I would have no problem with seeing you, or any other doc with a disability. I am agreeance with the other parents on the advantage of having a doctor who has some insight from personal experience with the challenges and pitfalls our kids face. I also would want the doctor to recognize that while she has great insight to the reality and many details of 'our' life- that each person's expression and experience with the disability is unique and she must be alert to the fact that there will be some things she could STILL misunderstand or not recognize. I would think that having lived it you would be more aware of that than the average AB doc, especially since you've also lived having typical doctors make wrong assumptions about you as an individual. Just gotta watch the lumping everybody into the same course.

um....I would come see you personally in an eyeblink. I think a PMR doc who has experienced CP and many of the trials and triumphs would be a huge plus, emotionally for the parents and practically for the patient. That thing of seeing someone actually DOING what everybody keeps telling you is possible if you 'really want it' speaks volumes. I absolutely love one little five minute experience we had with our Ped pulmonologist. My daughter is...I mean was...very low vision. We have been seeing him for years. One visit a few years ago he was wearing his glasses. He wears VERY thick lenses like my daughter's and puts them on and off to switch from chart writing to exam/conference. At the end of a visit I just pointed them out to my daughter and reminded her that she's not the only one with low vision and that odds are she CAN find a way to do what she wants. This very quiet man just smiled his small smile and allowed her to look at his glasses. Nodded his head and said, "Yes, that's right." This brief moment has echoed through her world, just reminding her that she is so much more than her disability.
That was a direct confrontation but for my daughter there have been many others where she has taken more away from her interactions with PWD professionals who without ever calling attention to what they've accomplished have encouraged my daughter to think ambitiously for herself and strengthened her self-concept. Each encounter gets added in to her thinking. I'd like there to be more with folks like you, and Dr. Brunstrom, and the many others who haven't listened to the rest of us nay-sayers.

BTW: I wouldn't hesitate a second to become your patient myself....my being without a neurogenic disability. I would need your knowledge and expertise as a physician and for me that's independent of whatever your physical appearance and mode of functioning. Your value as a physician is much more than this one aspect of understanding what it's like for the patient. The experience with cp is a plus.

I think that as more of our society's obstacles to PWD's are being knocked down and the average Joe now encounters more and more folks in chairs or with movement or cognitive differences in day-to-day life that that old reaction of discomfort or uncertainty about your capabilities is becoming less typical. It's just no longer so unusual to see someone living with a disability, and acceptance comes more readily.
At least in my town that's the way it is.

boy am I long-winded. When YOU are ready, I'm in your corner.

Hi!

I am in the "go for it" camp too! Like others have said, it would be really nice for Caitlin to have a doctor who knows firsthand what she is going thru. It would not bother me to see a dr in a wheelchair, more important to me is what comes out of their mouth! (We've seen some real cads in her short life, but we have great doctors now thru trial & error!!) It would be really cool for her to see someone else accomplishing so much! I worry about her limiting herself...I always said, hey she could be a programmer like her mommy!! College is not going to be a choice in our household...we talk about it with the kids all the time even though they are little (5, 3, 1) yet. I always ask them if they are going to be a Badger?! Even if she can't go that far away, there are plenty of UW's close to home here for her. Good luck, go with your heart!

Lisa O.