Real Stories from People living with Cerebral Palsy: Sandy

Sandy is the parent of a child with cerebral palsy and the Board President of Gio’s Gardenexternal icon, a non-profit organization in Wisconsin whose mission is to nurture and strengthen families with special needs children by increasing their access to services. Before becoming a full-time mother and advocate, Sandy worked for 14 years in depression research.

“Every aspect of our lives is shaped by the over 1200 hours a year it takes to take our daughter with cerebral palsy to her more than 200 appointments with 9 doctors and 5 therapists; deal with insurance; find needed equipment and services; do therapy with her at home; address her behavioral issues; spend extra time on her school work; supervise almost everything she does to maintain her safety and maximize her independence; and make the extra time for her to do things other kids do so quickly and easily. It means staying where we have supportive family and have learned how to navigate systems; giving up my career because of my family’s needs; and becoming an advocate for families with children with special needs. It has forced us to acquire new skills and re-focused our lives. It has made us intentional parents who constantly think about how we can keep our daughter’s needs from taking over our family while making sure her brother’s needs are also met. It has brought us closer together as a family, taught us the value of family and community, and helped us learn to cherish every little thing about both of our children.

Although cerebral palsy is a disorder that can impact any and all aspects of a person, it does not define who that person is. He or she still wants a high quality of life and parents of kids with cerebral palsy want the same thing for and to do the same things with their kids that other parents want. ”Having a child with special needs changed everything: because I now know the effect raising a child with special needs has on the entire family and how hard it is to learn about and access the multitude of needed services, I feel compelled to help other families through this process any way I can. My husband and I have all the advantages a parent of a child with special needs could hope for—supportive family and friends, relevant education and training, a good income, and good insurance—yet we have still experienced challenges. If we have not had an easy time of it, how do families who are not as fortunate as we are do it? And how could I sit back and watch that happen when the focus of the career I gave up for the sake of my special needs family had been resilience, stress, and coping?

CDC would like to thank Sandy for sharing her personal story.

If you would like to share your personal story, please contact us at cdcinfo@cdc.gov