Reeve Foundation Paralysis Community

Trish there was a study done several years ago exploring whether toddlers had compassion. The experimenter was sitting at her desk in a room with a toddler. She would ''accidentally'' drop a pencil or paper on her desk and inevitably the child would pick it up and hand it to her. When she dropped it on purpose, the child ignored it. This ...

I missed last week because I was terribly ill with the chest cold and fever. Like the rest of my fellow quadriplegics, I can't cough. Not in any respectable way. And it is worse when I am in bed. So I was pretty sick Monday and Tuesday. And also Wednesday and Thursday. Friday I felt a little better and fever broke. And then I felt sick Saturday ...

Phantom pain is pretty severe I am told.  It's not psychological, it's neurological I am told.  It's almost as though the body doesn't know the limb is gone and the pain is right where the limb used to be.I think all pain is where yesterday used to be.  When you could do your chores quickly and independently, when you didn't have to ...

Dear Trish,I know you are aware that I am writing another column about you Monday in the Philadelphia Inquirer and you will be joining me the following day at noon on my web chat (www.Phillynews.com/askdan but I wanted to give you a preview of what I will say. You don't have to go into a tank or do anything that will deprive your ...

Dear Trish,although I love that flip, sarcastic comedy part of you, it does keep the world at arms length.I really don't want you to have genuine concern about yourself, you have enough genuine concern in your life.  What I'd love you to have more of in your life is compassion and (dare I say?)  even love.I know there are very few people,

You humans much too much attention to your minds, and you have way too much respect for what is going on up there.  It's mostly just chatter, false predictions about the future which make you anxious which make you have more false predictions about the future.  And when your mind is not doing that, you are probably thinking about how you ...

I would recommend putting together a proposal which would include table of contents, a couple of chapters, description of audience and how this book is similar and different from others who have done well. Then I would start looking for agents and be prepared for lots of rejections and lots of editing after that!  Publishing world is pretty ...

No one will argue that your life is extraordinarily difficult, more so than most humans on this planet. And most would understand that sometimes you are frustrated, despairing, hopeless and angry. But just because these emotions are understandable, it doesn't mean they are healthy. If you aren't already clinically depressed, hopelessness and ...

Couple of thoughts (what's new!).  First, seasonal affective disorder has many forms the onset varies depending on the person and the location.  So it might be worth trying to wear a silly hat with lights on it for a half hour a day like I do.  I still don't know if it works, but it's kind of fun to wear a silly hat once a day, I ...

My Inquirer column this past Monday was a description of my Seasonal Affective Disorder. www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/62303347.html It was difficult to write because of the self-disclosure involved. I told my readers (and whatever of my patients who read the column) that I had this depression and that it affected my self confidence. It was a

Apropos of ratherbflyin's was remark about learning how to be a husband and how some men never get it. Last year I did a radio show on asbergers and my guest was Stephen shore who is to asbergers what Christopher Reeve was/is to spinal cord injury. And he has a pretty severe case of the disorder so that his social skills are quite poor. And he ...

An old joke family therapists sometimes tell:a nine-year-old boy never spoke a word.  His parents, frantic with worry, over the years took him to pediatricians, neurologists, psychologists and psychiatrists and no one was ever able to figure out the problem.  So finally they just gave up.  One night they were having dinner when all ...