Perspective

I admit that complaining feels good or whining like in my last post.  Sometimes though, things happen that put your life back into perspective.  That happened to me last week.  I hadn't talked to my brother Brett in a couple of weeks.  My Mom called me to talk to me about a couple of things. One of them being that my brother Brett was really sick.  He had been running a fever and had what they thought was a bad cough at least that is what he and his attendent thought.  He had been sick for over 10 days already.  He went to the Doctor and had a chest XRay.  The news came back that he had pneumonia.  This news absolutely floored me.  Pneumonia is dangerous in a healthy person yet alone a person whose health is compromised by their disability.  When my brother broke his neck, he lost about 50% of his lung capacity.  He sleeps in a hospital type bed which was in an upright position because he felt like he was drowning in the fluid in his lungs.  Thank God the antibiotics kicked in and did their job. 

My knee problems don't mean a lot when put into the perspective of losing your life.  This is why I have really been so upset with my knee troubles.  I really want to run a marathon for him.  Everyday is a challenge to my brother and others with disabilities.  He has moments when he feels bad for himself.  He also has perspective.  There is always someone in worse condition then you.  Brett has limited use of his arms, but he can feed himself and do other things with them to make his life more independent. He had a friend that could move nothing below his chin and moved around in a wheelchair that he blew air into a tube to make it move.  Perspective.