Re: [QUAD-L] pEER mENTORING

[Stacy Harim]

I've never been involved but some woman came into my room while I was still getting some movement and feeling back from the encephalomyelitis and basically told me that I should learn to deal with the fact that I will always be handicapped.  What wonderful words to tell someone that wasn't finished giving up on recovery.  Damn, that is what kept me alive to begin with and the recovery since I got sick.  What those words sounded like to me was I should give up.  If I gave up early and came to grips I will always be on a vent and never have any sort of movement I might not be where I am now.  I just didn't have the damage on the upper cord that I do now that keeps me paraplegic but if I just accepted where I was back when I couldn't move at all, I probably would still not be moving.  Anyhow I'm thinking to myself what do you know?  You can just walk out of this room, how can you have any compassion.   When I got to the point there was no more recovery to be had because of the left over damage, I really think I could have benefited from some sort of peer counseling.  I did meet one paraplegic that was outpatient while I was inpatient and I met him while doing rehabilitation.  His therapist introduced us.  It was refreshing to meet another paraplegic but he was in a place that I wanted to surpass.  I was bound and determined I was going to live on my own and he lived with his parents.  Not that it's bad but I wanted to meet a paraplegic that was on their own, working, driving, etc. because I wanted mentoring on that sort of thing because that is where I wanted to be.    I think that all rehab facilities should have a mentoring list of those that agree to be a mentor to those recently injured.  I didn't know of any other para's or quad's except for the paraplegic and a kid that was quadraplegic from the parallel bars while at a competition for school.  He did give me good advise though.  He told me not to take any crap from the nurses or aids.  He said "It's YOUR body and you know what's best"    Stacy ----- Original Messagie ----- From: Greg To: quad-list@eskimo.com Sent: Monday, June 05, 2006 4:26 PM Subject: [QUAD-L] pEER mENTORING I want to get more active. I just talked with a rehab nurse who is putting me on the AZ SCI Newsletter. She mentioned Peer Mentoring. Has anyone been involved with that? Either the mentor or mentored. I know I never wanted to talk with other quads when I was in rehab, but my friend really liked it.   Greg