My son's name is Tommy, he is 17 yo.  I hardly ever mention that my son has mild CP because it is probably the least of his disabilities. He is hypotonic this means the CP causes his muscle tone to be  too loose or
stretchy, he can overextend his legs, hands etc. He tends to walk on his toes. He doesn't receive any therapy anymore.  He did get
some PT for the toe-walking when he was younger but hasn't for a long time, we just remind him to put his feet down.
    He has a history of Seizures, Moderate/Severe Men. Handicapped, Hypertension, lacks the hormone Testosterone, and has a Communication Disorder, along with Autistic-like behaviors.
    He turned blue the 2nd day after his birth,  cause is unknown. He was also born 3 weeks after my due date, by C-Section. He weighed 9lbs. 10 oz.
My other 2 weighed less than 8 lbs.
    My son is a great kid and he knows more people than I do. When we are out I am always amazed at the numbers of people who come up and talk
to him. He is very friendly and outspoken on subjects of interest to him.
Fishing is his favorite pastime.  He will fish for hours on end.
    My son wants to work on a farm, we live on a 100 acre farm, but don't farm ourselves. We are working very hard right now to get community based employment for him, he definitely expresses his displeasure
at the prospect of a sheltered-workshop. He also expresses a desire to remain at home for now. This is just fine with us, he is the oldest of our 3 children and we are happy with his decision to remain at home.
We are reluctantly taking legal guardianship of him soon. We struggled with this difficult decision but ultimately feel that this would be in his best interest.
    The main difficulty he has from the mild CP is a "funny" gate to his walk and he doesn't run very well. He is also somewhat "clumsy". He is not very tall, about 5'5". He has blond hair and incredibly intense blue eyes. He has a great smile.  He tans very easily and has a healthy
complexion, (he is outside all the time). My youngest daughter looks allot like him, they are very "good-looking" kids.
    We love him very much and I would not trade him for a "normal" child any day. He has taught so many people compassion and understanding.
He is drawn to the more hard at heart type people and nearly always wins them over.
    Thank you for allowing me to tell you about my son, Tommy.
story by Karen Poole, Tommy's mom.