One of these days – OT
Question:
Most of you know I still remain mildly affected, much less than most in here but that from time to time it all flares up and I shake like a wet dog for anything from 30 minutes to a few days and then it disappears, when done, for sometimes 24 hours but mostly months on end. Certain things cause me to flare up and for the most part I can avoid all that by forcing calm on myself because it is definite that if I get extremely upset, laugh too hard or get "emotional" for any reason, it’s all back again. Living like "Spock" has it’s advantages. Anyway, yesterday a woman driver near hit my car when she should have given way. Only a hard application of my brakes avoided an accident and of course I beeped her for being an idiot. She slams on the brakes in the intersection and yells obscenities, gesticulates and wouldn’t move. I happened to be going her direction and when it was clear she wasn’t moving and had blocked the entire intersection, I beeped at her to get her moving. She finally did and so did I, watching out for a small kid about 2 who looked like she was about to run out in front of me – but fortunately didn’t. In the time I was distracted, the fool woman who had cut me off and was suffering road rage slammed her brakes on in front of me AGAIN and of course I rear ended her. So I get out of the car and say to her to pull over as we now have to exchange particulars. She did that and my wife, who I had dropped off up the street to go to work and who had heard me beeping the horn walks to the corner where she hears one guy ask another what happened, both white guys. One says to the other "Some white guy just rear ended a woman. I am waiting here to see if she needs help if he looks like he is about to bash her". WHAT? It wasn’t ME who was gesticulating and screaming in rage. It was HER and suddenly, apparently because I am white, I am the bad guy. I have to pay the excess to get my car fixed and her car because SHE did the wrong thing, now simply because I had no witnesses. In the meantime, in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, kids about 18 and younger are throwing things at cops and not getting arrested unless they are stupid enough to get close to the cops and are then grabbed. When did is start that 50 year old white guys are the sole cause of everything bad and that if you are young, you can do what you like? Is political correctness the cause for all this? There is no doubt that had I gotten out of the car using a cane I would have been viewed differently but now I am up for $500 plus her excess (which, depending on her accident record may be anything up to $2500) which I don’t have because SHE did the wrong thing. So what happened to society that people like me are automatically in the wrong? I get home after working and am shaking the whole day because of this. I am definitely worse off as expected but apparently because I look "normal" for my age, I am apparently one of the evils of society. Is it like this in America? Canada? Britain? Any other country of the western world?
Response:
You know about 15 years ago, I was in the same boat except my ms was cp from the start. My ms was so mild I could not get my GP to send me to the specialist. But the neuro got it immediately. In retrospect I wish I had kept more active all along. MS creeps on you so slowly that you compromise all along, but you need to be disciplined, MS to me acts more like boiling lobster, you realize the deficits only when its too late. I am very impressed with my wife’s yoga exercises but they are too hard and require time. — Quaecomque sunt vera —- "Gut-buster" <donot-st…@me.privateparts.or.else
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news:pGLUd.340$rP2.7873@nnrp1.ozemail.com.au… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -
Most of you know I still remain mildly affected, much less than most in here but that from time to time it all flares up and I shake like a wet dog for anything from 30 minutes to a few days and then it disappears, when done, for sometimes 24 hours but mostly months on end. Certain things cause me to flare up and for the most part I can avoid all that by forcing calm on myself because it is definite that if I get extremely upset, laugh too hard or get "emotional" for any reason, it’s all back again. Living like "Spock" has it’s advantages. Anyway, yesterday a woman driver near hit my car when she should have given way. Only a hard application of my brakes avoided an accident and of course I beeped her for being an idiot. She slams on the brakes in the intersection and yells obscenities, gesticulates and wouldn’t move. I happened to be going her direction and when it was clear she wasn’t moving and had blocked the entire intersection, I beeped at her to get her moving. She finally did and so did I, watching out for a small kid about 2 who looked like she was about to run out in front of me – but fortunately didn’t. In the time I was distracted, the fool woman who had cut me off and was suffering road rage slammed her brakes on in front of me AGAIN and of course I rear ended her. So I get out of the car and say to her to pull over as we now have to exchange particulars. She did that and my wife, who I had dropped off up the street to go to work and who had heard me beeping the horn walks to the corner where she hears one guy ask another what happened, both white guys. One says to the other "Some white guy just rear ended a woman. I am waiting here to see if she needs help if he looks like he is about to bash her". WHAT? It wasn’t ME who was gesticulating and screaming in rage. It was HER and suddenly, apparently because I am white, I am the bad guy. I have to pay the excess to get my car fixed and her car because SHE did the wrong thing, now simply because I had no witnesses. In the meantime, in the south-western suburbs of Sydney, kids about 18 and younger are throwing things at cops and not getting arrested unless they are stupid enough to get close to the cops and are then grabbed. When did is start that 50 year old white guys are the sole cause of everything bad and that if you are young, you can do what you like? Is political correctness the cause for all this? There is no doubt that had I gotten out of the car using a cane I would have been viewed differently but now I am up for $500 plus her excess (which, depending on her accident record may be anything up to $2500) which I don’t have because SHE did the wrong thing. So what happened to society that people like me are automatically in the wrong? I get home after working and am shaking the whole day because of this. I am definitely worse off as expected but apparently because I look "normal" for my age, I am apparently one of the evils of society. Is it like this in America? Canada? Britain? Any other country of the western world?
Response:
abdi wrote:
lobster, you realize the deficits only when its too late. I am very impressed with my wife’s yoga exercises but they are too hard and
require
time.
abdi, do you know what style of yoga your wife does? one of several things i did in a former life ;-
was teaching hatha yoga. there are
several different ’styles,’ some more active than others. long ago, after i was dx’d with M.S., but before i was disabled by it, i got together with an R.P.T. and the two of us designed an ‘adaptive yoga’ program which we presented to a local HIV/AIDS group whose focus was on using as many natural means as possible to feel better, and it was very well-received. the yoga asanas can be adapted so that what are usually standing postures can be performed from a wheelchair. when i was an instructor, i never liked iyengar yoga, in part because i found the style too rigid, and in part because of their extensive use of props — the way i was taught was NOT to use things to ‘help’ you get into the asanas, it’s getting into them gradually by working up to it. however, for disabled folks, this is actually a plus — enables you to get into the poses when you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. i’m not sure how much your abilities have been affected, but if you can still move at all, there are asanas that you can do, and if there’s an iyengar instructor nearby, you could ask for a consult — seriously! if your wife is very experienced with yoga, you might could also ask her for her opinions on how the asanas could be adapted — that might serve double-duty, if she gets frustrated by feeling that there’s nothing she can do to help you. i know dennis is like that, and i have to ‘let’ him help me with things sometimes, just so he doesnt start feeling bad about not being ‘useful’ enough. you can feel free to write me off list if you want as well, if you’d like to talk about yoga and the kinds of asanas you might be able to do. i never liked it when people dismissed hatha yoga as ‘only stretching,’ because it’s so much more — builds strength and endurance as well, can be aerobic, can be many things. but for those of us with limited mobility, there’s no ‘just’ about stretching — keeps contractures and such at bay! i reckon you’ve guessed, i’m a bg fan of yoga. ;-
rose
Response:
Unfortunately she never practiced it with a real yogi, she has picked it up from various videotapes and a psychologist. So it is really a mish mash but when I try to do it I see how much balance it requires. She also gets a lot of calmness from the concentration of it and because I am trying not to fall, I really cannot concentrate. — Quaecomque sunt vera —- "rose" <rosedawn_sc…@yahoo.com
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abdi wrote: lobster, you realize the deficits only when its too late. I am very impressed with my wife’s yoga exercises but they are too hard and require time. abdi, do you know what style of yoga your wife does? one of several things i did in a former life ;- was teaching hatha yoga. there are several different ’styles,’ some more active than others. long ago, after i was dx’d with M.S., but before i was disabled by it, i got together with an R.P.T. and the two of us designed an ‘adaptive yoga’ program which we presented to a local HIV/AIDS group whose focus was on using as many natural means as possible to feel better, and it was very well-received. the yoga asanas can be adapted so that what are usually standing postures can be performed from a wheelchair. when i was an instructor, i never liked iyengar yoga, in part because i found the style too rigid, and in part because of their extensive use of props — the way i was taught was NOT to use things to ‘help’ you get into the asanas, it’s getting into them gradually by working up to it. however, for disabled folks, this is actually a plus — enables you to get into the poses when you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. i’m not sure how much your abilities have been affected, but if you can still move at all, there are asanas that you can do, and if there’s an iyengar instructor nearby, you could ask for a consult — seriously! if your wife is very experienced with yoga, you might could also ask her for her opinions on how the asanas could be adapted — that might serve double-duty, if she gets frustrated by feeling that there’s nothing she can do to help you. i know dennis is like that, and i have to ‘let’ him help me with things sometimes, just so he doesnt start feeling bad about not being ‘useful’ enough. you can feel free to write me off list if you want as well, if you’d like to talk about yoga and the kinds of asanas you might be able to do. i never liked it when people dismissed hatha yoga as ‘only stretching,’ because it’s so much more — builds strength and endurance as well, can be aerobic, can be many things. but for those of us with limited mobility, there’s no ‘just’ about stretching — keeps contractures and such at bay! i reckon you’ve guessed, i’m a bg fan of yoga. ;- rose
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