The word handicapped just sounds like it has so much limit to it.
“I know anything’s possible” says 12 yr old Nick Santanastasso. And he’s proof of the fact. He can play baseball and football, do a headstand on his skateboard, play the keyboard and drums, type on a computer, help in the kitchen and play video games with his siblings.
So? Lots of 12 yr olds can do all that you say. True. But Nick was born with Hanhart Syndrome TypeII, a rare genetic disorder shared with only 11 other people. That means he has no legs . . . only one arm . . . and only one finger.
My parents just keep encouraging me to do stuff — like, don’t give up and keep trying. If you fall down, get back up.
Everyday tasks are a bit harder for Nick, but according to his family, there’s nothing he can’t do, whether it’s on the baseball diamond or the football field, where he emulates his favorite player, Tiki Barber, former star running back of the New York Giants. The secret of his success? His parents didn’t treat him any differently than any of their other children. And even with that said, his parents are still impressed with just how normal their son is.
“We’re supposed to be heroes to our children, but Nick is a hero to us. He’s proved to be a real trouper, and our hero.”
He’s also Tiki Barber’s hero. On Nick’s last birthday, Barber himself presented Nick with a brand new skateboard. The inscription read, “Nick, you’re an inspiration”.
Did I say he even helps in the kitchen? How many of OUR kids help in the kitchen?? How many of US wake up with the love for life that Nick does?? The answer is................ not enough, unfortunately. Our excuses? I’m too poor. I’m too overweight. I’m not pretty enough. I’m not smart enough. Oh that stuff happens to OTHER people, but never for me. Unlike us, Nick has REAL excuses if he wanted to use them. Hmmm. I can’t play baseball because.......
I HAVE NO LEGS AND ONLY ONE ARM AND ONE FINGER!!
Kinda puts our silly excuses into perspective, doesn’t it? Nick is teaching us that we should get off our unmotivated behinds and DO SOMETHING!! Take action!! If he can do it, surely we can too.
Nick just recently won another achievement. He will spend his upcoming 13th birthday at the NewJersey governor’s mansion being honored for a poster he drew in a statewide competition intended topromote family values. Chosen from more than 100 finalists, Nick’s drawing shows a tree with roots spelling out a word underneath. The word?
Love.
The one simple word that makes everything possible. Love of family. Love of life. Love in the belief that anything’s possible. Because as young Nick has proven to all of us, it really is true.
Dad, when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!
I have tried to be a good father, I really have. I gave my kids whatever I could. Worked extra to pay for their activities, their toys, cell phones, Christmas.
I’ve attended countless football games, choir recitals, and band concerts. I even drove my daughter back and forth to school just so she wouldn’t have to ride the bus.
I tried, really……I tried. But compared to Dick Hoyt…………
….I suck.
Meet The Hoyt Family
Rick Hoyt was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, cutting off oxygen to his brain. The result was brain damage and a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. His parents were told he’d be a vegetable all his life, with no use of his limbs, nor his voice. The doctors said to put him in an institution.
But his parents said no. They raised him just like they raised his two brothers. As normal as possible. In fact, they fought to get him admitted into public schools. “Because he couldn’t talk they thought he wouldn’t be able to understand, but that wasn’t true.” The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. “We always wanted Rick included in everything,” his father, Dick Hoyt said. “That’s why we wanted to get him into public school.”
Using money the family managed to raise in 1972 - a group of university engineers built an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write, using slight head-movements. Rick called it his “communicator.” A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.
When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first “spoken” words. They had expected perhaps “Hi, Mom” or “Hi, Dad.” But on the screen Rick wrote “Go Bruins.” The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. “So we learned then that Rick loved sports.”
Dad, I Want To Do That
Three years later, one of Rick’s high school classmates was paralyzed in an accident. The school organized a charity run for him. Rick typed , “Dad, I want to do that.” His father, wondering how he would manage to run 5 miles himself, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but the smile on Rick’s face was worth a million bucks, said Dick. That night, Rick told his dad, “Dad, when we were running, I didn’t feel handicapped anymore”.
That sentence started a chain of events that still boggles the mind.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. Eighty-five times he’s pushed Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars - all in the same day.
Why? It makes his son feel normal.
24 Boston Marathons
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 - only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much - except save his life. Two years ago Dick had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.”
Today, Rick lives by himself in an apartment in Brighton with the help of personal care assistants and the love of his father. He graduated from Boston University in 1993 with a degree in special education, and works at their computer laboratory helping to develop a system through which mechanical aids can be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.
I am fully aware of everything that goes on around me and if someone takes the time to get to know me they will realize I am no different than anyone else…….
….other than the fact that I will not beat you in a foot race and you will never have to tell me to shut my mouth
I found the following video on Youtube. Grab a box of tissue and enjoy.
Truly, if you can believe, then ALL things are possible.
A good friend sent me this inspirational video - and I just had to share. You’ll find the video at the end of this post - but the video’s message is short and sweet……
When the time comes, I may not be able to hold my wife’s hand - but I will be able to hold her heart…
Like many 25-year-olds, Nick Vujicic (pronounced VOY-chich) can surf, golf and swim and he’s training for the Los Angeles Marathon. What’s surprising is the fact he is also an author, motivational speaker, evangelist, investor, holds 2 Bachelor’s Degrees, and started an international non-profit organization called Life Without Limbs. That’s right, Nick was born without arms, or legs. He has a small ‘foot’ with 2 toes. And he has a never give up attitude.
Nick Vujicic was born in Australia in 1982 to a Church pastor and his nurse wife. The ultrasound gave no clue that their baby’s limbs were not growing normally, so Nick’s birth was a huge surprise. With no medical explanation, his family and his father’s church questioned why a God of love would allow the pastor’s son to be born without limbs.
As he grew up, Nick himself often questioned what sort of a God would do such a nasty thing. He remembers reading a Biblical verse in Sunday school which stated that he was created in the image of God. Nick remembers thinking, “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, riiight.”
When he was young, Nick often wished he was dead, so he wouldn’t be such a burden to his parents. At age 8 he tried to drown himself. At age 10, he fantasized about asking his parents to put him on a kitchen stool — so that he could “fall” off and break his neck.
Not being able to commit suicide, Nick begged God to let him grow arms and legs. “Just think God, a modern-day miracle I’ll be! Think of how many people we’ll convert!” But that never happened either. Nick finally began to realize that maybe he didn’t need to grow arms and legs for his life to mean something. Maybe his accomplishments were enough of a miracle.
He can walk or hop almost anywhere - including up steps, using his only foot. And he can type with his only two toes (43 words a minute, thank you very much). He is brave enough to plunge into pools, trusting he will bob to the surface where he paddles around on his back using his foot as a paddle. And he writes, gets dressed and opens doors with his mouth.
He began to realize he was impressive, if not downright inspirational.
At 15, Nick officially thanked God that he was alive. At 17, he gave his first talk to a prayer group. Nick was influenced by a speaker at his school who had been orphaned and who talked about his bouts of loneliness. The idea that someone who had struggled could give others hope appealed to him. So he started speaking - first at school, and then church-sponsored events. By the age of 19, he seemed to have found his calling, and was getting dozens of speaking invitations. The requests to speak snowballed. And now, at 25, that’s all he does. His nonprofit is called Life Without Limbs.
He says his message resonates with teenagers because they are often told they are not good enough, sometimes by both their parents and their peers.
“It’s the fact that they understand how it feels to be alone, how it feels to be rejected, how it feels to be confused and broken. That’s the level that I come in on, and they can see that straight away. When I get up onstage, they know that I’ve been broken.”
And while Vujicic spent the first part of his life learning how to adapt to others, much of his success now lies in how he has made others learn to adapt to him.
“If we went by the world’s definition of who I’m supposed to be because I look weird … ‘well, surely, this guy can’t have a productive life, surely, he doesn’t have a sense of humor. Surely, he can’t love life.’ We stereotype people in this world. And so … if the world thinks you’re not good enough, it’s a lie, you know. Get a second opinion.”
Imagine the worst headache imaginable…..and it won’t go away. Ever. Oh sure, maybe you take some aspirin, or Tylenol, but it never really gets any better. Now imagine that same headache is still there tomorrow when you wake up. And the next day, and the next. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and months into years. That’s crazy you say. Go to a doctor for heaven’s sake!
It’s plainly obvious something is wrong, so you do go see a doctor. That is, assuming you are one of the lucky few that are still employed and can still afford health insurance. You go to a doctor and they run their tests. The result? ………….. You have a growth in your brain. It’s not life threatening, but it’s also not operable. It’s yours and you are stuck with it ………… forever.
Now what………….
Be Careful of Your Thoughts
On October 6, 2008 I wrote this article called Be Careful of Your Thoughts. The article explains the Nocebo Effect, which is an effect similar to the Placebo Effect, but instead of having the power to heal, a Nocebo can use that same power to harm.
On November 7, I received the following comment on that article from a person who calls themselves KJ:
Then how come I wake up every day? I tell myself ever night that I’ll die in my sleep of a heart attack or a brain aneurysm, and yet, I wake up every day. What am I doing wrong?
At first I honestly thought it was a practical joke, I mean why on earth would someone wish to die in their sleep? As it turns out, the headache example I used above was not just a hypothetical scenario. This was KJ’s real life story. And as KJ said , “you’d be surprised what intense, non-stop pain will cause one to think at times”.
Emotional Freedom Technique
KJ and I soon began a correspondence, exchanging ideas, comments, and emails. We explored alternatives to typical Westernized Medicine. And we finally ended with EFT. There is a wonderful documentary on the Emotional Freedom Technique here.
EFT was developed by Gary Craig in the mid 1990’s, and is basically a “psychological acupressure. It uses the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat emotional and physical ailments — only without the needles. With this method, you tap with your fingers. And you can learn to do it yourself.
Tapping with your fingertips on specific meridian points on your head and chest, along with voicing positive affirmations, helps to clear out emotional blockages from your system, restoring your mind and body’s balance. Many people still do not realize that emotional health is absolutely essential to your physical health and healing — the two are very much inseparably linked.
Now at this point, KJ could have taken one look af EFT and said, “I’m not trying that, that’s crazy looking!”, or “I’m not into any of that New Age Mind/Body psycho babble”, and any number of negative things. But they didn’t. They instead found a local EFT practitioner and made an appoinment. As KJ later told me in an email, “…..when one is in true pain, nothing is too outlandish to try”.
The Miracle Healing
What follows next is nothing short of a miracle. On November 21, just 2 weeks after our first exchange, KJ wrote this comment:
Saturday was the EFT visit. When I got home I did the basic recipe several times throughout the rest of Saturday and several times Sunday, specific to the pain I felt. On both Saturday and Sunday I have to say I didn’t notice a whole lot of difference. On Monday however, I woke up with substantially less pain! I couldn’t hardly believe it. I did EFT several times that day too, trying to get rid of the remainder of the pain. Though I still have pain, it is substantially better than before!! I went for a walk several times this week, did my usual chores and such, and felt pretty darned good, all things considered. I’ve even scheduled my regular tennis game for this coming Monday (after a 7 week absence). The pain is creeping back, but again, I’m so much better than before, even still.
And the following day I received this in my email box:
Good day to you sir!! I’m actually wiping tears as I write this. I’m even tons more better today than yesterday! It feels SO good to feel good again. I’m going to start using EFT for everything I can. Right now, I’m a believer, even though I can’t even begin to explain any of it.
I went back to the EFT person today, for a follow up and to get some questions answered. I told the EFT person about “how we met”, and we both shed a tear thinking about what a one in a billion-trillion chance it was that I found your web site. If only I could convey the weight of what you’ve done for me, your kindness and wanting to help…
I wanted to apologize for my initial comment, as it was not in the spirit of your web site. I was just not doing well at that moment, and couldn’t help myself as that was how I truly felt, and hoped you could help me. Only, you helped in a way I hadn’t anticipated. You helped me heal, thus live. And a story to share. Funny how sometimes good things can come from less than ideal circumstances.
The Power to Heal
I have been blogging off and on for years. I created this blog in September. And never, in all my time on the Internet, have I felt like I made an personal impact on another human being. The feeling is incredible. Thank YOU KJ for your inspiration. Thank you for your willingness to try something new. And thank you for sharing this with me.
Now I’m not trying to discredit traditional Western Medicine in this article. But sometimes, we run out of options. The point I’m trying to make is this: There are alternatives. And as KJ has proven, they work.
Suspend your disbelief. Give it a try. Believe it will work - And it will. When we cut our finger, it grows back together. When we get an infection, our immune system goes to work fighting it off. Our body’s were designed to heal themselves. And they will - if we only let them.
Inspirational
Living With Chronic Pain