Tag: CEREBRAL PALSY
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When You PCA Is Also Your Friend
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part Nine Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. One of the unique things about being able to choose my own PCAs is that sometimes the person helping me isn’t a stranger. Sometimes they’re already a friend. On the surface, that sounds like the perfect situation. You already know each…
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When a PCA Isn’t the Right Match
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part Ten Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. One of the hardest things about managing your own PCA care is realizing that not everyone is going to be the right match. Someone can be a good person. They can have good intentions. They can genuinely want to help. And…
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What I Wish People Knew About the PCA Waiver
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part Eight Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. Throughout this series, I’ve talked about what having a PCA means to me, learning to be my own boss, choosing the right people, building trust, setting boundaries, asking for help, and redefining independence. But there’s one more thing I want to…
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Why Independence Doesn’t Mean Doing Everything Alone
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part Seven Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. For a long time, I thought independence meant doing everything myself. If I could do something without help, I was independent. If I needed someone to help me, somehow that felt different. As a woman with cerebral palsy who spent years…
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Building Trust With My PCA
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part Five Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. Trusting a PCA can almost be like trusting a partner. That might sound like an unusual comparison, but when you think about how involved a PCA can become in your everyday life, it makes sense. Depending on what kind of assistance…
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The Benefits of Having a PCA- and the Benefits of Learning Without One
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part Two Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. When I first started living on my own, it was at the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving into my own apartment was already a huge step in my independence journey. But moving out during a pandemic made that experience…
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What a PCA Really Means
Living Independently: The PCA Journey — Part One Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie W.O.W.C.P. When people hear the words Personal Care Assistant, or PCA, they may assume that having one means a person with a disability cannot be independent. For me, it means almost the exact opposite. Having a PCA doesn’t mean I’m not independent.…
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The Doors That Opened When I Chose to Believe
Closing Disability Pride Month As Disability Pride Month comes to an end, I’ve found myself reflecting on the journey that brought me here. This month, I’ve written about disability history. I’ve reflected on the meaning of the Disability Pride Flag. I’ve shared stories about growing up with cerebral palsy, the barriers I’ve faced, and the…
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Meeting Disability at Different Doors
Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie Disability Pride series One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that not everyone meets disability at the same door. Some of us are born with a disability. Some acquire one through an illness, an accident, or simply through the aging process. No matter how we arrive, we all become…
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I Wasn’t Meant to Be Fixed
Disability Pride Series Our Beautiful Challenges — Marie For much of my life, I believed my disability was something that needed to be fixed. Not because my parents ever made me feel that way. Not because the people who loved me believed I was broken. But because the world often acted as if I would…
OUR BEAUTIFUL CHALLENGES 