New Disability

Tweet

I'll keep this as brief as I can, and give you guys the gist: About two years ago I contracted Necrotizing Fasciitis... the flesh-eating disease. I caught this from the common strep throat bacteria that got into a paper cut on my finger. Chances are, someone coughed or sneezed without properly covering, and I came along and touched whatever it was they infected with their sore throat. And almost died. This whole thing has left me with a minor disability in my right hand, my writing hand. It has changed my life. Not drastically, but it has changed it. Some for the better, some for worse. My questions are, has anyone else out there, but any means, found themselves with a new disability? How has it changed your life? How has it changed your outlook on life? How has it changed your relationships? I'll answer my own questions: It changed my life by forcing me out of my comfort-zone, in regards to my job. I was in a rut, but too comfortable to change it. Now that I can't do that job any more, I have to go back to school to find a new career. A change for the better. A much needed and over due change. It changed my outlook by being thankful for what remains. I could have died, and am thankful everyday that I still live. The doctors remind me all the time that I should have lost my hand, and that I am incredibly lucky. I am thankful that, regardless of my current limitations, that it didn't turn out much worse. I am more thankful, in general, for all the little things that I have, for all the small blessings I have, and am more empathetic to those who have it a lot harder than I do. It changed a lot of my relationships drastically. I've stopped talking to most of my family. They have always been dysfunctional and abusive, and I finally realized that life is too short and too unpredictable to put up with other people's crap. Regardless of who they are. It also made me realize, for different reasons, that I only need to surround myself with those who truly care, and to stop surrounding myself with superficial relationships that, in the end, do nothing to better you as a person.