"Steve needs his arm back"
This is not just science fiction but a plausibility for me. More background is at https://www.gofundme.com/f/steve-needs-his-arm-back . My stroke left me a hemiplegic (hemispherical paralysis, in my case the left half of my body is mostly paralysed still after six hellish years). Here in Australia Stroke is seen by our government and therefore the public as a self-inflicted condition, like a heavy smoker developing lung cancer, it is considered "your own fault and therefore your own problem". There are over a dozen types of stroke and only a couple are directly related to lifestyle decisions. Mine is not.
However, ALL support available does not distinguish the difference and so support for all stroke survivors is non-existent. The only thing the government and health care sectors will do is support a warning campaign against stress which can increase the odds of having a stroke. Increase the odds is NOT a certainty you will have a stroke. Nor did the majority of people who suffered a stroke and shared my wards during my stay in hospital lead unhealthy lifestyles. One was a competition swimmer who dived in for laps of a pool and didn't come up because he had a stroke and was paralysed as he went under the water. No warning. He was lucky his girlfriend was there at the time. Others had a stroke while asleep in bed and woke up unable to move, one had a stroke without warning while driving.
Mine? I had just had dinner and was sitting on the lounge. I had no idea I'd had a stroke until I went to stand up and my body wouldn't work. As I struggled I blacked out and spent the next 18 hours of terror, trapped on my floor unable to move or contact anyone. No, you can't just crawl with one arm or get up and hop. It's not like your leg going to sleep after sitting on the floor. Your core body is required in all actions of movement and when the signals from the brain (conscious and unconscious) are prevented from getting to one half of your body you realise its just like a dead body. Unresponsive and its nothing a normal person can imagine or fake to "experience", just doesn't work that way.
My stroke was a red stroke (bleed), as opposed to the white stroke (clog). So there was a rupture of a vein in my brain bleeding into the surrounding area. A region of my brain was starved of oxygen and died. It's not dead flesh instead it's more like scar tissue now, a denser area roughly the size and shape of a hard-boiled egg. Like a scar on your arm or leg where you can see it as it doesn't heal 100% back to what it was before, hair doesn't regrow often and also it could be swollen (edema) but otherwise its healthy flesh rather than necrotic.
This region in my brain being scar tissue is swollen and denser than the regular brain tissues which constrict signal flow meaning my paralysis is permanent as our health care system has no treatments for any of the tens of thousands of people like myself that occur each year. Over a decade ago through a pioneering treatment called Perispinal Etanercept was developed in America and has been successfully used to provide some form of physical disability reversal back to even total normality. Its a risky and costly procedure that reduces the edema thus allowing signals from the brain to reach muscles again properly. It took eight years of various universities petitioning our government to start trials here and eventually a small limited trial was approved, then covid stopped everything. I am on the waiting list for the trial but the limiting restrictions the government imposed will exclude my chance to participate.
I have done everything legally possible to try to pay my own way to America to do the treatment from my own pocket. All options have been blocked. Logistics of travel require me to employ and accommodate a "carer" in the process which on estimations will cost more than the treatment itself. Still, there is no other choice for me except death. Due to discrimination, I was driven out of work, I have had more than enough of people equating physical disability with mental disability. All the assholes out there saying they are enlightened or empathetic are just as close-minded and ignorant as those that cause atrocities in the past (which are still occurring today).
So I have no form of income anymore and need real generosity to help keep me alive and possibly get back physical functionality again. This is not a pipe dream, Perispinal Etanercept is something I am suited for and my functionality shows control is not an impossibility. But with the amount of support I currently get and impossibility is what it is. You may think covid and balancing bills and groceries is difficult and a hardship. I have all those regular problems as well as the constant pain trying to remain balancing while sitting or standing or fighting my tendons in order to lay flat in bed and not curl up like a prawn. Its absolute hell and a high suicide rate condition to be stuck with alone with no hope of getting meaningful treatment. So unless you can provide me with a quick way out I need financial help to keep the lights on and pay for groceries and medication essentials. So anything you can contribute directly to me via Paypal link below is greatly appreciated, crypto also accepted.
See: Donate via Paypal Me
bitcoin donations; 1G9AfeJ54ygYHGnpQq126BYZ9mPSkt3qZu
Monero donations:
46y2bDF8pQd6zSoqkcdav5KJ5wjCix6dMKgXcGGoQVFMfWXupvKZkLj2cfBAPayG9Yc4pED5ZbsLfSXguAaEBZfjVSXRDGo
litecoin donations: LabRLsUKwiKgTYycsQVPFezBowt15Kj1zJ