How has CRPS affected your independance?

On my last post someone made a comment saying that letting go of your independence is a lot harder than coping with the pain sometimes. I would have to agree with that comment. It's almost like there's this grieving process that has to take place, and getting over that is a hard thing to do. It could be a matter of days, months, or even years. If I look at myself I'm already five years into this and I'm still not over losing certain aspects of my independence.

Another thing that the person mentioned in her comment was that it takes a whole lot of patience to get through that grieving process. This is so very true!! It can take next to nothing to set me off when it comes to my independence. It can be something so very simple that sets it off as well. Take for example in my case trying to do up buttons on a shirt. It's not that it's that big a deal, however it's something that I couldn't do and had to rely on other people to do. Now I've come a long way and in some cases can do them myself with one hand depending on the size of the button.

There are all kinds of things that we face on a day to day basis that affect our independence, and it's a real struggle to move forward and not let those things affect us in a negative way. If we aren't patient then we let those things eat away at us, and affect us in ways that we don't want them to. There isn't a day that goes by where I don't ask God to give me the patience that I need to get through each day.

If your like me, in many ways you've lost certain aspects of your independence. Over time though you learn various things that help you gain some of that back. So it doesn't have to be that you lose it for good. However what it does take is a whole lot of patience as you do learn those things!! This is where God comes in for me, because He helps me with get through the hard times when it all seems to be to much.

One thing that I know for sure with me is that it's a slow process, and that it's taking baby steps to get over some of the things that I need to get over. Learning to not let all the small things bother you and set you off can be hard. I would say that this is one of my real challenges that I face. There are lots of times that I just put on a brave face and say that everything is ok. The funny thing is that they are really small things that shouldn't matter all that much. However because they involve my independence they take on a different meaning. They become bigger issues than they really should.

It's a day by day process for me, and each day it gets a little easier to move forward from something that's so incredibly hard. Each time that one of those things sets me off I try to have a little more patience in dealing with it!!