Accessible Gardening: #20 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners, 4 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Booooo! No new talents to speak of. Bummer. O.k. now I feel even weirder like Rain Man. (LOL). Is there anyway your doctors can put you on the meds that make your cognitive abilities seem to go up? If not are you willing to experiment and play musical meds? Always a scary thought but depends on how much of a gambler you are.

I've tried. I had no success in changing them BUT I have found that manipulating the doses of what I do take actually worked. As a matter of fact I found out I was being over medicated!

Nothing seems to improved how my brain works and functions either in the good or bad ways but lowering my dose has improved my seizures and my moods over all. My body its self feels better. I do feel I have some small degree of control (perhaps delusional?). I also love the fact that I have a doctor that let's ME do the research rather than just saying, "I think you should take...". Obviously he thinks I'm smart and trusts my judgment. He respects me and my opinion.

In some ways you have experienced the "doing things you don't normally do" like the running and aerobics despite your "normal" abilities. Something somewhere gets stimulated or fired on. I know a lot of this is our specific wiring and electrical impulses that get generated and directed to certain parts of our individual brain. But which ones specifically and where? I think it would be amazing to see, if in cases like yours, just maybe there was something that could trigger or reset the wiring to your motor and muscle functions.

If they only knew exactly what circuit breaker to flip so to speak. I believe gene study is a good start but I don't think they're heading (pardon pun) in the right direction. The cartoon image of a light bulb going off in our head when we think, discover or know something is for a reason. It's electrical! Maybe whoever first came up with that illustrated "image" was more aware of how things work in our brain than we are. Then again if we mortals knew how to flip on and off these switches who would need "God" or a Wise Cactus to talk to? They would both be lonely without us.

I often thought of offering myself and "my case" to be studied by Neurologists. I know even among Epileptics persons Joanna and myself aren't so rare that we're freak anomalies but we are more the exception than the rule. I've asked around about her and nobody seems to know what she's doing now. I know her in-laws were in Phoenix. Perhaps she moved there. She may have even moved back to Michigan to be around her own family. I was still at the store 2 years after she left and then wrapped up for awhile with Social Security for over a year trying to get benefits. It's probably been about 5 years now since I've talked to or seen her. Hopefully I'll bump into her one day. I do have a feeling also our Epileptic induced "gifts" are somehow wired up and function the way a Savant's does. Again it would be another interesting Neurological study to note the contrasts and similarities.

I tried an Epileptic support group but it didn't turn out to be very good. Most of them wanted to complain or simply not discuss the issue at all. Nobody wanted to compare notes. Everyone seemed uneasy when I mentioned my "situation"; although there was one guy who said the only unusual thing that happened was that he used to be right handed and now he is left handed! Switched just like that. Didn't miss a beat. Woke up one day and couldn't even brush his teeth or open his medication bottle with his right hand.

He freaked out thinking he had some kind of stroke. When he calmed down he said he tried his left. It was as if he was left handed his whole life and trying to use his right hand "normally" was not natural. Trying to force this issue had became a torment! He just gave up being freaked out and accepted being left handed! Other than that absolutely nothing else in his life changed. Like Joanna and I, he can't explain why it happened to him. Most of the group scared me too because they were all still driving when they ought not to be!!! I usually left well before they all did!

I've looked for another group but haven't found one out here. I don't know if it is because a lot of Epileptics don't want to deal with the facts, or want to live and think they're 100% normal. For the most part we can and often do pass ourselves off as such. We can blend right in with the "abled" until something happens. Then we get "outed".

It may even be a geography thing. We are very spread out in AZ with lots of vast open space (desert, Indian Reservations, golf courses, protected areas for plants and wildlife and wild horses). Cities are not close to each other and metropolitan areas are limited in comparison to how things are organized on the East Coast. Disability aside that in and of its self is frustrating.

That's primarily what led me to gardening. A whole day of great fun by myself. :D

I have my husband and a few friends who listen well even if they "don't get it". Their compassion makes up for it. Their patience does too. Zoe is wonderful. Now she "get's it"! Of course I'm happy to have this group. I think sometimes objective people can "get things" in ways that others who are immersed in it may not. You all mean a lot to me. Even Dave (DH) smiles knowing I'm having fun with my "plant people". It makes him happy.

You should try going back to your music. You just may surprise your self. If not I can try bonking you on the head and see if that helps jump start anything..LOL! :D


Bets....
Sounds like you've been working with Circque de Soleil rather than gardening. With that kind of talent to squeeze in, around and over things want to come help me plant some cacti and divest my Agaves and Aloes of spider webs? The sun shines. :D You can play in it all day! I'll let you. You can stay here. I'll cook. All that's required from you is a HUGE box of 'maters! I thought of you when I was in the grocery store. I almost paid $4.99 a pound for some heirloom tomatoes.

They were "real" tomatoes not that crap we're forced to eat out here. I almost snatched one up and ate it like an apple (with intent to take the sticker and pay for it at the register.) Only problem was my husband reminded me tomatoes are paid for by weight not by piece. :{ I was so mad at him for bursting my bubble!!!

I have to say I've been making a fool out of myself in the rain. It has rained for 3 days and we're supposed to get about 2 more. I've been enjoying the gray clouds, smell of ozone, watching the lightening when it appears and yes, smelling the rain and if it isn't dumping buckets actually standing in it. Just wonderful. Great fun.

You're tearing your garden apart and I'm still planting! We usually do so through mid December. We knock off late December through late February/early March when any danger of frost is gone. I'm still toiling away. As much as I appreciate generosity my crazy neighbors and friends are still giving me stuff and I have to dig up my yard or use all my pots for them. I'm going to fill in my beds with soil this week. Hopefully by next I can start depositing some of these plants in them!

BTW, your bloom is beautiful!!! How cool you get to enjoy it in Winter! Even better. Will you do me a favor? Plant some Pheasant's Eye Narcissus bulbs and some paper whites and Lilly of the Valley for me this spring? Thanks! Much appreciated.

Susan....
O.K. have a better idea where you're at. Wow, that's quite a hike to PA. I've heard of commuting for your job but that's wild! :D
I'm sure there's some gardening you can manage to sneak in there in PA. Perhaps container gardening, a small herb garden; flower bed by the windows? A little something under the trees? Do you have anything planned?

Jim and Kay...thinking of you guys.

Hugs to all,
Agavegirl.

#1 look what happened today!!! Two at once!!!
#2 Hopefully more starting buds for flowers. Keep fingers crossed.
#3-5 The newest acquisition my neighbor's daughter gave me. Definitely NOT user friendly.