Hi! mentioning accomplishments from every day set me to thinking. i often only think an accomplishment must be a big thing. but to have pride and joy over any part of our day is an accomplishment to me. to look on the bright side is not always easy yet makes me smile and have a light heart. i really want to have a good day every day and i see finding the good spots in a day filled with pain is an accomplishment after all. yesterday morning, even though i had been up for the night i got such happiness over seeing the sun come up. there was one accomplishment to start the day! Jenny

"In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure."

Bill Cosby

My biggest accomplishment after three-month having a three-level spinal fusion - and still no BLT - is the way I learned to use my toes to pick things up. I can pull out the dishwasher drawer, the fridge drawers, and remove some items that are easy to grab, just using my foot. I can also pick up the paper and other things from the ground. Not bad for a 71 years old!

Kin

I can write my name with my toes for what reason I do not know, I once saw someone foot painting and though how hard it looked, and when immobile gave me something to do, well done you have developed a small thing that is a measure of your determination and strength to stand on one leg, you must have good balance.

My boy has one hand and as you has developed many skills to cope with adversity.

Take care John

I took a bath last night. That is the first bath I have had in six months. It was very scary and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get up by myself but I did. God did it feel great. I have only been able to take showers, and just recently didn't have to have a bench.

have had the flu or something for about 4 1/2 wks. NOTHING has helped and my chronic pain has been aggravated by... anyway. after 3 days/nights of fever, extremely hi bp and throwing up i began to cry... lifted my hands to heaven and sang a "sacrafice of praise" to the Lord. i never understood how praise could be a sacrafice because it's such a joy to me to praise my creator. i understand now that even in my darkest hr he was with me and after i was done, i began to have a peace over my body and mind. still took several hrs to calm my body down but i felt God's presence so close. he's always there but it's so good to feel him

after 3 yrs if blood sugar over 300 with 68 units of insulin at night and 32 in the day i steady got sicker, almost lost both legs, kidney failure 3 times, and gained up to 244 (from 125). i talked to doc about abilify and blood sugar so he suggested i get off for a few days and see if anything happened. that was a year ago and NOTHING happened. 2 months ago i dropped it completely and 3 wks later i was off all insulin... now not even a pill of actos, or glucatrol as it bottoms my sugar out. PRAISE be to God that today i had to take no insulin and weighed in at a hefty 210 lol. i know i still have a long way to go but for 3 years my weight has done nothing but go up up up. even after a lap band. i would NEVER suggest anyone doing what i did. emotionally i have paid a high price with mental health issues but those are easing up as well. i stopped having horrid muscle cramps that could have been permanent... just sayin... listen to your body. educate yourself on EVERYTHING you take and don't take no for an answer with your dr. when you KNOW something is wrong. be encouraged. i didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel... but i smelled the air and know it's there today.

Those are some good improvements and show what can be done with determination and creativity. When it is your limbs that are under threat that is the time to take stock, many here have and continue to develop innovative ways to improve and never say no however long it takes, this is a marathon not a sprint as many surmise.

Making daily objectives part of the bigger goal is one key to success. You have experience of what works for you keep doing what you have done and another 32lbs will have gone sooner, that will get your BMi into a healthier number.

Well done YOU.

John

Went for a 2 mile walk yesterday-2 weeks after my surgery.

Just recently this month, I was finally able to lift my arm up over my head!!! After months of my arm being paralyzed (since my surgery last June), that has been my greatest accomplishment! When lifting it out to the side, I can now bring it up waist high. This has me very excited, you can't imagine. I started physio in November, and since then, things have progressed a lot. It comes in spurts, like it seems for weeks there's no improvement, then one day I wake up and I have so much more mobility. It hurts like crazy, but the hard work is paying off. All I can say to anyone, is don't give up! Even when it seems like nothing is working and the pain is too much to bear, you can't give up. And definitely celebrate the "little" things, as those are the biggest steps in recovery, sometimes one inch at a time. Once I get full mobility back, we're going to work on strength, I still have no strength. I can lift a cup of coffee (thankfully, lol) but not much more than that. Even then, I find carrying a full cup from the kitchen to my living room, which is maybe 15 paces, my hand starts to fall and I have to switch hands, but I keep trying.

Walked 8 miles today. Considering I'm only 3 weeks out of lumbar fusion surgery and have been inactive for the past 9 months I think it's awesome.

I think 8 miles is a long, long way, considering the total duration needed for full recovery, this is a time when we should be fully motivated and pace effectively, maybe do half that distance and use that extra energy to enhance your overall capability, you must have had to give up lots of things in that nine months, could you do some of them.

Only you alone know what you can do, recovery is a marathon rather than a sprint. We are here to support individuals to set realistic goals and you are already ahead of the game, so well done and good luck.

Take care, John

as strange as it may seem to everyone, i took the footboard off my bed and made my bed this morning. yay me! i have let off making my bed for a long time because i just didn't care basically because i could never tuck in the blankets at the bottom of the bed because the footboard was in the way, and as a result my blankets were just strewn all over the place. after taking the footboard off i was able to sit on the floor at the end of the bed and tuck the sheets and blankets under one at a time! my bed was made this morning because i know the blankets would stay tucked in. my bed is a sleigh bed and i used to basically use it as a clothes line anyway. lol. some times i had a few days clothing parked on the top of the footboard, that stuck up about a foot and a half.

so, i am rather happy about it. something so simple makes me feel "normal", that i am able to do some housework that i haven't done for a long time. coupled with the laundry draped over the footboard, i have felt bad about myself because i was the worst housekeeper in the world.

my bed looks great this morning, made and everything. one of my kitties is now poured on the top of the bed, with her legs pointing everywhere. she looks real comfy. silly eh, but it means a lot to me.

Finding that increased pain hard at the moment now 2:40 am and not sleeping well, no wonder I need a longer rest after work, all is well here, new jobs and steady progress. A guy at work has a bad back and just done an MRI so wating for the results, I am supporting him in using some meds to manage the pain as he has not been using any at all.

John