Hey dudes! It’s our first blog!!!! Woohoo! Welcome, and let’s start at the beginning…. What is Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Cerebral refers to the brain, while Palsy means weakness of the muscle. The disorder is caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain that affects a person’s ability to control his or her muscles.
The symptoms of CP vary from person to person. A person with severe CP might need special equipment to walk, or might not be able to walk at all. On the other hand, a person with mild CP might walk with a gait, but not need any special assistance.
Doctors classify CP according to the type of movement involved. Depending on which areas of the brain are affected, one or more of the following movement disorders can occur:
Stiff muscles (spasticity)
Uncontrollable movements (dyskinesia)
Poor balance and coordination (ataxia)
This is my story ... I was born in 1986, 3 months premature. I was literally kept alive by the nursing staff at the Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto CA via incubator. Due to my premature birth I sustained a brain bleed causing Spastic Diplegia Cerebral Palsy.
For me, that means I can’t walk on my own and have a constant body twitch. Due to this twitch and general spasticity. Because of that, I experience a great deal of pain. As a kid, I had a stiff upper lip about it. Pain meds and muscle relaxants are usually not offered to young patients. This spasticity wasn’t always super painful though, it just EXHAUSTED me. It was very hard for me to get through a regular school day, even though I was a very social kid. I participated in Theater Arts heavily, and was an accomplished adaptive skier. For every active day, I would have 3 recovery days, and I was okay with this existence for the most part. It wasn’t until 2009, that my body and my mind started to develop a secondary condition called, PNES.
What is PNES? Pseudo-seizures, also called psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), are seizures that occur as a result of psychological causes, such as severe
mental stress and or underlining conditions like pain disorders. Well, that was me. I was in pain, and in a tumultuous relationship. Whomp, whomp. At 23, I went from just your regular kid with CP to having 5 seizures a day, of every variety. At the time I thought I was dying. My doctors immediately put me on an array of seizure meds that did NOTHING, and it took some time to diagnose me. When they finally did, I felt deep shame.
I FOUND HOPE IN DOPE. When I was at my darkest point, I thought maybe I should smoke weed? The results were LIFE CHANGING. Not only did my seizures start to improve, but all those years of experiencing constant spasticity was practically cut in half in just a short time of daily medicating. I started to be happy all the time, even though I was still experiencing seizures. I started going to therapy more regularly and I came to the conclusion that Psychogenic seizures are not “purposely” produced by the patient, and the patient is not aware of the seizures. It was then that I started to let go of my shame and take control. CANNABIS gave me that control in every sense of the word. It allowed me to feel happiness again. I felt better for the first time really, ever. All thanks to a plant.
I got married in 2014, and continued my career as an actor for television. I’m still on an array of medications and probably always will be. However, I am not on any pain medications or muscle relaxants. Cannabis is my only medication for that. So, I created Rollin' Stoned in 2018 with my wife, Amanda, who also uses Cannabis to end the stigma around medical cannabis and disabilities and illnesses. Here you will learn about disabilities, medicines, disability friendly services/products and all the awesome Rollin' Stoned family members we’ve met, and admired along the way. Why? Because I knew NOTHING about Cannabis when I started. And it was only because I lived in California that I thought to try it. I would’ve LOVED a community like RS to usher me into the vast world of cannabis. To show me that at the very least cannabis is nothing to fear.
So, this site is as much yours as it is ours. Welcome to Rollin' Stoned Land! Be Good! Be kind. Rewind!