Being in Awarea facility where you rely on others to take care of you Can be Demoralizing And at the same time It makes you thankful that there are people out there That are willing to Take care of your personal needs When they are not related to you In any way shape or form.

When this journey started, I had a plethora of friends who stated they would help me.  That was before the surgery And the realization that I would be totally dependent on another human being For the next two months. They had a lot  of Encouragement To offer But only in words.  The number of friends That offered to help was quite high.  Once I made a list of the things that I needed, Somehow they all seemed To have other Things to do But oh boy! oh boy! did they have an Overabundance Of Suggestions on how I can get somebody else Or an organization to come help me.  Oh yeah; The burden fell back on me.  Why the hell do you think I asked for help in the first place?  It is a downhill battle from there.  I started to feel Inadequate.  Deficient.  Alone.  Discarded.  Useless

Some Would Say to me;

Why don’t you contact a church.  What church? I don’t know.  Don’t you go to church?  Sometimes.  Can you give me the name of the church? Well no. There are people out there that do this for living, can’t you hire someone? Where will I get the money to pay for it?  I explain how much it would cost to have somebody 24 hours seven days a week.  For those of you that don’t know; It’s approximately $400-$500 A day. The conversation continues with more suggestions and no solutions

“The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment”

How do you feel about the statement above?  Read it again with the idea/knowledge that you will be doing good for somebody by cleaning Them up after they have had a bowel movement.  Now what say you?

Thanks for joining me!  My hope Is to interact with people That have gone through the same thing as me As well as With people That haven’t; but almost inevitabily will.  I want us to learn from each other, and share experiences.  Perhaps by doing so We may brighten up Someone’s Day And lighten the load For others.  For those of you that are perfectionists in the English language and writing; Please forgive me for the typos.I am using The voice activated application In my computer And it is not one of the best as you can see. I will try to go back and Rectify any Errors as much as my Stamina allows. You will see numerousCapitalized words in the middle of a sentenceAnd sometimes the space is not Inserted. Case in point:The previousSentence And this one.

I was born with a congenital deformity of my left arm.  It is roughly Half the size of a normal Arm.  The wrist looks like an elbow, Bent at a 90° angle (It does not straightene out).  I have four fingers; No thumb. I have always been able to use one of the fingers To type, Press, Push.  The other three can hold things; As long as I place The item In them by Using my other hand.  I was born 56 years ago, And have been Independent up until now.  Just about everything that “A normal” Person Can do, I can do.   I had very little limitations.

I took care of all of my daily Living Activities.  Dressing, eating, Bathing, Driving, Going to school, Etc.  I have a bachelors degree and a masters degree.  I Started working at the age of 13.  I held a plethora of jobs: Fast food restaurant, Cashier, Cleaning houses, Babysitting, Helping in the classroom, Certified teacher, Department head, Curriculum leader, Assistant principal, Principal And director Of a department Overlooking The needs of English learners of 97 schools.   I have Raised A daughter By myself. Own my home; until Recently I was able to keep up With the maintenance.  Having said that, I was a contributing member of society.

This new chapter in my life began Eight years ago With a slip and fall That was further exasperated By two incidents Where I had to intervene In containing Students Who were out of control/Violent.  Add to that, The fact that I overused my right arm To compensate for my Congenital birth defect.

On September 17, 2018, I had what is called “Reverse Shoulder arthroplasty”, On what Used to be my Good arm/Right arm.  If you would like to see An animation of this procedure Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC8OXhELUGs.  Normally,Someone that has this procedure can go homeIf they have use of their other arm And or have someone at home they can take care of them. I am navigating an extremely murky Path.  The biggest barrier that I have at this moment is the insurance.I knew that it was going to be difficult Trying to get them to approveMy stayT At a facility That would help me With My daily Living activities.  My surgeon was And is Worried That if I go home I Will Injure The surgery area And nullify/Negate all the work that was done And end up worse than before.

 

 

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton