Medical billing speech

“My name is Dylan. I have ataxic Cerebral Palsy. I have always had problems walking and impairment to my balance but the reason I now use a wheelchair is I developed tethered cord syndrome which is like spina bifida. When I was 9 weeks old I turned blue and passed out and my mom did CPR on me and because of this brain injury I could not run at all, or walk well and I can’t write or feed myself. When I could walk it was hard to walk on uneven ground which is related to CP and my Lyme disease. In Israel while preparing for Rabbinical school had to walk on uneven ground and I hit my head a lot. Due to my brain damage I have a lot of stomach issues and an exaggerated gag reflex as a result of CP so I throw up a lot. I gag even if my mouth is open too wide and because of my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome I dislocate my jaw. In CP we often take supplements of Vitamin B to help, I also have pernicious anemia which is a total lack of the ability to absorb vitamin B through my stomach so I take vitamin B as a shot. If I don’t have a vitamin B shot every month my CP symptoms will get worse and I can die without Vitamin B because the lack of vitamin B makes my blood acidic. An important fact of CP is that it can affect my voice. My spasticity from CP and co occurring dystonia it is hard to speak so I use A A C. We can’t talk about CP without discussing epilepsy which is common in CP. I have epilepsy and non epileptic seizures. A very common way to treat seizures is with medications that are also mood stabilizers. The medication slows the brain down so a person does not seizure. Depakote is a seizure drug that has saved my life. I still have non epileptic seizures but because of Depakote I don’t have to worry about dying in the middle of the night. There are other medications I use for CP such as Baclofen which is a muscle relaxant similar to botox used to treat spasticity. For my tremors and shaking I take Propranolol which helps me feel better but I still need help to feed myself and write. As a part of my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome my joints go everywhere so my CP spasticity is worse to try to hold my joints together. For more information on CP I implore you to go to the Crip Video Productions website. We make media content about disability rights, our current endeavor is the documentary “What The Body Believes”, and our founder Margot Cole has Cerebral Palsy. You can follow the work we do anywhere on social media. I am the producer and audio engineer for Crip Video Productions. “

-Dylan Rothbein This is the speech our producer gave to medical billing students with AAC. To hire Dylan for public speaking see here https://dylanrothbein.weebly.com/