After Disability...What Now?
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- BonnieK_2
- annej
- todd_trish
- ger_1nl
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» BonnieK_2 - Bonnie Kroll You have really struck a nerve with me. And I don
Bonnie Kroll You have really struck a nerve with me. And I don't mean unpleasantly believe me. I was lucky and could work for quite awhile after I was seriously disabled because I used a wheelchair. When I discontinued working I felt totally worthless. Then I tried different things - Having the cleanest house in the neighborhood - only to cave in when I was about half way through - and had to live with the mess until I could get enough energy to clean up the mess I had made 'cleaning house'. I tried to be the most cheerful person in the world (I'm sure you have all found that you have to be cheerful more times than you would like - because the saying "Smile and the world smiles with you - Cry and you cry alone" is very true, but thank God you have some special friends that you can vent to when necessary.I finally decided we had to move for my health.
I gave up a home, close family and a multitude of friends to move south because I am healthier here. Mind you maybe not healthy, but healthier than I was in IN.
When I arrived I was thrilled to see that they were starting a Master Gardening Class. I attended and found that maybe I couldn't work in the gardens, but I could do the computer work, and while I have been waiting for my van to be replaced (a drunk hit and totalled my vehicle 16 months ago), I have done the phone calling from home. My reason for taking the class was so I could help other challenged people to learn to garden whatever way they could. My fellow Master Gardeners (MG) have helped me with this goal. During the classes my back became so bad from sitting that I was bedridden, one of my fellow classmates videoed the classes I missed so I would graduate. Now, if all goes well and I get a vehicle in the next three weeks I am going to attend a conference near here with the Horticulural Therapy Society and learn more things to share with both people with challenges of all kinds as well as my fellow MG's who are working so hard to help me help others. Pray for me that I can attend this and help other people.
Until the accident I mentioned, I was a novice with a computer but I decided to become a little more expert. About all I can say is that I probably have the longest "Bookmark Section" about. I have developed many interests. I even enjoy playing gameboy. The only problem is it triggers such pain in my arm that I have to limit it. Oh, well something else will come along to take its place. That saying "When God closes a door, he opens a window" is so true, if we only stay tuned to what he want us to do.
I think I have talked about me enough, I hope that I may have shared some ideas with some of you who are newer to the world of the disabled than I am.
I wish you all luck, and thanks to the many people and most especially Michelle Struik for her way of making life easier. She has brought such meaning into her own life as well as ours.
Thank you, Michelle.
-- posted by BonnieK_2
» annej - from super achieving to just contributing
It has taken me three years to gradually sort out any meaning to my life since I was disabled with meningitis. I can't even volunteer outside my home as I can't predict if a particular day I will be strong enough to do the work. But the internet has been a blessing. I have found I can contribute by helping women let their creativity blossom through both my website at http://www.womenfolk.com and through forums and my topic here. The blessing of this sort of volunteering is that I can work on the projects the days I feel better and don't have to feel guilty that I haven't come through on the days I can barely sit. I also do some poetry and quilting which I see as more for myself though I suppose others enjoy the quilts and poems too.Sometimes this seems like quite enough but other times I remember all I could accomplish in a day and feel like what I do is so little. As time goes by I seem to be more and more at peace with enjoying what I can do. The whole experience certainly makes you pay attention to what matters and what doesn't.
-- posted by annej
» todd_trish - Life After Disability
I am not a disabled person, but I would like to tell you about my husband. Todd was in an automobile accident in 1980. It left him a visually impaired, quad. He had many accomplishments before I met him. He had gone to the University of Illinois and got his Masters Degree in Rehab. I was living in Il. when he came into the facility I was working at. five years ago (I am an LPN) to apply for the social service position. Needless to say he did not get the job, but we have been together since. There are not enought words to say how much I love him, or to list all that he has done. We now live in Az. and he is in his second year of getting his doctorate in Clinical Psychology. He is such an inspiration, he works hard and deservers so much credit. Trish-- posted by todd_trish
» ger_1nl - Able bodied author tackles fiction from the CP point of view
An unusual novel, novel The Cloths of Heaven (a POD publication). Rejected by one publishing house by the sales department, because they couldn't categorise a novel narrated by a CP sufferer written by an 'able bodied' person.This novel is on the one hand, contemporary Irish Fiction, on the other a psychological novel. But more than that it is a study of 'social' 'religious' and 'physical' disablity and is written from the viewpoint of Sheila McGann, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy. It is written with humour and honesty, has received a glowing review from one Amazon.com reader.
I would recommend it to anyone looking for something 'alternative' yet entertaining at the same time. And for a realistic approach to ddsability.
For more information on the book, and for purchasing details, check out the website.
Geraldine Nesbitt
http://pages.ivillage.com/ger_1/ger_1
-- posted by ger_1nl
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