Briar, an adult with cerebral palsy, shares her story of starting a new chapter in life with a new medical team

I got married for the first time a few months ago. I never thought I would get married, yet in my mid-thirties I met someone I know deeply cares about me. However, getting married meant that I had to relocate cities.

Moving cities can be daunting for anyone. It means having to get used to a whole new place. It begins a process of getting used to a new home, a new road network, a new shopping centre, a new routine, and the list goes on and on. However, for someone with cerebral palsy it also means starting afresh with a whole new medical team.

After living in one city for 35 years I had developed an extensive support network. This came through family, friends, colleagues, support workers, and a rather helpful medical team, which took me years to build. Most of my medical team had journeyed with me through some really challenging situations.

They knew my story, a story that involves a rather complex medical history, which as we know is not unusual for people with cerebral palsy.

Now I find myself having to start all over again. Letters have been written and files sent over to people who might become my new medical team. But even with this ‘background information’, I feel that I have gone back to square one.

I don’t actually know where to begin in telling my story to my new medical team. If I begin from the start, I will need a very long appointment. If I go with the current situation, I miss out on all the pieces of the puzzle that got me to this point. So I opt for a summary, with the thought that I can fill in more details as needed or as they come to mind. The challenging part though, is building a medical team at a far more rapid pace.

In my case, the more physical and mental health challenges I developed over my lifetime, the more medical specialists and allied health professionals got added to my team. It was a gradual process, which meant the expansion of my medical team happened slowly. It also changed over time, as allied health professionals moved on to other services or if I got to a point that one of the specialists could no longer help me. Over the decades though I developed a team that I felt comfortable with and one in which I knew that I was receiving good medical care.

Although I know that I can always travel back to attend appointments or hop on a Telehealth with my old and familiar practitioners, the reality is that a new city means building a whole new medical team. This time around though, building my medical support structure will not be gradual. Instead I know that I have in front of me initial appointments and assessments with various medical fraternity in quick succession. It seems an overwhelming task to continuously share my story with so many new people. However, I am also seeing the benefits of starting all over again, as new sets of eyes on my complex medical needs bring a fresh perspective and a new way of treatment, which I ultimately think will be of benefit to me.

For more information about medical management of cerebral palsy, My CP Guide hosts a variety of resources. Browse the Managing CP category on My CP Guide to find other relevant resources.