There were gummy bears and chocolate…
From Squawk Back:
I was embarking on an adventure—an experimental procedure called a dorsal rhizotomy, where groupings of spinal nerve roots are cut to reduce the effects of interference, or the reduction of contradictory messages to and from the brain which contributed to my spasticity. Due to having cerebral palsy, literally meaning, “paralysis of the brain,” my body was in constant mutiny against me. The messages sent to and from my brain misfired. The dorsal rhizotomy was an attempt to restore order.
It worked for a little while. I became ambidextrous. My range of motion improved because my brain wasn’t the party line that it had been before the surgery. My balance was more centered. My body could finally relax.
After frolicking in strawberry fields, my parents told me I was famous. I had made it into the medical books after being one of the first in Georgia to have the surgery. Other than the staples in my back and a scar that spanned the whole of it, I was received like a queen. Sushi from August Moon during exercises. A whole troop of new friends: Felix the Cat, the multicolored Turkey with the warbler who said, “Gobble, Gobble!” when I squeezed him, Ballerina Bear in her pink lace tutu with pink roses on it, P.J. Sparkles who, as her name implied, sparkled in her pink pajamas when you squeezed her, and finally, Schmutzy, I suppose because of his dirty brown, scraggly fur and Rocky Raccoon, named in honor of my favorite ice cream flavor, Rocky Road. There were gummy bears and cards and chocolate, and I had a special bed that moved up and down.
