Description of my handicap

Official definition of my handicap:
spastic tetraplegia with athetosis, coupled with a heavy speech disorder

Definition of the terms:

Spasm:
Involuntary muscle contract, mostly appearing in form of consecutive convulsions.

Tetraplegia:
Tetraplegia is an effect of a damage of the spinal marrow on the level of the arms, the torso and the legs. When the spinal marrow on the level of the fourth cervical vertebra (or higher) is affected, the patient has to be respirated artificially, because at that point lies the nerve which is responsible for the phrenic (the main source of breathing). A person with tetraplegia is usually dependant on help in completion of daily life. The higher the level of the damage of the spinal marrow in the neck, the more limited is the person.

Athetosis:
Involuntary, vermicular moves, especially on the extremities, are called athetosis. Typical causes of that are perinatal damages of the brain (like the icterus neonatorum). Transitions to distonia and to choreatic malfunctions are fluent.

Cause of the handicap:
During my birth I had an oxygen deprivation, because I had to be turned in the womb. Some of my braincells died in the process. Their loss leads to a paralysis and/or uncontrolled moves.

Practical results:
I can move every part of my body, but every movement is uncontrolled. For example, if I want to lift my hand to my mouth, it’s only possible through a high rate of concentration. Or, if I’m holding a spoon in my hand, I can’t lift my hand to my mouth without dropping the spoon, since I can only concentrate on one thing at one moment. By trying both, my arm will only wobble in the open air. At this point, the athetosis is perceivable.

Conclusion: I can only concentrate on one move. In the meantime, all other moves are uncontrolled.

A few more examples:
When I’m concentrating on hitting the right keys on my keyboard, I lose control about my legs, my sitting posture and my saliva.
Because of my increasing hardness of hearing, I manage less and less to concentrate on listening to others while I’m working or eating.
While I’m chewing, I can’t control the valve between the canal of saliva and the trachea. So my food frequently gets into the trachea and a cough overcomes me.
To fold a piece of paper is an awry issue and very exhausting, because both hands are involved at the same time.
When I write a SMS, I salivate like a waterfall, because with one hand I have to hold the mobile and with the other I have to hit the right keys.

Chewing:
Because of the paralysis of my tongue, I can’t push the food to the side of my mouth to grind it with my back teeth. I only chew under my palatine or with my incisors. That is the reason why I hold my head up high while chewing, to make sure the food doesn’t fall out of my mouth.
Because I mostly chew with my palatine, I give apples, grapes and so on a berth when I’m on the way. Those fruits have to be milled with a blender to create a mash. Otherwise, I swallow the pieces whole, and my stomach doesn’t buy that.
Because I had to eat raw veggies when I was a child, though I couldn’t grind them, I lost my appetite on those things.

Spasm:
The spasm changes every day:
When it is on my tongue, I’m speaking inarticulately.
When it is in my stomach, I can’t eruct, so the air I swallowed while eating can’t get out. This creates a pression that sometimes forces me to throw up.
When it chose my bladder for a change, I can’t have a slash, so I have to wait another hour.
When the spasm affects the outer muscles of the thigh, the person has got O-legs (knees are bowed to the outside). Otherwise, if the spasm affects the inner muscles of the thigh (like in my case), X-legs are the result.