Monday, June 27, 2011

EVA'S LOVE

Eva's Love....

by Chris Vartorella on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 8:33am
   When I was 24, I broke my back and was paralyzed from the waist down.  I was deeply depressed.
Then I was able to move my legs a little and made some big improvements in physical therapy.  Then a friend wrote Dr. Wayne Dyer because I loved his books and all he wrote about and he came to the hospital to see me and encouraged me to walk again.  I was thrilled to meet him, but that was hardly the biggest thrill for me.  While in the hospital, I had to learn to use a catheter to urinate.  I first had a bag that they had strapped to my leg, but then I was taught to do it on my own.  I had broken my right wrist when I broke my back and I was right handed.  In the hospital you have to do what they call a sterile technique to cath yourself.  So they would set me up with a mirror and a sterile kit to do this in the bed. It took a great deal of patience on and a lot of time.  The mirror was so I could see what I was doing.  One day, my mother was in the hospital room and I had to cath myself.  I took the kit and the mirror and slowly did everything I needed to do without a nurse handy. My mother watched in case I needed help. When I was finally done and she saw the urine go into the receptacle, she said, “You amaze me.”  When I got my first car with hand controls, I pulled in her driveway, and when I got in the house, she grabbed me and hugged me for the longest time.  She said, “I’m sorry honey, but you looked so beautiful and independent in that car, that I couldn’t help myself.”  I moved in with my parents after I broke my back and after dinner, my mother would go upstairs and take her bath and get ready for work the next day.  My father was usually at a meeting and my brother was usually gone.  I was to clean the kitchen.  I would make myself clean and clean it for a given amount of time, like an hour.  Even if everything was done, I would keep going.  I would stand in another room and look at it and straighten a chair or pick something to do and get it just perfect.  She would come down the stairs and see it.  The look on her face of gratitude was worth the effort.
   Meeting with Wayne Dyer?  Thrilling
   Regaining the use of my legs?… Spectacular
   Making my mother's eyes sparkle?   …. Priceless.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my Chris. I love your blogs and you. You amaze me and all I have is a broken foot. I admire you more than ever.

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