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More sights to make me feel blessed

fking

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Today I noticed a couple of survivors with different handicaps perform to the best of their abilities. A lady, elderly looking, one leg and crutches, pushing a shopping cart, crutches attached to her in such a way she never had to put her hands on them. That in itself was amazing to me. Then walked over to the potting mix and other big bags of stuff for the grass and yard, loaded 6 bags in the cart and pushed it back to the checkout register all by herself.

 

I've seen other females come in and insist on help loading one bag. I used to wonder why they do that, but after careful thoughts, most of their husbands are in Iraq or deceased. You should see me out there trying to help with one hand from my scooter.

 

Anyway, I insisted on letting our guys push the cart to her car and loading them for her, she accepted. When she first entered the garden center, I asked if she wanted an electric scooter to help with her shopping, she flatly said "no thanks." Her leg appeared to be missing from just below the hip. From the way she gets about, I figure she has had this disability for a long time.

 

The other person was a possible teenager but like a small child with an oxygen tank that could ride in the seat of a shopping cart. Could say a few words but had very little control of his body movements. Those two people made me be more thankful to how far I have come since my stroke.

 

When I hear stroke survivors say, "They don't want to live the rest of their lives like this," I can't help but think how blessed they really are by having lived a good portion of their lives with no handicap, yet here they are alive and able to do many things under their own power. Then there are the two I witness today that could have been like that for most of their lives if not all of their lives.

 

On a daily basis I see other people with life long handicaps, some older than me, but smiling and enjoying life being out shopping. So many with hip and knee replacements, I lost count. Then there is the military war returnees with missing legs and limbs but holding their young child when possible with a baby carrying honess.

 

I think if more stroke survivors would/could get out to the malls and big stores and see other people with less ability than them, they would feel better about being a stroke survivor. I know I do and I'm not even 75% recovered yet, but I still have high hopes.

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swilkinson

Fred, you said it. I want to say to a lot of people:"Get out there, look around you, see that others have a similar load to yours yet they are cheerfully getting on with life."

 

Ray used to say that in Rehab he learned to count his blessings as some people just didn't want to do what the therapists said they could do to help heal and retrain their bodies and instead of going home were moved out to a nursing home. And not all of them were old or severely disabled.

 

Life is what you make it and on the good days fully worth living. But we all have our bad days when we are full of self-pity and want the world to give us a break.

 

Good for you mate, you keep trying to help where you can.

 

Sue.

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swilkinson

Mind you I am syaying all this on what has been a really good day for me. :Clap-Hands:

 

If I was depressed I might see the world in a different light. :im stupid:

 

Sue. :big_grin:

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djeffries

Fred:

 

I'm so glad that you are able to 'see' the world around you and how some people DO go on with life as if NOTHING happened.

 

I know when I was an omelet chef at a resort and conference center, a lady asked why I very rarely used my left hand. I told her that I had a stroke, but I was doing the best I could with what God has allowed me to do. Then she asked if I had any advise because her son wanted to be a chef when he saw how I was 'managing' despite my stroke.

 

I asked her for her home address so that I could send her son an article about me that appeared in Stroke Connection magazine and the local newspaper.

 

She wrote back and asked me for an autographed copy so I knew that 'something' was special about this lady It turns out that she is a Visiting Nurse for heart attack and stroke survivors. She wanted the autographed copies to show her patients, who sit in their rockers, watching TV and 'grass growing under their feet' that YES, I DID have a stroke BUT I'M not letting that stop me from enjoying life.

 

It is so true that we should get out to the malls and shopping centers. Look at all the 'survivors' who are being involved with life.

 

Or, you can do what I do. I carry a deck of playing cards. When people ask me why I walk 'funny' I tell them I had a stroke and then I pull out the cards. When they inquire 'Why the cards' I just say I had a stoke and I 'deal with it' :roflmao:

 

 

Denny

 

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jriva

.

 

 

Fred,

 

Great blog with an important message.

 

 

 

Denny,

 

Great and inspiring story. What issue and year of the Stroke Connection Magazine were you in?

 

Jean

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HostAsha

Fred:

 

great blog, I know I inspire myself when I do normal things with cheery mood, but it took long time to get there, and push away poor me attitude. I realised hey I am way more stronger than lot of people out there.

 

due to grace of God and my insistence I have always gone to movies, shoppng malls and refused to use any assisted devices.

 

in our home only railing on stairs is reminder that I stroked, but hey life goes on, and its great.

 

Asha

 

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caringfor5

I think for me as a caregiver the turning point where I stopped thinking it was the end of the world was when Mike was in Rehab in Chicago and everyday when I would be down stairs waiting to go up to visit Mike I would get to see the people that were coming in for outpatient therapy or to see their doctors and some of them with much less movement than Mike already had. One woman came in a wheelchair and couldn't even sit up but she would use her motorized wheelchair to get around BY HERSELF. I was amazed, wondered how she even could see where she was going, but she didn't let that keep her from getting out independently. Her arms were very contracted to the point that she could only reach across her body with both arms so she would use a controller on the opposite side of the hand she was using to control it. I actually saw her more than once while he was there. There were numerous other people while I was there with Mike that just amazed me and thats when I really started thinking we can do this and we're going to be okay. I think Mike is just now starting to pay attention to other people and realizing the same thing, before it was like he was in his own world and didn't pay much attention to other people around him who may be dealing with the same things or worse.

 

Tina

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