What is the Experimental Phase of a Disability?
Getting through life is not always easy. Life can be even more challenging when the unexpected happens. I was not prepared to have a blood clot burst in the back of my head when I was 32. How could I? No one knew it was there until it ruptured. Even though I was not prepared for it to happen, I had to prepare for what happened next. Finding the right treatments and therapies to return to normal, or as close as I could get to normal. I don’t remember how many treatments I had, but it was a lot. The experimental phase of a disability is physical therapy, seizure tests, MRI’s, and a lot more. It takes time and sometimes a herculean effort. Every disability is different and each treatment is different.
There are generally two experimental phases. One is while you’re still in the hospital which transitions to being released from the hospital. The experimental process is part of the recovery process. Finding the right treatments and medicines to alleviate symptoms to give you the best quality of life. The doctors don’t know exactly what will work so they make their best guesses. They make their best guesses based on symptoms and it might take weeks, months, or even years to find the right combination. In my case, it took years to find the right combinations.
There is no manual for life
As with most things in life, we have to experiment in order to find what works. There is no user manual for raising children or how to be a good leader. Just like there is no one medicine that works for every individual. It is all trial and error. For instance, I know that recovering from a disability is not the same as learning how to be an accountant. If I don’t like accounting, I can choose a different career path. Being disabled is not a choice. It is something I have to live with every single day. After many years recovering, I learned to accept it and live with it. My recovery is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life. I would not be where I am today if I just decided to quit recovering.