My Uncle Ross is a person I admire greatly. His life has been a continuous struggle. He is a person who has faced much adversity and yet remains positive. When I hear about what he faces on a daily basis, I can’t quite imagine how he handles it. When I hear about his struggles, mine seem so insignificant. He is someone that I can look up to and find inspiration from as I face struggles of my own.
Uncle Ross is my mother’s brother and the youngest of four children. He grew up in a quiet neighborhood in Vancouver, and went to the local school where it was discovered that he had a learning disability. My Uncle Ross struggled through school and then attempted to follow his older sisters on to University. This dream, however ended in failure. After three years at a local college, trying to attain…
My Uncle has calculated that he has suffered through 780,840 hours of constant pain since the onset of this disease. It is a difficult disease to understand and little is known about it. Generally it targets an area of the body that has received a minor injury and turns on pain receptors and swelling and doesn’t allow for them to be turned off. The pain can be heightened by physical or emotional stress. It can move to other areas of the body as further injuries occur. Moving or touching the area is almost intolerable. At this point my Uncle has lost the use of one hand and one leg making it impossible to work and making daily life difficult. My Uncle is addicted to painkillers. With constant use he has found them to be less effective in managing the pain. Recently, he has undergone numerous surgeries to install neurotransmitters in his spine. These wires send out electrical impulses that reach the brain faster than the pain and replace the pain with a tingling sensation. This has been somewhat effective, but has come with complications such as wires that move and…