Overcoming adversity…

We are all faced with adversity in life. Often times it’s so challenging that we question how capable we are at surviving at all.

Some of my challenges have been easy to overcome and sometimes I feel like I was going to die. I know you can relate…things get really bad and you just feel like giving up. But I truly believe it is what you do and how you THINK when during those times that matters the most. Your mindset has a direct correlation on your ability to overcome adversity.

Meet Arthur…

I came across this video last week and while not usually compelled to share videos like this, I found this exceptionally inspirational. Sometimes we need a story like this to help us change the way we think about a problem.

Please take a moment to check out Arthur and his story.

My story…

Although not nearly as significant as Arthur’s story, I experienced something similar when I had cancer about twenty-four years ago.

When I was twenty-years-old, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer. There was a tumor on my kidney that was about the size of a football. About 6 months into my chemotherapy treatments and shortly after having my kidney removed, I noticed something strange going on with one of my feet. I started having a difficult time moving my foot up and down. It wasn’t that I couldn’t feel it, I just couldn’t make it move.  I went to see a neurologist who said I had foot drop and ordered more tests. My reaction…WTF is a“foot drop”?

A foot drop is when the front of your foot drops due to weakness, nerve damage or paralysis of some of the muscles in the lower leg. Foot drop is usually a bi-product of a larger problem.

Paralysis…

The same day I saw my neurologist, I started having severe pain in my back. This pain radiated from my lower spine and worsened all day. That night it was so bad I couldn’t stand up straight or walk. The pain was absolutely unbearable. I went to the emergency room in the middle of the night where I received a morphine shot and was admitted. When I woke up in the hospital the next morning something was seriously wrong. The nurse brought me my breakfast, I swung the bedside tray around in front of me, it hit my stomach and I didn’t feel a thing. I couldn’t move my legs and I couldn’t feel them AT ALL.

To make a very complicated story short, I had lost all feeling from about my belly button down. I had several spinal taps and MRIs but no one could figure out exactly what was causing the paralysis. The only thing they could say with confidence was that I might not ever walk again. I was transferred to rehabilitation where they pumped me full of steroids and I begin physical and occupational therapy. They said my nerves might repair but they weren’t hopeful… they told me I would I need to learn to navigate the world from a wheelchair.  I called B.S. on that and put everything I had into getting better. Eventually I was able to get around using a walker and after about a month in the hospital, I regained enough feeling in my legs to go home.

My attitude…

I know that the only thing that got me through the paralysis ordeal was my mindset. From the moment I went to the hospital, I told myself and the doctors that I didn’t have time to be paralyzed and that I needed to go home. I had things to do. No one expected me to WALK into the doctor’s office for my next chemotherapy treatment but when I did, I proved them wrong. And I proved MYSELF myself right.

I’m not going to lie, I don’t always look at the positive and I have a difficult time believing people when they say things like, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” But when I had cancer, someone gave me a book by Bill Moyer called Healing and the Mind. Moyer writes about alternative medical treatments and the power the mind has in overcoming an illness. I truly believe that me and Arthur are living proof that Moyer is correct.  The human mind CAN be more powerful than medicine.

You are capable…

We often do not know our own potential, especially when faced with extreme adversity. Our minds are more powerful than we think and we must recognize that mindset is key when facing, and overcoming, adversity. You ARE more capable than you think!