The Equation……

Im sure most of you are used to my thinking process. I think, talk, think, talk ask all of your opinions and then usually take none of your advice. Yup Yup, that’s my thought process. So as many of you know, I asked your opinions on the topic at hand.
Bloging about AB/SCI relationship. What the hell does that mean? I heard you. Ab = Able bodied, its a term coined by those in wheelchairs to mean, non wheelchair users. and SCI= Spinal Cord Injury, those in chairs. So the equation goes something like sci+ab= Jim and I.
We have a dear friend who has a website and I offered to blog on there. We all know I love to TALK and lots of you think I can write!!!
I thought I would narrate my journey with an SCI boyfriend. Seems easy enough, and certainly interesting…..but there was one problem that kept arising as I would attempt to narrow down a topic. How can I write about having a handicapped boyfriend and our limitations and adaptations, if we don’t have any? Jim’s not handicapped in my eyes. Just a normal , pain in the………Oops, I meant boyfriend. Normal. Wouldn’t seem fair to blog about us!
But then I took a stroll back into history. ……..Care to join me?

Aprox a year and a half ago, Jim and I met. In one of the first conversations I was made aware of the wheelchair. I didnt know much about one, or anything about a SCI patient. Didnt seem important. Nice guy, cute, smart and wildly intriguing…..we talked, laughed and interests grew. We decided to meet in person and I was nervous. Normal nervous, first date nervous NO. Nervous that I would somehow feel differently when I saw that chair. That I wouldnt be able to stop myself from staring at it. That it would somehow change the man in it! I worried the entire ride there and when I met Jim – a funny thing happened, we laughed and talked for hours. I never noticed the chair. I never felt wierd or ackward and he never felt different.
Nearly two years later I have a great deal of interesting stories to share with you. I would enjoy taking you through the journey of Jim and I. Our intimate details and our hilarious falls but most importantly, our journey of love. This journey is no different then any of yours. Chair or no chair……I would like to welcome you, to the ab+sci equation……………

2 Comments

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  By Rich Fabend, May 13, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

  At Craig hospital, where I did my rehab, they refered to people like you not as AB but as TAB Temporarily Able Bodied. I like this term, because it makes people aware of the fragility of life and gets them thinking.

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  By Andrea Cimmino, May 16, 2010 @ 8:26 am

  Rich,
  I must say that made me think! I love it! TAB, so true and I do stand corrected!
  I actually had a reader email me and tell me a story of his wife being injured and 10 years later he was also. WOW!! It really makes you put your life into perspective!!
  Thanks for sharing this
  Andrea

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