Mondays with Marlene

...which due to technical problems is late being posted this week. We apologize.

In my opinion...

Any pain or chronic health problems we have to deal with have an impact on everyone around us; friends, children, husbands, and sometimes even neighbours or people we barely know. Since my children are now adults with their own homes, I really didn’t think much about the impact my accident would have on them. I knew they were worried, but until my daughter made a rather off-hand remark during a conversation, I had no idea how deeply my accident had affected her. I, of course, felt terrible that I had added to her stress level, but wasn’t quite sure what to do or how to make her feel better about it.

When the light bulb finally went on, it was a relatively simple solution; let her help me. I know that sounds pretty simple, but I’ve always had a problem accepting help. Unfortunately with six fractured vertebrae, I really had no choice. The trick was to accept help graciously. It took a bit of time, but when I realized that by letting people help me, I was helping them in turn, it was much easier to accept. I know that when I’m worried, action is what I need, so obviously they needed to do something to made them feel they were a part of the healing process. I learned to accept help from everyone to do the million and one other tasks I was unable to handle myself.

Let those who care help. That way everyone wins.