Reading

Since the car wreck,  another thing I struggle with is something that should be very simple. You learned how to do this usually when you were under the age of 5. Reading! It was hard to process the words and give them meaning. It was also hard because I often forgot what I had read at the top of the page or pages earlier.

      While I was in college, my kind father had to read the chapters of my textbooks aloud to me. I’m much better at learning through auditory cues rather than visual.  Also, I did not want to get a tutor. I thought that was too immature.

         Now over the years it has gotten a whole lot faster, but still I find it’s a slower pace because I often get distracted and find that mid page I’m thinking of something else. To be honest, I could have really benefited from a tutor or books on tape.

New and improved!

Gary, this kind man from my church, raised $930 for me for physical therapy. Instead of doing the more expensive therapy which costs $100 an hour, I am in the program that costs $75 an hour. They’re basically the same because they’re in the same gym and use similar equipment. They just don’t switch around as much to different equipment during the session. The surgery that I had also allowed me to go back into therapy. They’re just looking for some sort of change that could produce different results. Given that I had this surgery that decreases my tone, they want to start off with balance exercises.  They will eventually move into gait, or walking. They are also looking to get some use of my right arm. So they put my legs in a device, which allows me to only have to operate my arms and I have to tug on weights with that arm.

         

Shepherd Center, the hospital where I do my therapy, is located in Buckhead Georgia off of Peachtree Road. It works with brain and spinal cord injury survivors. It is an amazing place that brings people from a coma to up and walking! I encourage all to look into it!

Men

So it’s not surprising, but I don’t have a man right now. Now my boyfriend at the time of the car wreck stayed with me for three years post the injury. I believe he thought that I would wake-up one day and be back to my normal self. The reason he probably thought this in the early stages, I was making SO much progress and relatively fast. Then sadly it slowed WAY down. That’s how it works with the brain. It at first, creates the new connections leading to the various electrodes quickly. Then it slows down. Reason being it can’t find the right connection so it mixes them up. Anyways he became impatient and we broke-up. I have been on Match, Eharmony and recently I discovered Plenty of Fish. POF  is a bit risky because it’s free and you don’t know who they’re going to collect. Now I did find some luck on Match. I established a boyfriend for 10 months, but then the company he worked for transferred him to Seattle. I need an understanding, kind and patient man. Now I’m hoping that he comes along on Plenty of Fish.