2 Elul, 5772
One of those most difficult things about facing a medical or disability challenge is the utter humorlessness of the situation: anger, fear, frustration, embarrassment, hard work, PAIN, just name the complication!
But there are ways to deal with all that
so that you do not fall apart.
Sounds preachy and goody-goody silly, right?
Oscar Wilde taught an important lesson: "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise, they'll kill you."
Suppose a former English major who actually studied Oscar Wilde had considered his advice when writing
Yes, I'm that writer. Here's an outtake of some of the humor in the book, about how to change the way you did things before your diagnosis and after learning it:
Organization
Doctors appointments, insurance papers, calls to make, child care issues, nosy neighbors, relatives who just don’t "Get it," have you seen the baby, meals to prepare, pills and potions to swallow or shots to inject, omigawd we need a really BIG bank account, where are my keys, did anyone see the remote and why is the dog making noise like that?
Ever feel as if your inner PC and its memory banks just went and shut down on you? Read on and find some solutions to the problem.
Many people facing medical crises have so much to remember that their inner filing cabinets overflow. They reach a point where they wonder if they’re losing their minds! Know the feeling? You forget almost everything? Even how old you are?
As you read earlier, I experienced no less than five benign brain tumors and their surgical removal. A human head does not have much space for tolerating all that intrusion and banging around upon soft brains. People who’ve experienced brain injury often suffer memory problems. So can anyone facing any type medical crisis. Stress hurts. And medical intervention messes up the insides of your body even more! I lost some memorization ability after my treatments. I benefited from a rehabilitation program for the brain injured. Students of every age in my program learned many tips for vastly improving our memory power. Here are a few tips I'll share with you:
Keep a reasonably sized notebook or day-planner with you all the time. Record upcoming: appointments, social events, PTA meetings and other important scheduled stuff as soon as you commit to it or even hear of it.
Keep repeating a person's name in the conversation as normally as possible when you first meet.
Collect business cards when offered to you. On the back, make notes of where you met and what they look like, your 1st impressions of the person, anything remarkable they said, e.g., Redhead, skinny, laughs a lot. Met at Joe's celebration dinner
Put your stuff away in the same place all the time. NO LAZY SHORTCUTS! Shoes and clothes go in closets, not in chairs, the wrong room or atop doors.
Kitchenware gets washed, dried and immediately put away. When you're cooking, ALWAYS use a timer to alert you to shut off the heat.
Me, I keep my keys in the front door once I lock it from inside. I wear them on a cloth strap, a key strip around my neck, when I leave home. I never lose keys anymore.
Ever seen the funky new chains for holding your glasses around your neck? Use the one of your affordable choice. No need to feel like a moth-eaten relic. The new styles are super-trendy. And you won't lose your glasses.
Using the above techniques jogs the memory cells. Watch. You'll end up teaching folks who never had tumors, brain injuries or any sort of medical stress how improve THEIR memories!
The human body is full of quirky surprises. Some of them are quite interesting and not life-threatening. Follow the suggestions above and good advice from your therapists and medical team. Not every forgotten thought is a danger sign. Now, on to some techniques for straightening out that mother lode of medical and insurance paperwork…
As you make your way through your medical crisis or that of your loved one, the pile of papers with important phone numbers, addresses and other information will grow. If you fail to organize it, the mess can make a wreck of your get-well efforts.
If you're the sort of person who hasn't yet succeeded at organizing your life, I offer sweet solace with simple advice:
“Habit is habit, and not to be flung out the window but coaxed downstairs one step at a time.” – Mark Twain...
So much for that (I hope you giggled or at least smiled a bit as you read the above) ;^ D
Buy the E-book or print edition today for a brighter future. Click on the words EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
