Introduction

My Story 

Have you ever tried doing an activity or a daily chore with one hand? Have you ever been in a cast and had to try to figure out how to do everything in a totally different way for the next four to six weeks while in that cast? I have lived this way my whole life.

The Doctors Could Never Find an Answer

Hi, my name is Alyssa Dickens. I am 20 years old and was born with Cerebral Palsy.  Before I was born I had a stroke in utero which effected the right side of my brain and caused me to not be able to use my left hand when I was born. Then on my third birthday, I started having seizures; which caused my body to stiffen up to the point I couldn't move and I would drool uncontrollably until the episode was over. This gave quite the scare to my parents, school bus drivers, and I sure my teachers as well. For many years my mom and dad took me to different doctors in Colorado Springs, Denver, and even went to Texas for testing to try to figure out what was wrong with me.  Back then we didn't have the type of technology that we do today, so the doctor could never find an answer to what was causing my seizures. Time after time the doctors told my parents to take me home and enjoy the time they had with me. At the time they didn't expect me to live past eight years old.

I think my doctor was crazy!

A few years later when I was about 7 years old my parents came across a doctor at the Children's Hospital in Denver that was finally able to help. After doing some more tests and after they had already done a few surgeries in which they took out different pieces of my brain to try and stop the seizures, but didn't work they made an observation. One day when I went in for one of my regularly scheduled check-ups the doctor told my mom and dad that the right side of my brain only existed for seizures. As the doctor was talking to my parents he mentioned that he could go into surgery and disconnect the right side of my brain.  At first, my mom and dad thought he was crazy.  I would probably have to if I were in my parents' position and he wanted to take part in my child's brain out. As you can imagine this took a lot of thinking and decision making on their part.  After they talked for a few minutes and unsure of what to do they asked him an important question. If it was his child what would he do? Without any hesitation, he said that he would do the surgery.  My parents looked at one another then said ok schedule us for surgery.

As of today, that surgery was successful and even though I still have some seizure activity on the left side I haven't had a seizure since.  With everything that happened when I was younger, I never let that get in my way of being the best version of myself, and each day I keep growing with my disability that has evolved into one of my greatest strengths.

My Vision For This Blog...

By living my life in this way I have gone from a kid to a teenager, and now to a young adult and have realized that my purpose is to help people. Before today I didn't really know how I wanted to help people, but now I know that I want to use my gift as I would call it with having my disability and only using one hand to put a little part of me into the world. I want to help empower people with disabilities or limitations by sharing weekly tips and tricks with different challenges I have faced along with different solutions I have used personally to help others overcome their challenges.