A Point of View: Happiness and disability

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Article

 

It might be surprising to people who have no disabilities, but being challenged (as the PC now puts it) is not the end of the world.  Read the article to the end then comment.

 

Over the years, I have become more and more disabled in various ways.  All my life I have had rheumatoid arthritis that was undiagnosed and not treated until I was well into my forty's.  Then it put me in the hospital, and now it is under fairly good control some thirty years later.  However one of the control measures was the removal of the lining from my right knee cap because it was dumping too much fluid into the joint.  Now, years later, this knee is also showing some serious osteoarthritis involvement, which is now under control, sort of.  That's one! as they say.

 

In 1988 I had a failed cataract replacement in my right eye.  After a few years of fooling around trying to fix this, that eye is now blind.  As a result I have no binary vision.  That's two!

 

I have a hereditary disposition towards hypertension and making too much cholesterol.  This led to a triple arterial cardiac bypass in 2000.  I am just fine thank you, but I live on heart and cholesterol controlling drugs.  That's three!

 

I am over 65, and guess what?  I have benign prostate disease (enlarged prostate), so I am on a drug that inhibits testosterone production.  It is good to be able to pee, even if I no longer have any libido.  That's five!

 

As a result of some of the drugs I am on to hold off my arthritis, I seem to be collecting fluid in my pericardium.  Not much, at the moment, but I may have to have this sucked out eventually.  That's six!

 

Am I unhappy?  Hell no.  Each thing that doesn't kill me makes me stronger.  I can't get around much, but I manage to live by myself and do what housekeeping needs to be done, and I have no appliances to assist my getting around.

 

Be warned.  The stats are saying people live longer.  The longer you live, the more likely you are to find that you aren't all there any more.  However, my goal is to live as least as long as my paternal grandmother who made it to 98 in full possession of her faculties then went out with a heart attack.

 

Oh, yes, I seem to have forgotten that I am also on a steroid inhaler for my asthma.  Guess that makes seven!  I am paying the mortgage for my pharmacist.