A Common Event: Creating a Life Changing Experience - Very Fortunate

Common Event is Life Changing: Finding Hope and Joy after Concussion

The past four years and five months I have been mostly in bed. I have been housebound unable to think, or move many days. 

• Experienced taking over seventy two different medications.

• Have been treated by over fourteen doctors and various physical therapists. 

• Spent over $40,000 in out of pocket medical treatments.  Still spending on out of pocket treatments and continuing services from medical professionals and physical therapists today.

This past December 2023 my mind just started to hold thoughts better.  During the past years I had little hope for a future or even looked forward to much of anything.  I was starting to think of a future which could be enjoyed again as I was able to explore the uses of AI being released to the public. 

I have missed living, the ability to stand or walk.  The ability to use my body or take a shower were removed from me daily.  Options to think of anything were also removed.  I had lost my abilities in imagination, story creation, playing, joy or happiness.  I can access my imagination, story creation, playing, joy and happiness again while sitting in my room with AI solutions to create.

Embracing Adjustments: Seeing the World Differently

Once the car accident occurred I had to repeatedly adjust to not being able to do things which I had taken for granted.  When I lost the ability to recall words, make sentences or follow a person's conversation there was an adjustment to be made.  When I was unable to sleep at night and was in constant fear. There was an adjustment to be made. When I could not take a shower daily, weekly or monthly there was an adjustment to be made. When I could no longer drive, shop, carry things with both hands. Here also there was an adjustment to be made. When I could no longer walk, stand or do daily activity very well there was the largest adjustment to be made since this included all the others together.

Going from a full active life to one that is very limited and being in the house 24/7 hours, days, weeks and months and years at a time. Having someone shop, cook, clean and care for the daily requirements of life while not being able to assist was very challenging. Getting assistance from others to help out around the house and yard while again not being able to assist was humbling as well. So many people helped me over the past years.

The small part I provided in this was consistently considering what can I do within my reduced abilities. Each time another function of my mind or body stopped working I would ask myself, what can I do. I would adjust my life within those limits and accept there are things I can not do currently. This list of what I could do became smaller and smaller overtime.

Seeing my worth in a different way was occurring as well. I was no longer the strong care giver or able to lead through physical or mental actions. I was not getting my worth any longer through what I do in the world. I was moving to awareness my worth is given to me by my views not my actions. I am of worth as a child is of worth. Just being me has worth.

Seeing myself independently from others was important for me as well. There are things I can have control over when it comes to my place in the world. When possible my awareness is, no one is responsible for me. The doctors, physical therapists and the people in my life at home and work are not responsible for me. They are living their own lives. No one, medical pill or treatment can fix my issues. I can follow the advice provided and with time things may improve. I tried very hard to recall this daily and not place unrealistic requirements on others or myself.

Thankfulness and Awareness

There has been and still are many people assisting me daily in my life for which I am very thankful. Throughout all of this I have been able to work my full time job. I may be doing it in bed on my computer or in my home office. The job provides the income and health insurance coverage to address daily living requirements. That health insurance has paid over $140,000 in medical costs and is still paying for treatments concerning my health needs since the car accident. It does not cover all areas of medical treatment and has limits of treatment amounts it will cover. Yet without this coverage it is difficult to consider how bad things would have been or be currently.

During many hours while my body was unable to handle sound, moving images or light I would lay in the dark and occasionally think about how thankful I am for all the support I am getting.

When laying in bed each day I would lose the ability to move my body because of lack of energy within my body, I would laugh to myself. I would think, am thankful I have already done the needed things for today. I can just lay here.

When I would wake in the morning I would take assessment of what my body was able to do. There may be days I was not going to get out of bed. Too weak to stand and I would focus on what I could do from bed. Many days I would have more energy in the morning and try to get most important things done within my limits. Doing things from the list will take a toll on me and by 2 to 3 hours I would be limited to the bed again. I would try and plan those hours ahead. Doing physical mail was too much between the energy to open the envelopes and difficulty reading. I would take an assessment of whether or not something needed to be done with a letter by looking at the outside. I would set aside the ones I was not sure about to look through later. This later did not happen and I ended up with over two plus years of letters and mail to sort through. These tasks of going through the mail had still not been completed till April 2024. Filing of personal documents into organized folders within the house has not been done yet either as of the time of this writing 7/27/24. The Quick Creator blog solution used here has Al supported options and spell check which make it possible for me to express myself. Getting my thoughts into the world is challenging with my dyslexia. Recalling my own awareness is difficult with my ADHD. I started this blog in December 2023 with the idea it would be useful to be able to reflect on my journey.

Faith is an individual topic and I have been very lucky to have started this journey with a strong belief in a power beyond myself. I included this in my list of things to be thankful for as I would go through the process of adjustments.

I would add here, adapting to limitations also means seeing the world differently. It has presented me with new perspectives and opportunities for personal development. This shift in perception allows me to focus on the present moment, finding purpose and meaning despite the difficulties I face.

Creating a New Path of Hope and Joy

My full availability has yet to return. I am able to dream and use my imagination again.  The joy of my life is linked to my imagination and storytelling. I am going to create my own dreams and allow my imagination to make my own dream land. This land will be made for my own mental health and joy. Perhaps the joy and happiness I have in creating it will be entertaining to others as well.  My plan is to invite friends to my dream land and provide access for them to share their comments. I will not respond to the comments due to my disabilities and health challenges.  It will be an area others can express and share their experience.

Thank you for visiting. As my mom would sign.

Love always,

Baby Ray

Update

July 27th 2024

Over the past seven months my mental abilities have continued to improve. I have enjoyed experiencing a better quality of daily living through the access to create images and stories with AI. One of my life long dreams was to make an art studio in my home and to create daily. This is now possible with online AI solutions. The storage of the many images is not overwhelming my physical living areas as they did when I was painting and sculpting with physical materials.

My doctor suggests my mental abilities have returned 80% while my physical abilities are about 20% recovered. Being impacted since 2020 it is very difficult to recall what life was like driving, shopping, cutting grass and gardening even going into the yard. The focus has been on reducing physical injury that can occur from falls. This has left being in the house and access to lay down or sit when drops of energy occur.

I created online sharing of my home art studio. The ideas and stories are shared on YouTube, ProtoPlay TV and FaceBook.

ProtoPlay is a new startup which offers video sharing like YouTube. No account is needed to view videos published for the public to view. Storydoy videos from the AI art studio are published to the public so there is no need to create an account at this time to view them. A free account can be created to access more areas and make donations to those sharing their videos.

Best wishes,
Ray