The simplest things in life

I wrote an email to a friend yesterday and it made me want to write about a certain topic that I addressed in the email.

It is so easy to take advantage of the simplest tasks of our everday living for those who are not disabled or injured. And that's totally normal but I hope to open people's eyes with this by making you aware of those simplest tasks that my injury has taken from me, and hopefully temporary, but still taken from me for quite some time.

Have you ever thought how lucky you are to wash your own hair? To be able to lift your arms and shoulders high enough to reach your hair and wash it. Or being able to reach up to the cupboard to reach a glass or a dish; to put your own pants on because your arms can reach low enough and are flexible enough to do so. How about being able to look side to side to look at someone or behind you using just your neck, let alone to look up at the sky?

ALL of these things I cannot do. Now hopefully with my neck surgery done and when this halo comes off I will be able to the latter. But I need help reaching up to get something out of the cupbard because my arms don't reach higher than shoulder height due to scar tissue. My mother has to wash my hair because I can't reach my head for the same reason. There are so many things that I can no longer due because the scar tissue has limited my mobility. I used to be a personal trainer and now because of that scar tissue I haven't been able to step inside a gym for 18 months and that kills me. I also used to be a big runner and i can't do that either. All I get for exercise is my physical therapy, which can be painful, but that just doesn't cut it for a personal trainer and health nut.

My day to day tasks are difficult and I have to be taken care of morning and night of everyday. I must be assisted in some of the simplest of tasks as I have mentioned. Have you every thought of being fortunate to be able to live your life without physical assistance? I can bet you haven't. That you've never even thought about it. I didn't.

So thank God, or whoever, that you are able to do so. Don't take the simple things in life for granted, despite how cliche that sounds. But it is so true and I know this by experience. To be able to take care of yourself, to reach that glass and wash your own hair makes you blessed that you have never had to go through what I go through everyday. Think about that everyday when you do something so simple as such things mentioned that you can do them without assistance.

To be able to take care of yourself is such a fortunate thing because when you lose it, you lose a lot of self confidence and joy in life. I have lost a lot because of this injury. I can only hope that my doctors will continue to help me so that maybe someday I will be able to do those simple tasks again; to live on my own and take care of myself and I know I will never take that for granted ever again. So neither should you.