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Increasingly Difficult to Accept Peripheral Neuropathy

Neuropathy | Last Active: Aug 10 12:43pm | Replies (233)

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Profile picture for Ray Kemble @ray666

Amen, John! Or as Hamlet said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” I fancy myself a champion positive thinker, but what got me off on this morning's toot was finding myself alone last night. (My partner had spent the night in the hospital. She's back home now.) Alone last night, I suddenly realized how living with another provides an automatic, dominant set of activities. Alone is another story. I know that for so many of us on Connect being alone can be a horrendous burden––people for whom being alone is not a temporary thing (as it was for me). At the same time, the truth I found myself confronting was that before my PN, single or partnered, I'd always lived a life that was seasoned with alternative activities. PN has largely robbed me of those alternative activities. That's what I was feeling last night. I'd become aware of how much more difficult, with a chronic disease like PN, it is to keep your life active and "peopled." It takes deliberate work, doesn't it, John? Ah, the life lessons PN teaches us! 🙂 ––Ray (@ray666)

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Replies to "Amen, John! Or as Hamlet said, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes..."

Good morning, @ray666 ~
Been reading these comments with a lot of interest, and I think the "alternative activities" is what stood out to me. Gosh, this is quite a topic to consider, especially for those of us who find ourselves in our upper seventies/low eighties. I have lived alone now for 12 years, having lost my husband to cancer in May of 2013. I think we already visited about the circumstances in a former "conversation" but maybe not the 17 years he battled 4 totally unrelated (as far as cell structure - no metastasis) cancers. Somewhere in this journey, I realized that it was imperative for me to cultivate some "alternative activities" THEN, so that I would already have formed new friendships & groups that would be in concert with my life as a single person. One outcome of the Covid pandemic was the availability of gatherings to take place on Zoom as well as in person. Now, this is truly a gift to those of us who find mobility robbing us of our energy, timeliness, and dignity. The activities I chose to be a part of - an international Bible Study and the associate program with a local religious order, were both in-person activities at the time of my initial involvement, but both are now on Zoom as well as still in-person. I choose to attend the gatherings on Zoom because I can be depended upon to show up. Otherwise...well...chances are I'd have thrown in the towel years ago. During those years of my husband's illness, I knew where his life and mine were headed, and I guess it served to motivate me. But, wow - to quote someone who knew his stuff, this business of aging isn't for sissies, is it?
Have a really good weekend, Ray! I'm glad your partner is home from the hospital. Here's to good days ahead!
~ Barb