<p>Great thread and very inspirational … and funny! Thanks for sharing this. and shame on those insurance companies!!!</p>
<p>
If you go to the first post in this thread, there are two links to other threads. The second linked thread, “You helped me through my sorrow…” starts with what I think is a nice fencing story, and I’ve got another fencing story coming in a moment…
This one <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/911774-atlanta.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/911774-atlanta.html</a> I thought you were on that thread, but I now realize that your Atlanta help must have been through PM or regular email.</p>
<p>Our trip turned out really well. We stayed at the SB up by Perimeter Mall and took Marta. DD did well in her three events, DS did very well in his first competition since his car crash (the subject of a future post, no doubt), but the highlight of the trip for us was DD’s friend Mariah winning a national championship medal. Since I love fencing stories, and I’m feeling pretty good about my storytelling abilities right now, I’ll repost an entry I posted in a fencing discussion forum after Mariah’s victory.
Anyone following this thread can see that I’m a fairly sentimental guy, and proud of it, I should add, so I just love these feel good stories and love writing about them. The day after the event we were all lounging around the hotel pool when I wrote and posted the above entry. Emotionally overwhelmed as I was writing, I was biting my lip and cheek to control the blubbering. Within minutes of my posting, the “congratulate Mariah, nice story” posts started appearing. I took my iPad out into the pool to show Mariah what I had written, and she was was about has happy as you can imagine a girl could be. When I showed her mother my post and the congratulatory replies she had to fight through tears to thank me.</p>
<p>Why am I sharing all this with a bunch of strangers on the internet?, I ask myself. First of all, you’re not all strangers. A couple of you are real life friends, several others are internet friends and, as far as I can tell, everyone reading this is helpful and supportive. Most importantly, I’ve come to realize that writing about these victories (the musicians, Mariah, the Ivy League fencing, my stroke recovery) and especially writing about the emotional components of them, is extremely therapeutic for me.</p>
<p>I could be writing all of this in a journal, but the feedback is so much of what makes it worthwhile. I check this thread first thing every morning, and your responses give me the strength to go fight the battle another day.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much, and please keep asking questions. As you can see, give me a prompt and I open up. This is really helpful for me. Thanks again.</p>
<p>My wife read through this thread for the first time today and appreciated how beneficial it has been for me but still had to rib me a little, as in:</p>
<p>Recuperative power of music?
Recuperative power of swimming?
Recuperative power of dance?
Recuperative power of rolling a joint?
For you, it’s more like…
Recuperative power of posting on College Confidential.</p>
<p>She’s a smart lady, and I’m a lucky man.</p>
<p>A million apologies that I missed the Atlanta thread in April, Sherpa, but yes, we did have a lot of back-channel conversations, and I had that <em>lovely</em> drive in the height of rush hour traffic scoping out the two hotels on the north side of town to confirm the better of the two locations for you and your group. Sounds like you did stay at the one we discussed- closer to the Perimeter mall and Sandy Springs MARTA station. Happy to help and return the HUGE favor you did for us for our trip to Park City.</p>
<p>As you clearly know, a huge part of stroke recovery is the patient’s attitude and effort. You clearly, CLEARLY have an incredibly healthy attitude, and you avail yourself of many therapies, all of which are helpful in their own way. A sense of humor is long known to be a wonderful prognostic sign.</p>
<p>Your stories are heartwarming and touching, and please congratulate your team members, especially Mariah. </p>
<p>You have been a bit too kind to the health insurance industry though. A tad more annoyance is totally appropriate!</p>
<p>Yes, J****, that was the one, and thanks so much for the help, and sorry for putting you through the traffic deal. But hey, that’s Atlanta.</p>
<p>I just barely caught myself there, calling you by your real name, which reminds me of one of my CC posts, in the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/781641-those-who-can-admit-pressuring-your-kids-why-do-you-do-2.html#post1063261529[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/781641-those-who-can-admit-pressuring-your-kids-why-do-you-do-2.html#post1063261529</a> thread, where I wrote
Well, here’s a little secret. I am not sherpa. I am B****, a middle aged white guy who just happened to take his family on a vacation to Tibet and Nepal about the same time he joined CC.</p>
<p>One other thing. Most of my recent posts have had the common theme of "fighting back tears, tears flowing, cry, cry, cry, blah, blah, blah.</p>
<p>I’m tired of it and I’ve got to stop. Yes, I’ve struggled with my emotional incontinence issues, and yes, I’m a bit sentimental, but it’s time to man up and knock this s*** off.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to wallow in self-pity. I can’t wallow in sentimentality, either. New day.</p>
<p>Hey B*<strong><em>, along the lines of cigarettes that are skinny on one end (as my daughter E</em></strong> refers to them), they have legal chemical solutions for emotional incontinence. Have you tried some already? Some of them can be mighty helpful.</p>
<p>^Thanks G****</p>
<p>I imagine E1 will be leaving soon. Luckily you’ll have E2 and her beautiful smile to ease the transition. Give my best to your B**** for me.</p>
<p>Our family getting to know ihs76 and her family (initially through CC and much more beyond that) has been a wonderful experience. Our families have so many remarkable similarites. It’s been a lot of fun.</p>
<p>I’m about to leave for my last day of camp. I hope they don’t make us sing Kumbaya.</p>
<p>I’ve compiled my personal “best of thread” entries from here and printed them to give to the program directors today. I think they will find them helpful for others in the future.</p>
<p>Thanks again, everyone, for being with me through this journey.</p>
<p>I have to confess, from the title of the thread I thought for a long time that this topic was about swimming or crew camp. I see now that the title could just as easily have been The Recuperative Power of Writing! The story of the pianist and her daughter was an inspiring and apt parallel to your own story. You brought it and other anecdotes to life in a very powerful way, just as you have in describing all of your current challenges - a true gift. </p>
<p>All my best wishes for your continued recovery.</p>
<p>So what are the final thoughts after graduation? Did you get a diploma? Certificate of participation? ;)</p>
<p>What have you achieved physically, mentally, and what are the future goals?</p>
<p>Sherpa,
It was absolutely my pleasure to help you out with the hotel selection. Hope the one you chose worked out well for you and your team. Atlanta traffic is typically a mess, and driving up there in the middle of rush hour traffic just made me that much more thankful that I don’t have to go through that particular tangled mess of metal and fumes all that often. Besides, the traffic was so stop-and-go that I was able to text you a blow-by-blow report of the locale and traffic (though I do NOT condone texting while driving and its now illegal here).</p>
<p>Tibet and Nepal— wow. Got pictures?</p>
<p>Recuperative powers come in different forms for different people. Your discussion about music reminded me of some experiences I had years ago. Music isn’t the answer for everyone but it can be powerful and one doesn’t have to be a musician to benefit from it. Years ago I worked with a music therapist who was quite amazing. One of the most powerful things I ever witnessed occurred when we were working with a woman who was in a coma for quite a while. (This was back in the good old days.) It was around Christmas time and we sat her up in her bed, supported her with good posture and sang Christmas Carols with her. For the first time she began to vocalize with the music. These were not only her first vocalizations but also her first clear volitional interactions with her environment. I would like to say she made a full recovery but as far as I know she didn’t. She did however from that moment forward interact with the world around her. Similarly there was another young woman who was brain injured and may have gone undiagnosed with a spinal cord injury. Her family told us she loved to swim and hoped that getting her in water would motivate her to move her legs. She was also non verbal but was getting intensive speech therapy. Her speech began when we got her in the water and began singing silly swimming songs with her that she must have been familiar with. We progressed to omitting a word and totally to our surprise she filled it in the missing word. This completely amazed up and it was the beginning of the return of her speech but unfortunately no volitional leg movement occurred.</p>
<p>Sherpa - I have been away from this thread recently, and today, I found myself wondering how your camp had ended up. I am so glad that came to me, as it caused me to return to this thread, and then to read every entry in sequence…OK, I know you want to “man up”, etc. but I am still in tears over the beautiful mother/daughter pianist/opera story - I am sniffling away - what an inspiring story, and thank you for sharing it! It leads me to think that we all need to know/find what it is that can bring us such unique inner power. </p>
<p>I also love how you chose your CC name - a family sherpa living in the Western world :)</p>
<p>It sounds as if your camp has given you everything you needed from it, which is fabulous. As always, I am sending you my very best wishes.</p>
<p>OP checking in. I’ve thought from time to time about reviving this thread with an update, and here goes.</p>
<p>I’m doing well with my continuing rehabilitation. The most important thing I’ve learned is that the window doesn’t close; you don’t have 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, whatever; you keep workng and your brain and body continue their recovery.</p>
<p>I kept up the weekly swim for several months but stopped when winter came and never started up again. But for the last ten or so months I’ve made it a habit to work out at the gym 5-7 days per week.</p>
<p>I’d like to thank everyone who participated in this thread. It was a challenging two weeks and the support I received here was very helpful. I’m glad that I recalled and wrote about the piano mother and daughter in post #34. I’ve since shared the story with many people who’ve taken a lot from it and, surprisingly, it continues to impact me strongly every time I re-read it.</p>
<p>I’ve also managed to maintain my sense of humor, and I believe that has helped me through my continuing recovery.</p>
<p>Hi Sherp!
Glad to hear things are going well. Hope to his the ski slopes again this year. Will keep you posted.</p>
<p>Great reading this! Glad your recovery continues!</p>
<p>Thanks for the update, and love your take on life, as I re read this thread. </p>
<p>My friend with severe cerebellar injury from tumors and surgery has also pushed and pushed the PT envelope, and it is so good to see the research catching up to that reality-therapy can keep improvements continuing indefinitely.</p>