well, as mentioned before in this blog. In various posts such as life with mixed diplegic cerebral palsy What is the difference between us Learning who you are! Just to name a few. And quite honestly the answer in my opinion is no! 

My reasoning for this?

Just because someone has the condition does not mean they are going to be of low intelligence. A condition of  Cerebral palsy is a form of brain injury. Not a person's intelligence. 

What are the main functions of the cerebrum?

 

The largest part of the brain, the cerebrum initiates and coordinates movement and regulates temperature. Other areas of the cerebrum enable speech, judgement, thinking and reasoning, problem-solving, emotions and learning. Other functions are related to vision, hearing, touch and other senses.

Meaning that cognitive parts of the brain are affected by cerebral palsy but it doesn't mean that we are low intelligence because we have to think things in a different way.

Many of us are teachers, university staff and much more. If that was the case there wouldn’t be people who had the condition but were in these jobs.

There is this misconception that because we have a disability it means that we have low intelligence. And that is just not true!

That would be like gagging people of all types by what they can do, not how someone thinks.

To show another example of this would be professor Stephen Hawking. Who, although had Motor Neurone Disease (ALS) was able to teach and research at the prestigious University in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Until his death in 2018. His IQ was 160 which was the same as another theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. He is most famous for his theory of general relativity. 

So although Stephen Hawking was physically disabled by Motor Neurone Disease it did not take his ability to think away. This would mean that as the disease took hold then he would have been put in a care home never to be heard of in the first place.

Therefore cerebral palsy is a condition that affects the brain and the body physically. It does not mean we have low intelligence. 

Societies angle.

As far as I can see from a personal point of view it is the generations before who have thrust their opinions on all disabled, not just those of us who have cerebral palsy. But every type of disability.

What do I mean?

Right up to the 1980s here in the United Kingdom people who have any disability at any level were put into care homes. 

It was even evident during the 1990s when I was out with my now-husband we heard an old lady say that in her day people were put away.

We were put away for being different and deemed simple-minded just because our limbs were not able to be used the same way.

And unfortunately, the lingering thoughts of having disabled people put away is still being considered no matter how badly a person is physically affected. Because being disabled is not the norm. 

But what is the norm?

Being short-sighted, long-sighted having to wear glasses, wearing hearing aids because we’re hard of hearing. I Have asthma. These are the accepted norms for what I’ve seen people think but walking differently, speaking differently unless you are from a different area of the same country are classed not. 

There is also the problem of being of different races and religions that are still being argued about too. 

So my final thought on this is what is normal?

What are your thoughts on this?

I have used information from https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

Wikipedia for Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein

Coming out of the woods

The pandemic of covid19 began just over two years ago and we are about to come out as I write this. When it is posted it should be when we are free of the pandemic for now. As written in the emergency post I spoke about what was going on in Ukraine at the time has just gone live Emotional Plea for Ukraine and Peace. 

Things have changed again but right now here in the UK, the masks are not as evident as they used to be.

People don't have to be wearing masks all the time and don't need to follow so many restrictions as we did 2 years ago. You could say we are coming to the roaring 20s as we did 100 years ago. When the Spanish flu occurred. which I mention in so we are coming out another side of this.

But that is a different situation as there have been some drastic changes throughout the whole century since the previous big pandemic.

We can go about as much as normal I suppose and it's pretty much business as usual. When I'm writing this, the 2 years have affected us. Because people are more aware of what could be around and what is not but could be by people also are scared about giving it to someone else. Which is fair, especially at the moment of writing, still not completely curable. It is similar to the flu in that respect, however, it is not like the flu in other respects. As it seems to be mutating quite a lot, but not enough or severe enough for the pandemic to be continued in the same sense as it was. 

So we are out of the woods enjoying the good season while we can before another scary event happens. I'm rather glad that things are a bit calmer. It means that people can be a little less stressed, although the pandemic has turned our lives upside down and made us change things

Has the earth done this because of its thoughts on the way that the human race is treating it? 

Is it just sod's law like 100 years ago?

I wonder because for me it could be another situation again sooner than expected or hoped as we go through and head to another century rapidly in my eyes and I've already gone through what two different centuries now I've gone from the 20th century and 21st century so it is scary what is going to happen next. I worry about the future for others who are disabled not just the average person who is normal who would be surviving then.

Would there be enough support for people who have disabilities like cerebral palsy?

Or will they still be a minority where we are suffering rather than accepted because at the moment it still feels as if we are not accepted properly?

What do you think of my thoughts on this when you're reading up, please leave a comment below.