what is your biggest challenge?

[Tmasgio]

I wanted to start this thread to see what is people's biggest challenge and what they do to get past of conquer it.

For me it is stiffness. I have to stretch quite a bit throughout the day but I can make it very manageable. If I dont stretch daily then I really notice and everything is ten times harder.

This is my daily biggest challenge.

Tony

[tc]

My biggest challenges: fatigue, depression, pity parties, and self-centeredness (forgetting that other people have problems, too). I try to make sure I exercise every day (at least take a walk outside). I watch the content of what I read and listen to, to make sure it is spiritually helpful. I have always been a praying person, but more so now.
Teresa

[susan]

My biggest challenge is just accepting this. I've never really been sick before and only had mobility problems that were temporary (foot in a cast twice in my 20s). My Physical Therapist said last week that I might had to adapt to a new normal. I have to say there is part of me that just doesn't want to. I want my old normal back.
I have a picture I printed of my pre-op MRI, showing my giant cysts in all their glory. I can't believe it was in my spine. I was working full time, doing step aerobics and yoga, working in the yard, volunteering at a wildlife center. It didn't seem possible that my spine could have been in that kind of condition and I could still function normally.
I have been able to bear the pain I am in thinking that it is going to go away eventually. I know now that it might not.
I'm not saying "why me?", I know that bad things happen to people all the time. I just didn't see this coming, but I guess no one ever does.

[8338]

Hi all,
My biggest challange is walking and trying to keep my balance with the assistance of a cane.
I miss my old self and being able to just get up and go anywhere I like. I miss not being able to drive any car I want without hand controls. I don't like people to feel sorry for me and be too overly helpful. I miss people not calling me because they know that I can't do a lot of things that they can still do :-(
Barb

[deirdre612]

For me, overcoming the physical stuff was the easy part. Changing people's perceptions of me was the tricky bit. The people around me who knew me before, during and after my two surgeries never quite seem to get over it, I find THEY are the ones who keep mentioning it. It used to drive me crazy that certain people were in the habit of asking me every time they saw me 'How is your back?' But instead of screaming 'Theres more to me than just my back and a couple of tumors!!!!' I'd always respond with a very polite 'Fine thanks'. I know they're just saying they care, but it really is exhausting. I've dealt with it, gotten used to it all, and moved on. It wasn't until I moved away to a whole new country that it all changed - I've found that people that didn't experience it 'with me' will ask about it and then leave it at that, they don't have a constant need to check on my progress. I love them all for that, its so refreshing!

I know, its a minor challenge, but I know its something we've all dealt with in some way.

[susan]

That's funny. My friends and out-of-town family (& some coworkers) are like "are you still having problems?" I'm like "dah! I had a tumor removed and part of my cervical spinal cord is just gone". It was like OK you're not paralyzed, your OK now. To be fair to them, I didn't realize I would still be having problems at this point and possibly beyond.
I look OK if you don't notice my right arm is now smaller than my left (I am right handed) & it is weak, my neck moves stiffly much of the time, I lose my balance, I drop things from my right hand, and that hand is clumsy manipulating items. And of course they'll never know about the pain if I don't tell them. Bearing that part alone is difficult. People really don't know what to say when you do tell them.
I have found help at a new PT/OT place where they are used to working with spinal cord injury and neurology patients. I'm not the most disabled person there, but they understand that I want to regain what I had before. I would recommend SCT patients to go to a center that specializes instead of a general PT/OT facility as I did before. I have some hope things will get better. The staff has been great.
Susan

[deb]

My biggest challenge is the spinal headaches that this last surgery left me with. I have presently been going through epidural blood patches (I have had 3) and they do not seem to help. If I lay flat on my back the headaches go away but once I am upright, they come right back. Apparently the SCT that was removed in my cervical area had left a space where my brain stem has sunk down into and this limits the amount of spinal cord fluid circulating the brain, thus the spinal headaches. My NS does not think the blood patch(s) will help but he is willing to let me try anything. My surgeries have left me with numbness and weakness on my left side but I can deal with that - it is the headaches that seem to get the best of me.

[Joel]

Pooping. I now can say that I have plugged toilets on 4 continents.

[Darren G]

hi everybody, I just joined this site a few days ago, and I'm so happy that I found it! its so great to hear these stories, I can relate to many of them, my biggest challenge right now is trying to build up strength in my left leg, I've been walking with a cane for about 5 yrs, at first I thought I was getting arthritis in my hips, my dr. told me that was a possibility when I got older, but I got an xray of my hips and there is no arthritis! I was so relieved, but I still have trouble walking and balancing, I have some nerve damage in my left foot and hip, so its extremely hard to do strength building exercises, I am new to this site, I'm so happy I found it, I hope everyone is doing well and making improvements and finding ways to enjoy life

[Soon Yun]

My biggest challenge is depression. I am very optimistic person but sometimes I doubt about my fate. I'm going to have the second surgery since I had the first one in Jan, 2005. My surgeon told me that I might not be able to use my right arm if he removed the tumor completely. It's better to have another surgery instead of losing any physical function. I sometimes get depressed because I don't know when the tumor grows back so that I have to have the back of my neck again.
Anyway, most of the time I feel o.k about this. Anything can happen to anybody. However when I think that I might have to get the surgery again after the second, I'm afraid that I might want to ... By the way, I am 42, the mother of a son. After the first surgery, I got free from numbness on my fingers, knees and shoulder pain every mornings. Now, again I have shoulder and neck pain, and I get easily tired.
I hope a scientist finds out the way to keep the tumor from growing for everyone who has this problem like me.