what is the greatest challenge you've ever faced in your life?

what is the greatest challenge you've ever faced in your life?

cancer

 

Sorry to hear that man, just keep your head up and be positive...

The hardest part was losing my father 3 years ago while i was in college. It was pretty tough finishing it out, cause him being an immigrant from Vietnam, he told me his dream was to see me walk across the graduation stage. I know he didnt see me physically, but he was there in spirit the whole time smiling down.

 

I love how on this forum we can go from totally ragging and goofing on each other one minute and then be completely serious and supportive the next minute when applicable.

I'm facing the most challenging (and rewarding?) ordeal of my life so far. My girlfriend who is pregnant with my child has some severe emotional problems and was a former hardcore drug user, and was physically and sexually abused as a child and an adult. I'm not all that stable myself, and when things are going okay they are great, but when they are not they are really bad. When we used to fight, she would break my personal possessions and attack me physically. If I hadn't gotten her pregnant, the relationship most likely would have ended. However, she did indeed get pregnant and I don't think there is any way that it is not my child. Now, sometimes when we argue, she threatens me that I will never see my child. However, we are slowly beginning to understand each other, and realize that we really love each other, and both want what is best for our unborn son. I want to make sure the child is raised in a healthy environment, and I would prefer that me and her mother make every effort to see if we can make our relationship work, get married some day and be a loving family. If not, I would at least want to have a positive parental relationship, and do our best to raise the child apart from each other as best we can. We are starting couples therapy (again) on Monday, so I'm hopeful we can grow together. It's been an extremely difficult ride for me, but definitely a growing experience.

 

Does climate affect your Arthritis at all? Do you feel any better when you visit someplace dry, like Arizona or California? (I would think Houston's wet ahd humid climate would be a nightmare for people with Arthritis)

 

thecabbage,

My heart goes out to you man - I hope everything goes well.

Just to give you an idea of something I went through. Just over three years ago, they noticed a tumor/growth by my brain stem (found by accident, no symptoms - actually found it when looking at my neck during an MRI I got for a baseball injury) and wanted to do a biopsy on it to make sure it wasn't cancerous. It was not something I necessarily had to go through, but even though it was brain surgery, I was told not to worry that everything will go fine - and due to the location, they needed to make sure it wasn't anything serious and to ease my mind from it.

Too make a long story short, we had the surgery, and thanked God it turned out to be nothing serious (the actual cyst/tumor - not cancerous), however all hell broke afterwards. When I woke up I was paralyzed from the neck down and doctors wern't sure if I would ever walk again or exactly what would end up happening. After all types of problems in the hospital (an incredible list of events/situations I was involved in), I was finally removed from ICU after a little over 4 weeks and moved (by stretcher and ambulence) to a rehab center. My goal there was to try to learn all over again at least how to function for myself even if that was with a wheelchair.

I did, however, after several months do much better than expected and am now walking and functioning for the most part normally, even though my fine motor skills are not good. Three years later we have improved slightly even though it appears I will live the rest of my life with a lot of discomfort (numbness, tingling, stiffness in my entire body - similar feeling to that of when your arm falls asleep) and some pain.

The bottom line is that I am sure what you are going through is tough and it is true things can always be worse, but when you are going through the toughest times that offers little assurance. Keep your head up though cause everything will turn out for the best and will be thinking and praying for you.