Regan Shines
What an incredible article about a very, very talented actor

[“The Transformation of Regan,” May 2015]. I’ve taught and directed actors with disabilities for decades. Regan Linton is, by far, gifted with the most talent I’ve ever encountered. I came across her at a SAG/AFTRA meeting where her personality brightened the room. If there is any justice at all in “the biz,” I’m convinced she will have an extremely successful career.
John Mahon

Blown Away
I was blown away by Regan Linton’s performance as Aldonza in Man of La Mancha. Hers was head and shoulders above Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio’s that I saw on Broadway. I am so happy to hear she is at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Best of luck to her in her career!
Eric Rivedal

When Help is Not
Don’t you love it when people push the door open for you but stand outside the door so you have to navigate around their feet [“Help!” May 2015]. Nine times out of 10, their opening the accessible door for you makes it more difficult than if you did it yourself. I just say “thanks,” but I wish I had more backbone to say, “This is an automatic door and you are making it more difficult for me to enter!”
Bob Drinan
University of Chicago

More “Help”
My favorite is when my 34-year-old son and I are at the gym for his workout, a routine he knows very well, and he’s reaching for something to get him started on a stretch, or getting himself on a machine. I’m there, talking with him, always ready if he should have a hard time and ask for help. All too often, someone will see him struggle for a millisecond, jump in with, “Do you need help?” — at the same time giving me a dirty look for not helping him! He’s got brain injuries, as well as one leg amputated, and contractures in the other leg. “No, lady, he needs to figure out how to do things himself. He’s a big boy, and he will figure it out!”
Valerie Misch
Canada College

Useful Recipes
Thank you for these do-it-yourself recipes [“Git ‘R Done,” May 2015]. You [author Roxanne Furlong] are gifting the readers with some very useful recipes. I use an expensive doctor’s prescription for Candida that doesn’t really work, so I am happy to find one I can afford. The shaving and skin softener uses ingredients I already have — even better.
Bess Glenn

Message to Medicare
After 10-plus years of aggressive digital stimulation due to a spastic anal sphincter, I am experiencing near rectal prolapse. Not pretty. I figure I can forward Medicare a photo of my bung hole [“Bathroom Equipment: Not Medically Necessary?” May 2015]. Then let them tell me that bathroom equipment isn’t medically necessary. Consider this an unapologetic plug for Coloplast’s Peristeen product [see ParaMedic, Jan. 2015].
Lynn Murray
Placerville, California

Ludicrous Policy
It is ludicrous that the means to shower or toilet are not considered basic needs by Medicare. At one time funding was even being denied to people with disabilities who required incontinence products! Not only could they not “eliminate” properly, there would be no coverage on products for them to stay dry, clean or bathe properly.
Mary Mullenax

Managing Bladder Spasms
I read with interest your article in the May issue of New Mobility, “Options to Manage Bladder Spasms” [ParaMedic, May 2015]. The first half dozen years or so of my life as someone with paralysis, my bladder management consisted of a condom catheter (glued on with surgical adhesive and white duct tape) followed with regular dosage of bladder infections.

I’m not sure if my urologist at Kaiser Permanente invented or just knew about the system where you dissolve one 5 milligram tablet of Ditropan in 50 milliliters of tap water and inject it back up into your bladder after cathing. For more than 25 years I went condom-free, and for the most part leak-free and infection-free. A serious point in the system’s favor is it had almost no side effects. However, I had to be very organized when cathing outside the home (I had to bring syringes prepared with water and Ditropan, which usually caused questions when going through the TSA security).

A year and a half ago I started doing Botox. I would say this is as close to being nondisabled as I’ve been in 33 years. For me there are no side effects whatsoever, other than obviously my body doesn’t like it when the bladder overfills (I’m a C6-7 quad and I start getting dysreflexia symptoms). But I’ve been having them for so long even though I’m not supposed to that I can use them as a signal/reminder to cath. But one side effect I do not have is any leakage. I can ignore the dysreflexia for half an hour and still not leak.
Bruce Hammer, CEO, Nuprodx

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