Disability confidential. Informing. Empowering. Agitating.
Life After Paralysis is a blog that represents a variety of paralysis community members. It is a place for open conversation about the issues and the interests of people living with paralysis, their family, friends, caregivers, and the professionals that serve them.
Comments are welcome!
The opinions expressed in these blogs are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
(Find out more about the contributors at www.ChristopherReeve.org/contributors.)
Category: Quality of Life Category
The following is not one of my normal blogs, but I felt that it was of enough significance to post it here for your information. As some of you know, I am not a great aficionado when it comes to floating around the oceans in a hotel room for a week at a time, or perhaps even longer. I like my hotel rooms to be on solid ground, without difficulty getting from the door of the hotel into whatever environment is outside. Read More
The following blog is a repeat of one I posted a couple of years ago, but it is still applicable today. With the devastating tornadoes and the resulting destruction which just happened in the Midwest, it should be a wakeup call to everyone that they need to be prepared for the benefit of themselves, their families and friends. It is probably not the last reminder you will receive from me on the subject, as people with disabilities are far more likely to be seriously impacted in the event of a major disaster. We live our lives 'on the edge' as it is, and the destruction caused by a disaster of any type is magnified when we are involved. I hope you'll take it to heart. Read More
Who says you can't learn anything from daytime TV? During an interview with
Matt Lauer of the
NBC Today Show on yesterday's
Ellen Degeneres Show , I learned that M
artha Stewart has signed up as a member of
Match.Com in order to seek out romance. Apparently her action has resulted in a 30% increase in memberships on that online dating site, as many older single people now realize that such a service might be appropriate for them if it is OK for Martha.
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We live in a world surrounded by danger, which is obvious to anyone who watches the news. That has been especially evident during the past few months, beginning with the shootings at the theater in Aurora, Colorado, continuing through the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, the police standoff at Big Bear Lake in California, and might best be epitomized by the Boston Marathon bombings and the shootouts that followed.
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The year of my spinal cord injury, 1988, was a very bad year. Surprisingly, I did not realize how bad it really was until some old correspondence was discovered while my sister was cleaning out my mother's files a couple of months ago. The family Christmas letter from that year told the full story, and I learned from that two-page letter that I must not have been aware of what had been going on around me that entire year.
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For weeks, I've been working on a piece I want to share with you but it's become a tortured mess. It went from earnest to maudlin and appears beyond salvageable. In the middle of the ripping out of hair and gnashing of teeth, 110 pounds of unconditional love threw herself in my lap and demanded her time in the park. Now.
Let me tell you about Pearl…
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“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’”
—Hunter S. Thompson
I have accomplished the part about being used up and totally worn out, but I am not yet ready to skid in -- broadside or otherwise. Instead, I would like to stay healthy so I can enjoy what life is left, but need some help doing so.
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We celebrate many types of anniversaries in our lives, and some of us are lucky enough to share some anniversaries that are rather unique. For me, and many of my friends, the date of a spinal cord injury that relegated us to life in a wheelchair is an annual event that is difficult to forget even if we should want to.
This year marks 25 years since that cold January day when I found myself gasping for air and unable to move at the base of a ski lift tower that had proved to be an immovable object when I slid into it.
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"As the blur of the first hours, days or weeks
Turns into a realization that freedom is gone forever,
The bed becomes a prison in its own small world.
The ministering hands become symbols of helplessness
In a world of the independent.
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