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Increasingly Difficult to Accept Peripheral Neuropathy

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

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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

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Replies to "Good morning, @ray666 ~ Been reading these comments with a lot of interest, and I think..."

Good morning, Barb (@bjk3)

Thanks so much for your thoughts on my post! I was hesitant to respond as I did because I knew I was twisting the topic's original intent, but then I thought, Oh, heck, my response is honestly what popped to mind as I read the title, "Increasingly Difficult to Accept Peripheral Neuropathy"––not the difficulty I might be having with my wobbly balance and it's refusal to go away, but instead with the awful––and infuriating!––way PN has shrunk my life. I wrote my post the night my partner was in the hospital and found myself knocked for a loop by how hollow my life felt. I believe I added something in my post (I hope I did!) about fully knowing how pathetically unfair it was for me to be moaning about the absence of a partner who was only going be "not there" for a night or two, when so many of us––"all" of us, given enough time––have endure the absence of loved ones permanently. What I had hoped, however, in finishing my post was that I'd gone on long enough to pass beyond the "Oh, woe is me!" to the wake-up call I heard that night: How importance it was that I keep my life "peopled," and seeing the frightening degree to which––since the onset of my PN––I'd allowed my life to become "un-peopled." That wake-up call, as I think back on last Wednesday night, was the true value of the experience: To never forget how I felt and to let it be a reminder to do a little something every day to keep my life "peopled"––that if I don't do that little something every day, PN will win. I can't let that happen.

You, too, Barb: Have a great, great weekend!

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)