Being in Nature

Micro Trip Monday

. . is about details. About making short trips in the nearby area. It’s not always you have the opportunity to pack your backpack, to leave for a month long trip through Asia.
One should not understate the opportunities to experience what’s right outside your door.

Micro Trip Monday, are tiny stories, often told with photos and a bit of text. Reality is never quite as you see it. .

The story can take place anywhere. That is in my home country, or abroad.

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Being in Nature

With PCS I have a handicap.
I already have a handicap, Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC). But with PCS I FEEL I have a handicap.
Actually PCS is a disease but it feels like a handicap, because with my PCS I have to adapt a total new lifestyle. For instance I have to stop with whatever I’m doing if the sounds in my ears gets too loud. The screeching sound indicates I’m overloaded and if I’m overloaded it stops the healing process of my brain, so that is a NO go.
Having AMC is part of me and always has been. To me it’s not a handicap, it’s just a part of me.
Off course if I could choose, I would rather not have AMC it goes without saying. But my AMC is not a problem for me because I’m used to my abilities and my problems, just as everybody else is used to theirs flaws or defects. Because everybody DO have something that’s not right. Nobody is perfect.

With PCS there’s not many social things you can do. Or maybe I should say cope with. Communicating and being with other people are not good or in great demand. Being with other people makes you tired. It drains you from the last energy you might have. With PCS you have a lot of side effects, one of them is that you sleep badly. The lack of sleep makes you even more tired, dizzy and unfocused and it makes it even harder to interact with other than your spouse. Your spouse is the one who have been there from the start. He or she knows you and your situation better than any. My husband knows if I’m unfair, shouting or just being one nasty lady, it has nothing to do with him. I’m either H U R T, in P A I N or just F E D  U P or the whole lot. That’s a V E R Y good reason for you being able to be with your spouse and nobody else.

To me it’s a H U G E problem. I absolutely H A T E not being able to be with my friends as much as I like. I L O V E my husband and being with him. But just as he needs to be with other people so do I. Most people who know me would describe me as full of life and as a bountiful person. And I still am, just for a very short time frame.

PCS is like an invisible handicap. You look like you always do. Nothing has changed with your appearance. You might look tired occasionally but that’s it. So it is extremely difficult for other people to understand just how sick you are.

“You don’t look sick at all..” — it’s a comment I hear often.
No, I know but I am!

In the past week the Danish Broadcasting, Damarks Radio (DR) has been focusing on loneliness. It made me realize that when you have an invisible handicap or disease you sometimes get to feel lonely. Not just because you can’t participate in all the party’s, or hang out at the fancy cafes drinking coffee with friends. But because you don’t look sick. It’s hard for people to grasp the idea of you being sick. It doesn’t show. You don’t have to wear a cast for 12 weeks and then you are cured. There is no immediate cure for PCS.
When it comes to an injured brain, people J U S T  D O N’ T  G E T  I T… and they shouldn’t, because if they get it, it means they have experienced something similar and that you don’t wish for any.

One thing I like and able to with my PCS is going walks in nature. Nature is balm for your brain. It nurtures your brain like nothing else. You get fresh air, sunlight, the quietness together with small adventures, you can explore the details of nature, or just breath in and listen to birdsong. I know walking is good for a PCS brain. It has something to do with the way you cross move your arms compared with your legs when walking. I have absolutely no use of it, because of the wheelchair but I still believe all the other great things contribute to my healing.

These photos are taken at Årslev Engsø. Close to Aarhus where I live. It is not because we don’t have blue skies in Denmark but I like to play with the photography in order to point focus in a different direction.

Anyway.. hope you enjoy ,)

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