Doctors Do Not Understand Adults with CP
Judith Burke
jburke8196@aol.com 

Thank goodness!! My husband is the person who has CP, but as we do not have e-mail at home I do most of our writing and e-mail for the moment. I certainly could connect with the fact that there are few, if any, physicians who specialize in care of adults with CP. Our physician is wonderful--he is caring, he listens, he tries hard to understand, and is compassionate. However, like most doctors, he has no experience with how complex the physical problems of a CP can become. 

A "simple" surgery for a hernia on July 12 turned into a terrible saga of difficulties that included 8 days in intensive care for breathing problems that resulted in inhalation of blood from a stress ulcer, a physical therapy department in the hospital which insisted on treating my husband the same way they would treat a "normal" person recovering from surgery--that is..jump up and walk after 3 days ...and an unwillingness to understand the difference between the timetable of progress  for a person with CP and one who had no mobility or other difficulties prior to surgery or illness. 

For the most part we have dealt with our sorrows with tolerance and patience, but one ungenerous PT finally pushed me over the brink ... I wrote to the hospital administrator to complain, saying in part that "she may know how to do physical therapy, but there is a difference between mastering techniques and the ability to deal with sick patients. This woman should never be permitted to be around sick people. confine her to injured athletes. They can take the abuse." I don't know how our story will end yet. My husband has been confined to a hospital bed with only sporadic PT since his surgery in July, and now home PT has been discontinued "due to lack of progress." There needs to be equal access to medical care for people of differing abilities.