Happiness Within Your Disability!!

  By Ross | June 15, 2012 - 4:31 pm | Uncategorized
2 Comments

It’s been a interesting few days to say the least. On Wednesday I met with the people who look after me at the implant clinic to have my staples removed. A few hours later I met with the surgeon, to have him go over what the reports were saying about my cultures taken at the time of my surgery. He informed me that even though the cultures didn’t grow anything they were still showing that there was contamination and that there still might be an infection. So he put me back on another round of antibiotics and is going to rerun the tests again. In another couple of days we should have the results.

On the positive side of things though I’m slowly getting over this latest surgery, and life is starting to get back to normal. Over the last week I’ve started to do a little more work with my photography, and I’ve taken on a few more projects for customers. Slowly things are starting to pick up and people are seeing my work. I’m feeling good about how things are going with my business and the sense of accomplishment makes it all worth doing. Working with my disability hasn’t been easy, but I’m proving to myself that I can be happy within my disability.

When I set out to start my business it wasn’t with a vision to solely make money. It’s great that I can make money while doing this, but it’s also about getting active and proving to myself that pain doesn’t have to control my life. It has brought a great deal of happiness, and the feeling of accomplishment is like no other. It was about proving to myself that I don’t have to spend every day suffering and being unhappy because of the pain.

Really what this business is all about is doing something that I love to do! Getting out and taking pictures! Creating a photograph that nobody else can call their own! That’s what really makes me happy. Are you having a hard time finding your happiness right now? Look deep within your heart because something is there! You just need to look a little harder because it’s there.

 

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If You Fight You’ll Win!

  By Ross | June 12, 2012 - 10:36 am | Uncategorized
5 Comments

spacer Five days ago things took a real fast turn and I ended up having another surgery to fix my upper implant. Now I sit here waiting to talk to the surgeon about the results of the cultures, and see if I have to take the entire upper implant taken out. It won’t be an easy thing to hear if that’s the way things go, however I’m choosing to believe that God has worked another miracle and cleared up any infection. In the meantime I focus on trying to distract myself through editing a few photos that I took before all of this started! I had been out taking some pictures at the lake in ourspacer city when I came across this little guy.

This past weekend was very wet and so I didn’t get a chance to take any shots out at our cottage like I had planned. Not to mention I wasn’t exactly feeling up to it, as I’m having problems just tying my shoes at the moment! So the time was spent sorting through photos that I needed to go through. Taking the shots is the easy part but when you have to sort through 500 shots and pick the best ones it can be a bit of a task. So your seeing a sampling of those photos.

spacer To say that last week was a bit of a challenge is an understatement. Just when things are going well and your feeling good once again you get hit with yet another issue to deal with. It isn’t easy but as a family you meet it head on, and you try and manage the stress as best you can. Last week had it’s moments where the stress was starting to wear us down but you have to find a way to release it in a positive way and not let it derail you. Not the easiest thing in the world I know but that’s where my photography helps.

I can’t afford to let a small bump in the road like this stop me from focusing on the big picture. I don’t know why this setback happened, and I may not know what other things lay ahead. I do however know that like all of the other setbacks we will get through it once again and continue to push forward. Before this all happened I was feeling good so I know that with a little effort and Gods help I’ll get back to where I was. I have big plans for my future and I’m not about to let anything stop them from happening. It doesn’t matter if I have one setback or ten my attitude remains the same and that’s to overcome this season in my life.

spacer I know I can’t speak for everyone out there and I never would, but in spite of your CRPS you still have so much going for you. It’s up to you though to decide how your going to try and change your situation. Are you going to sit back and let it defeat you, or are you going to give everything within your soul to change where your at. The changes don’t happen fast but they do happen! Setbacks are just par for the course so expect them and keep moving forward to bring about change. You have to keep your head focused and that’s where God helps me so much. The phrase ” two steps forward one step back ” is so true and its such an up and down fight. It takes a lot of work mentally and physically but the results are rewarding! A question to all of you dealing with CRPS. Has anyone since their diagnosis been dealing with any blood pressure problems? Send me an email at ross@painfullyoptomistic.com if you have a comment about this.

 

 

 

 

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A Week Of Surprises!!

  By Ross | June 7, 2012 - 7:51 pm | Uncategorized
5 Comments

spacer Have you ever had one of those weeks that you just hadn’t planned on. Well that’s been my week so far, and everything started on Tuesday when a problem was discovered with my implant. For a while now I’ve been experiencing a little pain between my shoulders where the incision was made for the upper implant. I just always assumed that it was just part of the healing process, and that doing too much caused it to get angry and a bit sore. Its looked a little red at times but it hasn’t looked like there was any type of a problem until now.

Upon looking at the incision more closely it looked as though maybe a stitch was left behind when they were removed, so I booked an appointment to have them take a look at it. When I got to my appointment within about five minutes I knew that something was wrong. It wasn’t a stitch that was left behind it was the actual wire from the implant which had become exposed! Within a few hours I had been to see the surgeon and I was booked for surgery yesterday. The wire had turned itself and was pushing it’s way out. Something that doesn’t happen very often. As a matter of fact it has only happened two times in all the years he’s performed surgery.spacer

During the surgery he cleaned out the incision site and sent off samples for culture, which I will get back within 48hrs. The problem I am faced with at the moment is if there is more of an infection than what he saw and cleaned out. It could ultimately mean that I have to have the upper implant removed and a new wire put in. The last thing I want however is to have an infection travel the wire and move into my spine. So I’ll have to wait and see what results come back. After he cleaned things out he anchored things so that it wouldn’t happen again and closed things up.

I’m just thankful that they got me in quickly and that there was no time spent waiting to get into surgery. The people responsible for my care have been great and it makes it much easier to go through all of this. Now I just have to spend some time healing and get back to normal. I’m going to believe that God is taking care of everything, and that no more surgery is going to be needed. So as this post comes to a close I leave a few photos from last weeks shoot. Actually you’ve already seen them I just forgot to mention it at the beginning of the post!

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Therapy Within The Camera!!

  By Ross | June 4, 2012 - 6:32 am | Uncategorized
6 Comments

spacer Well after all the craziness over the last couple of weeks it was time to escape and get away from the city this weekend. It was a chance to just hang out as a family, as well as finally get out and shoot some photos. I haven’t had much of a chance to get out with my camera as of late, so it was great to get even a couple of hours to explore around Echo Lake. I took a few shots and even ventured into taking some of these birds that I came across while I was  out. There is never a shortage of great places to shoot out at our lake. It was great being out in nature picking up the camera, it seems like it’s been such a long time since I was out shooting! As far as I’m concerned it’s the best therapy I could ask for.

Out at our cottage there is no shortage of birds, and on any given day you can see so manyspacer different types that you lose count. I can sit outside on our deck and watch all the different types flying from tree to tree within our property. So I decided to take on the challenge of trying to catch a few through my lens this week and this is what I came up with. I hope you like what I’ve been able to capture. Now if your going to ask me to try and identify them that’s where I get lost, so don’t even bother asking me because I can’t give you all there names. That’s where my father in-law would have been able to answer all the questions and name names.

spacer As you know over the last week or two things have been a bit tougher on the pain front and going out for a few hours to get lost in my photography makes a huge difference. I’m able to forget about some of the stresses and believe it or not it makes a huge difference in the way I feel. So I scouted out a few places that I want to go next weekend when we are out there. I should be able to get out more often to shoot pictures now that we’ll be out there every weekend. I am very blessed to have such an amazing site to explore and take photographs like these. So this summer one of my goals is to explore more, and shoot a lot more pictures in the area. So over the next few weeks I’ll be putting up a lot more photos of where my journey’s take me. Please take a minute or two and tell me what you think of the photos.

spacer Before we left the cottage this afternoon we went across the road to where there are some horses kept and I let my girls feed this guy. There were two other horses in the field but every time we’d go to feed one of the other horses this guy would push the others out of the way. Watching my kids laugh and giggle as they fed this guy was the perfect way to end the weekend. It was just a fun relaxing weekend to try and wind down a bit from what has happened over the last several weeks. Things have finally started to calm down a bit with our schedule so hopefully things will start getting back to normal with the pain as well. As I had mentioned in my last post things were getting pretty hard to handle last week. Things have peaked however and I seem to be getting things under control. I’ve also made an important decision that will help with things. Most of the time when I want to go out shooting pictures it’s just spur of the moment. I’ve decided that I’m going to schedule a time to go once a week even if it’s just an hour. It really is the best therapy and relaxes me as well. So we’ll see everyone next week with some new pictures!

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Weakness Only Makes You Stronger!

  By Ross | May 30, 2012 - 2:04 am | Uncategorized
2 Comments

The last little while things have been pretty busy and slowly but shurely things have been catching up with me. The last couple of days haven’t been good days and the pain has been harder to control. Things feel all wound up and ready to unravel. It’s like a locomotive that comes steaming down the tracks, and once it gets rolling it becomes extremely hard to stop. My pain has been slowly creeping up on me this week and for the first time in a long time things are bothering me more than normal, making it hard to stay focused on the task at hand.

I’m not going to let this bring me down or stop me from moving forward, but the cold harsh reality is that I’m dealing with a beast that rears it’s ugly head every once in a while. Today is just one of those days that’s hard to get through. I find my head focusing on pain, stress, and all the other symptoms that come with this nasty illness. Not only is it hard to keep it together for myself but it’s hard to not let it affect the rest of the family. Losing focus isn’t an option at the moment, because I’ve come to far and haven’t finished what I set out to do which is beat my CRPS!

It shakes me up though when I’m down in the trenches fighting this battle, and at times like these it can seem like a lonely fight. I try to hand all of it over to God but at times it isn’t that easy to do. It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I know I need to slow things down again and spend some time focusing on giving all of this to God. So because my head is a bit on the foggy side tonight I leave you with a video that really says all that I really want to say! Never give up! We can get through this storm together!

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Making Your Decision!!

  By Ross | May 24, 2012 - 11:44 am | Uncategorized
3 Comments

Well it’s crunch time and I’m into the eleventh hour in getting everything ready for the Arts Festival tomorrow. All my pictures are ready to go and this evening I spent the night setting up and getting ready for the sale. All we need now is for some good weather, and for lots of people to show up. The last few days have been a real physical challenge for me, and to say that I’m not experiencing a rise in my pain level wouldn’t be telling you the truth. However the hard part is over now I get to sit back sell a few photos and enjoy the festival!

In the last several weeks I’ve been pushing myself a lot harder than I normally would and as a result my CRPS is showing me its response. Without the implants things would be a whole lot worse. So far I’m very happy with what they are doing for me. I’ve received lots of emails asking me what life is like now that I have them, and so in today’s post I wanted to try and answer some of those questions. There are a few big changes and other changes that aren’t so big that have occurred.

If your looking for CRPS to disappear then you shouldn’t be getting the implants because it’s about obtaining a quality of life that you didn’t have before the implants. You still have to deal with certain aspects of CRPS, it doesn’t just disappear. Nobody can say what your pain is going to be like after the implants but for me the pain control has been worth it. It’s about educating yourself and then making a choice. When I went into it I did a lot of praying and let God make the difficult decisions for me.

My mindset going into the surgery was that if I could get any pain relief at all, even if it was 10% then it would make it all worth doing. I didn’t let myself expect that I was going to get the 60% that the doctor said was possible. It isn’t easy but once you wrap your thoughts around that it makes the decision easier. The surgery and everything you have to go through is the hardest part of it all. Its been four months and I’m mostly over all the recovery but I’m still getting better.

Lots of people have asked me what it feels like to have the batteries in my body and my answer is that I hardly notice them at all. I have two and the one in my back is the one I notice more than the one in my abdomen. The only real negative that I can find is that with the implant that controls my upper limb, there is a little bit of reduced movement in my neck. It really isn’t all that bad though! The biggest hassle is trying to get used to your new routine that you’ll have to get used to, like charging your battery every week and packing around the gear that you’ll have.

I’ve also had to get used to a regular routine of charging my implants. I charge my units on a weekly basis so that I don’t ever have to worry about them running out of charge. It’s just easier for me to make it a part of my weekly routine. Travel is another aspect that you’ll have to get used to but again it’s a very minor detail in the grand scheme of things. If your flying make sure you arrive early but most airports are good in dealing with things. I’ve had one bad flight in about four since having it done.

You have to expect that there are going to be a few trade offs when it comes to getting the implants done. I happen to think that there are more good than bad and that my overall experience has been very positive. Take the time to really think about it and as I said before educate yourself. If you have the knowledge then it allows you to process everything and make your decision. If you have any questions as I’ve said before please feel free to contact me.

 

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It’s May Long Weekend!!

  By Ross | May 19, 2012 - 3:57 pm | Uncategorized
2 Comments

Hi everyone! Sorry for the time in between posts but it’s the May long weekend and we are out enjoying time with the family out at the lake. Things have also been crazy busy trying to get ready for the Arts Festival next week so I haven’t been on top of my blog like I normally would be.

I’ve also made a decision that this weekend is going to be a weekend to slow down. My pain hasn’t been great as of late so I need to take some time to myself and try and reduce the stress. So I’ll be back Tues to post again. Talk to everyone soon.