Spoon… Blogapy
Watching The CBS Morning Show 10 minutes ago… I smiled from ear to ear when a piece came on about a young man. He had been paralyzed from the chest down during an accident.
He volunteered to have the first brain surgery of its kind. They implanted a chip directly into his brain… then connected it to a computer… who then decoded the neurological messages from his brain… and sent them directly to his muscles… avoiding the spinal cord all together.
He held a spoon. A spoon. I know that doesn’t sound like much to many people… but I remember that moment.
My Physical Therapist came into my hospital room and introduced himself. I couldn’t believe they were already starting me on physical therapy so soon after my Brain Surgery… I had barely accepted the fact that my left side didn’t work anymore…. And here was this guy to rub it in.
He would come in day after day…for an hour at a time. Just holding my left hand and making it into a fist over and over again. For an hour… just making fists. I would laugh…and joke that one day I was going to make a fist with my good side and punch him! We would laugh together… and when he would leave… I would sob alone.
But I remember the moment…. that day… when the hour was up… he was done with his 60 minutes of making my fists…and showing me how to make a fist…and then telling me to make a fist…and my fingers moved. They tried to make a fist…couldn’t quite get there…but they tried!
I watched this young man… this morning on CBS… change his life. Picking up a spoon means being able to feed yourself. Feeling less like an invalid… some return of simple pride. It might sound small…. But a spoon can be everything!
Think of that the next time you pick up a spoon… be thankful for it!
Love,
Tra