Hi, Hello, my name is Robyn Lambird, I am 21 years old
and I have Cerebral Palsy but you guys
know me as the T-rex and you're watching at
My T-rex Life. Okay guys today I'm
finally getting around to doing the
disability tag that I was so nicely
tagged in by Ted Shiress,
if you never seen Ted Shiress on YouTube,
definitely check him out I will link his
videos down below. He is a hilarious
comedian and youtuber with cerebral
palsy and his videos just put me in
stitches so definitely go and check him
out ,but let's get on to the tag! Question
number one is what is your disability my
disability is Cerebral Palsy - Spastic
Diplegia and I also have a superimposed
movement condition called
Dystonia.
Question number two is how does your
disability affect you? Well it affects me
in a number of ways, one of them being
thatI have spasticity and particularly
in my lower limbs, which means that my
muscles are tight and contracted and
they are resistant to certain movements,
which means that certain movements are
quite difficult like walking. It also
means that my fine motor skills, my
coordination, and my balance are all
impaired my fine motor skills
particularly, not just because my hand
function is impaired which means that my
fingers don't move too well but also
because of the dystonia, I have these
involuntary movements which happen
throughout the day but they also get
worse when I am concentrating on a
particular movement, so if it's something
like fine and intricate or fiddly
that makes things quite difficult. I also
have lots of sensation in my hands and
in my lower legs so I can't feel some
like touch and also I can't really tell
the difference between hot and cold that
well, which means they're getting a
shower or a bath is kind of like Russian
Roulette, I have to cross my fingers
before I dip my bum in and hope that I'm
not gonna burn it or freeze it off. And
lastly it causes quite a bit of fatigue
not only because we are
in a way in which our body wasn't
designed to move on we have cerebral
palsy but also because it makes it quite
hard to make movements habitual which
means that even if I've done something a
hundred times before I still have to
think about it
like walking, I'm thinking you know, sort
of pick up my foot, put down my foot, pick up my
foot, which is obviously quite tiring
when you have to think about all of that
on top of everything else. Question number 3 is how and when were you diagnosed?
now my story of getting diagnosed with
cerebral palsy is not like your average
story most kids are diagnosed with
cerebral palsy pretty shortly after
birth but my birth was not traumatic
everything kind of went to plan as far
as we know and I was slow to develop but
they just said that I was slow to
develop and then once I got to a point
where I was like you know really should
be doing things and I kind of just sit
there I was diagnosed with a condition
called Syringomyelia because they found
a syrnx which is like a pseudo cyst in
my spine, then when I was about six or
seven that cyst disappeared which hardly
ever happens
so they were like oh my gosh it's a
miracle and they said I would get better
then when I was nine years old I moved
to Australia I still wasn't better I
still walked really funny um I still had
really tight muscles so on and so forth
so I had an MRI they found brain damage
and they were like you probably had
cerebral palsy all along because you
walk exactly like you've had cerebral
palsy all along
so yeah. Question number four what is
something that you enjoy doing but can't
participate in as much as you'd like
because of your disability? there's not too
much that I don't do because of my
disability, I always seem to be able to
find a way to do the things that I enjoy
but I'd say if I didn't have a
disability I'd probably be a little bit
more adventurous,
I probably do more things like hiking,
which I do a little bit of but like
longer and more seriously you know
riding bikes and just just things like
that which I'm kind of limited because
of my yeah my disability. Question number
five is what is one thing that you
have done that you probably wouldn't
have done if you didn't have a
disability?
Oh this question is hard for me to
answer because I think a lot of what I'm
doing in my life right now is as a
result of my disability or as a result
of how my experiences as a disabled
person have shaped me.
I believe that my disability is an
integral part of who I am and it's a big
part of my identity because of those
experiences that I've had, because of how
it shaped me, and because of the people
that it's brought into my life if we
look at my life now I am an athlete that
gets to travel around the world a lot
competing in para-sport, um so that's a
big part of who I am being an athlete
and traveling and all that kind of stuff
and who knows I wouldn't be doing para
sport if I was able-bodied so who knows if
I would have had an interest in
athletics or not or whether I would be
pursuing the other things that I enjoy,
who knows a lot of my creative pursuits
come from my experiences as a disabled
person, a lot of the things that I am
interested in and enjoy making and a lot
of like the cool people in my life are
in my life because of my disability and
how that's brought us together so I
don't think I can really separate you
know who I am now and what I'm doing
with what I would be doing if I wasn't
disabled so I kind of just think yeah
it's all very linked and it's all part
of who I am.
Question number five is what has
your disability taught you? Um I think
the main things of a disability have
taught me is resilience and to believe
in myself and to just kind of not care
what other people think because people
have certain perceptions of me because I
am a disabled person I think I get to
challenge those and sort of live outside
of a lot of societal constraints
so you know I'm not so worried about
what other people think of me I'm just
trying to be the best person that I can
be and to live authentically and you
know you know to be truly myself I think
it's also taught me to be empathetic yes
you'd sound like what left blaming
politically and things like that I don't
think it's just because I'm a young
person but I think it's because if the
experience is that my disability it's
given me and the experiences of
belonging to a marginalized group so
yeah I think I think it would just be
like believing in myself resilience and
empathy other main ones that you know my
disability has taught me there's no
mistakes how does your disability affect
your planning for the future
ah I don't know I guess certain things
like employment and things like that are
a concern because I am a disabled
individual and the statistics are kind
of stacked against me so that's on my
mind a lot is how I'm gonna sort of
create a career for myself and you know
blue the future that I want to live um
and also you know the fact that my body
may break down a little bit quicker than
the usual so
you
keep using this time to explore who you
are
you
dressed in a funny way because
you
we need to be supporting these people
these people that are pushing for change
in the way disability is seen by the
wider public and creating a more
positive view towards diversity
indifference so check her out though to
would be sitting pretty
another one from Instagram sitting
pretty on Instagram again I will link
her down below
Rebecca is an amazing advocate for
people with disabilities she is a
teacher and a writer and she so
eloquently puts into words all my
thoughts on the disabled experience it's
quite scary sometimes that we seem to
all feel the same way about something
and yeah I just think everyone should be
reading her writing because it's it's
amazing so check her at and the last
they're not least Annie Sagara I know
you probably all know Annie she's
amazing she is one of the reasons that I
started to take my identity as a sample
person while seriously and to think
about it politically and socially
because her videos challenged a lot of
what I thought about myself and have got
me thinking about so many things and she
is just a force to be reckoned with
on everything from like feminism to
queer politics to disability she's just
amazing so if you happen and you should
go check out Annie again
her links will be down below love to all
of you guys let me know ah the disabled
people that you love on Instagram and
YouTube and all of the socials and let
me know actually just answer these
questions down below because I wanna
hear from you guys but most importantly
guys remember to stay shiny because I
love you
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