Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

My Story: Rachelle Friedman

Excerpt from: Disability Blog (click for full article)

 

The media was soon captivated by our story. My email was flooded with interview requests and the phone was ringing off the hook!  I thought surely people were only interested in my desire to persevere and this intense and rare story of love. But they were also interested in the best friend. They wanted to know who did it. I was appalled that anyone would ask me something like that. There was no respect for the fact that this girl was suffering emotionally. The accident didn’t just happen to me; it happened to the both of us. I didn’t blame my friend, so why was the media being so judgmental? That situation has been the most difficult part of the accident. I never had any anger toward my friend, as it was just an accident and the roles could have easily been reversed.

I’ve gotten letters from all around the world from people who are so impressed with Chris and me, but they don’t know our whole story. I do think they are curious to know the dynamics of our relationship and the reality of our lives. The life of someone with paralysis is so foreign to many, especially the life of someone with paralysis like I have. I go out with my friends in sexy dresses, I play wheelchair sports, I’m intimate and confident. But the media did sort of depict the situation as if Chris and I never had bad moments, as if I’d never broken down, cried and wished for everything to just stop and go back to the way things were before. I do have these sad, negative and dark moments, but I choose not to define my life by them. Someone will always have it worse than you.

I’ve decided to live life as best I can. I play wheelchair rugby, and I’ve tried handcycling, waterskiing and surfing!  My new goal is to get back into tennis, a sport I played for 20 years. I also plan on continuing my fight to bring awareness to spinal cord injuries through public speaking. Things will never be the same. When things get hard, I try to think about all of the things that were NOT taken from me. I still have my friendships and the love of my life. And I’m SO thankful every day for that.

Disabled veteran Tammy Duckworth, eight other Iran, Afghan war veterans ready for Congress

Excerpt from: Media dis&dat (click for full post)

 

As Tammy Duckworth sees it, her path to Congress began when she awoke in the fall of 2004 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She was missing both of her legs and faced the prospect of losing her right arm.

Months of agonizing therapy lay ahead. As the highest-ranking double amputee in the ward, Maj. Duckworth became the go-to person for soldiers complaining of substandard care and bureaucratic ambivalence.

Soon, she was pleading their cases to federal lawmakers, including her state's two U.S. senators at the time — Democrats Dick Durbin and Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama arranged for her to testify at congressional hearings. Durbin encouraged her to run for office.

She lost her first election, but six years later gave it another try and now is one of nine veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who will serve in next year's freshman class in the of House of Representatives.

Ninth Circuit Rejects New Hearing on Whether Medical Marijuana is Protected by the ADA

Excerpt from: Phoenix New Times (click for full article)

 

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a petition to re-hear arguments that medical marijuana is protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In a split decision in May, a three-judge panel of the usually liberal court shot down the idea that the ADA allows sick or disabled people to use medical weed. The case, James v. the City of Costa Mesa, came about because of an amendment to California's medical-pot law that allows cities to set their own rules on dispensaries. Costa Mesa was among the cities that banned all marijuana dispensaries, and several "gravely ill" patients banded together for the lawsuit.

Following their loss, on June 4 the patients and their lawyers requested a re-hearing before an 11-judge "en banc" panel of the court.

In today's ruling, two of three judges (Harry Pregerson and Raymond C. Fisher) ruled against a re-hearing, so it won't take place. Judge Marsha S. Berzon ruled in favor of the re-hearing.

"No further petitions for rehearing will be considered," the amended opinion states.

The original ruling and today's decision are blows to advocates of medical marijuana. However, pot supporters can see hope on the horizon: Voters in Colorado and Washington poised to legalize marijuana outright.

Why the government needs to listen to people with learning disabilities

Excerpt from: The Guardian (click for full article)

 

My name is Shairaz and I am a member of United Response's campaigns panel. We are a group of people with learning disabilities and some family members who want to speak out on issues that are important to us.

United Response asked us to tell them what we thought about the government's plans for social care. The government has put these plans in its white paper and draft care and support bill.

Our opinions have been turned into a report by United Response, published today, called Our future. In the report we tell people about what it is like to have a disability and what we think the government should be doing to make things better for us.

Many of us (two-thirds) had not heard about the changes that the government was going to make to social care, before we took part in the report. Those of us who did know about the changes were worried about our benefits as we knew that funding was being cut.

For me, I think that if I was prime minister, I'd make sure that everyone had better support and funding.

I'd make sure that disabled people were always cared for and that they were not neglected and I'd want people to have the facilities and things that suit them; for example someone might need a wheelchair or things changed in their home to make it easier to live there.

It's really important that people's living environment is right, because it helps people to live a good life.

The government is looking at who will receive care in the future and how it will be funded. We all felt that disabled people should receive free care.

It's all about fairness. Some people will need support forever and the government just has to accept us as we are.

We didn't choose to be disabled, so it's not fair for the government to expect us to pay. A lot of the time people with disabilities are neglected, and they shouldn't be.

We need to help all people with disabilities.

Kinesiology Tape

Patti's Comments: I really appreciate this sweet and short post! I have never heard of this, and her kind post may help lots of others not be concerned about this if proposed for their family members. Thanks to her for sharing her life with us all!

Excerpt from Chase and More: (click for entire posts and pictures of Chase)

While working on Chase's crawling, our physical therapist has periodically taped the muscles in his tummy and shoulders/back with kinesiology tape. Remember the brightly colored tape decorating the Olympic volleyball players' bodies? This is the same thing. It gives the muscles support to make it easier for Chase to learn the movements he needs to master crawling and strengthen those particular muscles. Chase doesn't mind the tape - he doesn't even notice it. Hopefully it is doing its job and helping to strengthen those muscles!!