Hi Tara-

Afternoon here in Colorado, and I just caught up on your posts. It is thrilling and heart warming to read the determination within your spirit, and to learn you are a musician too boot!! Allright! Music is a big thing in our family. Just last weekend when we went upcountry by Pikes Peak, my wife, Cleo, marched in the Gold Rush Days parade enjoying her saxophone. Such fun. Maybe next year I can join with my trombone. Who knows?

You gotta just hand it to some folks who seem to look with jaundiced eyes at those of us who must, at least for now, use helps like canes, walkers, wheelchairs..... On the other hand, I have met a good deal many who are "out of the way" helpful. It seems to come in both flavors, yes? We carry my wheelchair around in the back of the car for those walks a bit too far.... the walks when the cane just won't do.

Even so, look at the use of the walker as a help "for now" knowing you are protecting your health until remedies can be tried to put you back on track. PLUS, you can probably take a stroll in the Store of Rae, a fictional gallery of humor, smilies, and whoopies with which any of us can adorn our walking aids!! Sure, putting a smiley face balloon or two on your walker may set you apart as a person of indomitable personal strength on your campus. Can't hurt.

Your spirit inspires Tara! Just look around you on the forum. We are all in awe of your strides with stim, the struggles, the work to overcome, all with a heart born to teach! I, for one, feel grateful you have shared your issues with us, for there is much to learn as a stim user new to the Bionic Butt club as my other friends call us. Found myself wondering out loud in quite a lightning storm the other day whether Bionic Butts are more at risk of lightning strike than so called "normal" people.

Prayin for you up here at high altitude,
Mark56 PJ

Thank you to everyone that replied again! I am sorry I missed the chat party maybe I can join in next time I actually lost my internet for a few days and it was bad because my midterm happened that time too! I had to go to moms to do my test but other than that I have been "disconnected". I hope everyone is doing well! I did end up with an A on my project the teaching demo and I was very happy Right now I am trying to charge but my stim is still giving me problems I hate to say. The sharp pains that now happen when I turn it up also have gotten worse but I am really REALLY trying to get through these weeks until I see neuro on the aug 9. Anyway, I titled my reply my new attitude for a reason...I am having my wonderful artist husband paint my walker! Since I will be on it for awhile I am making it more personal and "something to really stare at" that way when I head to campus people will not only I am on a walker but also notice my personalized walker. I will try to post pics when we are done right now is color and we are using my two favorite colors pink and purple (I am very much a girlie girl). I am so glad that I found all of you guys because you have inspired me to change my way of thinking and to not be ashamed anymore Mark56, That is a really neat story about your wife and the Gold Rush. I have been to Colorado and used to have family up there. I am much more of a singer than an instrument player I used to sing in advanced choirs and musicals when i was younger and it was great now I am much more shy. Although I did sing in front of 16 kids and 5 adults last week I am still really struggling with the piano and understanding music and I applaud anyone that plays a musical instrument because it is tough! Well, I need to get going because being without internet has set me behind in class but I just wanted to check in with you all and let you know that you are in my thoughts and prayers! I am really, REALLY grateful to have finally found such a caring and supportive community that really understands the stim and walker/wheelchair/cane life! You have all been such a major blessing to my life!

take care,
tara

Yea Tara!! Way to go! Yep, my wife, Cleo, is also a Decorative Artist, currently working on birdhouses and birdfeeders for a gallery, so I can truly Connect with you on your husband's talent AND his willingness to DOLL UP your walker. So good!! Yep, I have had people ask me, "um..... well..... uh..... does it make you feel conspicuous or somehow embarassed to use the cane or walker?" Wow, what a question! And this from folks who do know me, and know me well. Answer, NO, I can't feel the earth so well anymore, and need the cane for proprioception or to lean on it if I tire or the wheelchair because I just can't go far enough. Embarassed? I don't think so.

Now as for singing, yep, I have sung for most of my life, starting out in children's choirs, working into the specialty performance groups in high school and college, loving it, and most especially finding peace in singing praises in church [unless those tears that come to my eyes interfere as the spirit moves]. So, I am glad you found your voice to sing in front of the students and adults as you did to a good end in the mark you received for your teaching demo. Here's a healthy measure of hope and prayer that your tests and such work out to the good since you have had to borrow your Mom's computer.

Hoping and praying as well that you can make it through these difficult times with pain as you await the 9 Aug appt with your neurologist. Further that the workup which will be done will help to eliminate issues and zero in on whatever it is that is spiking your pain!

We are so glad you found us here as well! You bring much to us; plus, we are here just as you remarked.... for one another.

All the best,
Mark56

Hi everyone, especially Mark56, thank you so much for the reply! Our walker project turned out really good although I think it freaked my friends out when I posted pics on facebook lol. I am very proud of how it turned out though and that is the important part! It will be nice to have them stare at me not just because I am 29 and on a walker but because I am 29 and have a cool walker . I am really thankful my husband is so supportive because I used to be with really bad guys and I am so happy that I finally have a great one Right now, I am also trying to get my wheelchair fixed because the front small wheel broke and it would be good to have both the walker and wheelchair ready for campus! take care and have a great day!

Well Hi Tara! So glad your walker project turned out great. That is cool, and it strengthens a marriage for the partners to pull together on such a project. What a blessing, huh? I know from personal exp since my wife and I have almost crossed the 37 year mark.... just next month. Reckon we oughta have a party. Yep!

So 29 and a walker.... well, you know when it enables mobility, a walker is cool. Especially when artistically modified. I'll bet a good many people would go in for such a device. Being 56 and a cane and wheelchair user has been my thing, as you know. Interesting how some folks look at a user as, well, someone less human. Especially in airports. Disdain on their faces. I know, I have been there so many times. But you know, the coach of whom I have written was a former football star and is now wheelchair bound. My uncle was a peach and apple orchardist and spent the last 40 plus years of his life wheelchair bound because of a thief's bullets. Me, well, I am a user because of someone who was too hurried, not paying enough attention on a freeway.... the other two guys who ran into me. So, having gone from being an athlete at 6'2" and over 250 to a hobbled cane using wheelchair driving fella isn't great fun, but, it brings spirit to my heart. You too, if you want some. You see, you are still so very much at the beginning of your life, that you can take and grow that spirit to show others the person inside is every bit the blessing to others despite some difficulties. It can happen. It's working with me...

Pulling for you here in Colorado,
Mark56

Mark,
you leave me speechless half the time!
Your words are like true medicine for the soul!

.......you should see me attempting to make it up the stairs with a basket of laundry.......i actually DO use the 'laundry basket' as my 'walker' and take it one step at a time. !

....I'm still on the lookout for a really cool looking 'walking stick'.....cane....
it'll serve not only to help me along, but i want to be able to use it as a poker to smack certain people with it (like the little ol' ladies do )

Hey Rae- You know what they say [or maybe should] "a cane a day keeps the doctor away!" No actually, the guys at our Thursday morn Bible Study truly get amused when someone at the table says "Pass the ..." and I push it down the table with my cane. Of course, they all go "whoa!" Fun, it is.

Oh, and I had a little typo in the last few sentences of my post, so I fixed it. If you are going to swell my head so doggone big, I had better try to get it right, ya know?

Raising cane.....
Mark56 PJ