Learning to Live with 2 Prosthetic Hips

Jesús Olivares

BEFORE YOU READ:
Read about the words prosthesis and prosthetic in the box on p. 6. Try using the words in a several sentences.

An Accident
Before my disability, when I was young, I loved outdoor activities. I loved to play sports, especially baseball and American football. Then I had an accident, and I had to have hip replacement surgery in both hips. I have had hip prostheses for 20 years.

The accident happened in Mexcio. I was working on the air conditioner on the roof of my house. When I finished the work, I went down the ladder, but the ladder broke. I fell down four meters. I felt intense pain, so my family took me to the hospital. The doctor said that both of my hips were broken and I needed prostheses.

Pain and Upset
After my hips were replaced with prostheses, I felt very sad and angry. I couldn’t walk properly, and I couldn’t do the things I normally did. This was a very difficult time for me and my family. The physical therapy was very painful. I took my anger out on myself and my family. I kept asking myself, “Why did this happen to me?”

During the time I was in recovery, I often wondered, “How am I going to teach my son to play his favorite sport? How will I teach him to ride a bike?” Sometimes I accompanied my
friends to baseball tournaments. I watched them participate and that motivated me to keep fighting for my recovery. I wanted to be able to play with them again.

Recovery But No Work
As time passed, the physical therapy started to work. I began to feel better. Most important was the support of my family. I began to accept what had happened to me. My question changed to: “What am I going to do now?”

I tried to return to my work, but no one would hire me. When I was called in for an interview, they looked at me, saw my disability, and didn’t give me the opportunity. Since I couldn’t find a job, the social security system in Mexico gave me a disability pension. Now that I am in the U.S., I hope I will find a job. People with disabilities have more opportunities in this country and are treated more equally.

Fighting to Live a Full Life
I have learned so much from my experience with disability. I have learned how to do things with two prosthetic hips, such as going up and down stairs and bending down to pick up things off the floor. I have also gained empathy. I know what people with disabilities go through. And I know first-hand how you have to fight to live your full life. Finally, my disability made me appreciate what I have, especially my family. Without their support I would not have been able to get this far.

AFTER YOU READ:
When Jesús first gets hurt, he asks himself a certain question. Then his question changed. Write down both questions. What do you infer about how this new question affected him? Write a short reflection sharing your inferences.

Originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, Jesús Olivares is a student at Ysleta Community Learning Center in El Paso, Texas. He holds a degree in engineering and is committed to continuing his journey of growth and adaptation in the U.S. He lives by the inspiring words, “No matter what happens, never stop fighting.”

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Losing My Friend and My Leg

Dexter Carey

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. What is a prosthesis? Read the box to learn more.
2. Read the biography of the author on the next page. Keep in mind his point of view as you read.

A Night at the Club
On February 9, 1994, I was in a car accident. I lost my leg below the knee, and I lost a very close friend.

On this night, I went to a nightclub with five friends. We had some drinks, and we had a good time. When we left, I had trouble with my car, but we managed to get it started. On the way home, we talked about our night at the club. It was filled with good times. We were good friends.

An Accident and Great Loss
While we were driving, the car broke down. I could not start it again, so we decided to push it to a gas station. We noticed that vehicles were speeding by. As cautiously as we could, we kept pushing my car down the road. The cars kept going by, some very fast.

Suddenly, my friend yelled, “Watch out, watch out!” That’s when a car hit me and my friend from the back. We were pinned between the two cars. At that point, our lives changed forever. My friend lost his life. And I lost the lower half of my leg.

When I found out that my friend died and I lost my leg, I felt overwhelmed with sadness,
disbelief, and confusion. I was in so much shock and pain. I knew that healing would be a very long road.

The Long Road to Healing
Learning to walk on a prosthesis was my next step. I had to learn how to walk all over again. First, I had to get fitted for my new prosthesis. They took a lot of measurements to get the correct fit. Once that was done, I had to do a lot of physical therapy to get mobility back in both of my legs. It was a challenge, but I never let that stop me. I’m so grateful for those who helped me to be able to walk again. My doctors encouraged me. The rehab staff kept pushing me. My family and friends supported me. I never gave up.

Living for Two
Being able to slowly walk again gave me inspiration to strive harder to make a full recovery—physically and emotionally. My life was spared; my friend’s life was not. I live with this every day. It’s something I will never forget. I live for two now with his memory forever in my mind, body, and soul. My strength comes from his spirit living within me. He helps me heal inside and out. I will never forget the memories we shared.

I struggle with the physical and mental scars of that accident. I try to take one day at a time. I am on a quest to live my fullest life. I want others to know they are not alone. We should help each other and make sure people feel hope and love. Everyone needs to have the sense that someone cares.

AFTER YOU READ:
1. In your own words, describe what happened to Dexter.
2. According to the author, what helped him recover?
3. Read the article on p. 8, “Learning to Live with Two Prosthetic Hips.” Compare and contrast these two stories. How are they similar? How are they different?

Dexter Carey is a student at Delgado Community College in New Orleans, Louisiana. He lives his life with a “heart of service,” a way of life that is centered on serving others with love, humility, and a genuine desire to make a positive impact on their lives. He works part time at Lake Wellness Center Detox where he supports patients in recovery. He is also a recovering alcoholic.

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My New Perspective on Life

Harold Carrillo

BEFORE YOU READ:
1. What does it mean to get a new perspective on something?
2. Describe a time when some event in your life gave you a new perspective.
3. Read about the fable of the six people and the
elephant. What is the moral of the story?

The Two True Barriers
The dictionary says that a disability is “a condition that limits a person’s ability to perform activities or interact with the world around them.” But I strongly believe that those limits do not have to be there. Mostly, those limits come from two places:

• the mental barriers you create, and
• the barriers that society creates.

How do I know about these barriers? I experienced them myself! I am 40 years old, and for 16 of those years, I’ve been in a wheelchair due to a motorcycle accident in Puerto Rico. I’m a quadriplegic.

At First, I Felt Abandoned
After my accident, fear invaded my mind. This was not what I had planned for my future. The first few years were the worst. Everything was very dark, and I started to lose parts of my life. I did not have any goals. I felt abandoned by friends, who I thought were good people. Some family members, who I thought I knew, left me alone. Other people simply walked away. My situation made me feel helpless. That was the mental barrier I created for myself.

I thought, “Why Go Out?”
As the years went by, I decided to try to have an independent life. My parents and older sister supported me, but it was still hard. In Puerto Rico, many buildings are not accessible to you if you are in a wheelchair. I sometimes felt discouraged. I thought to myself, “Why go out?” This is another example of a mental barrier.

I went to many therapy appointments and university hospitals where students practiced on me. Doctors and therapists did their best to help me, but Puerto Rico doesn’t have enough of the right equipment. I continued to progress toward my goal of living an independent life, but I decided to move to Massachusetts to get better care.

A Chance to Be Independent
I’ve been living in Massachusetts for seven years. It is easier to be disabled in Massachusetts than it is in Puerto Rico. There is more support here for people with disabilities. For example, there are very few physical barriers. Public transportation is more accessible, so it is easier to get to appointments. And there are more specialists for people with disabilities.

But in Puerto Rico, I still learned how to live alone.
“Alone?” you might ask.
Yes, ALONE!

During that time, I learned to be my own physical and mental therapist. I learned to cook, I did housework (sweeping, mopping, washing clothes, etc.), and I learned to bathe and dress myself without anyone’s help.

I tell you honestly, it was very hard, but it was necessary for my independence. After I
became independent, all my negative thoughts and feelings of “I can’t” were gone.

A New Goal
Now, my goal is to strive every day to continue growing as a person. I want to help people with the same condition as me. They might be like me right after I had my accident. They might think there is no light at the end of the tunnel. But there is. I want to share everything that I have learned during all these years.

AFTER YOU READ:
1. According to Harold, what are the two key barriers that people with disabilities face? What evidence does he share to support his argument?
2. What does Harold mean by the metaphor light at the end of the tunnel?

Harold Carrillo is a student at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, Massachusetts. He appreciates all the help that has been offered to him.

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3 WAYS TO LISTEN
1. Click the icon on the right to listen to the full article.
2. Right-click here and “save as” or “save link as” to save an mp3 of the article to your computer (coming soon).
3. Listen to sections of the article by pressing the play buttons that appear before a set of words in the article below (coming soon).

Bullying: Worse than the Disability

Alejandra Mora Gonzalez

BEFORE YOU READ:
What is bullying?

Challenges in my Childhood
I grew up with a disability, and many times I felt bad. I asked myself, “Why is this happening to me?” There was something else that was hard for me: During my childhood, I lived in Mexico with my grandparents. My mom was in the U.S., and my dad was not part of my life. I have many good memories of my time with my grandparents, but it was also difficult. I missed my parents.

When I was three years old, the doctors discovered that I had a vision problem and a problem with my legs. The vision problem is called strabismus. I have been wearing glasses since I was three years old. It is very expensive, and I’m afraid I will need surgery. The problem with my legs is that one leg is shorter than the other. I started walking when I was about 18 months old. I could not walk well. I sometimes walked on my tiptoes. I often fell when I walked.

The doctors decided to operate on both my legs when I was four years old. The surgery worked well for my left leg but not my right leg. When I was nine years old, the doctor tried the surgery again. My leg improved a little, but I still walked badly. Now, I have terrible pain. I need to take medications to help with the pain.

Kids Laughed at Me
In school, the kids were rude to me. They laughed at me because I was wearing glasses and because I wore special shoes. They saw that I could not walk normally. Also, kids bullied me because they knew my biological father was not in my life, and my mother had left me to go work in the U.S.

Moving to the U.S.
Finally, I came to the U.S. to live with my mom and her husband, who has been a wonderful stepfather to me. In the U.S., I got more medical care. It turns out, the real problem was in my head because I have a tumor. Now the tumor is controlled.

Every year my doctor gives me an MRI. The doctor says it wasn’t necessary for me to have surgery. The surgeries gave me permanent damage. In my right leg, they cut my tendon. Now I need to do one more surgery to repair the tendon. But this surgery is expensive and I am afraid to do it.

Be Nice and Gentle with all People
I suffered a lot from my disabilities, but the worst suffering came from bullying. I didn’t understand why other kids treated me badly. I was just like any other kid. I wanted to have friends and a happy childhood.

Now that I’m an adult, I see that those children weren’t bad. Their parents probably didn’t teach them to be respectful. People should learn to show respect to all people. When someone has a disability, we need to put ourselves in their shoes.

AFTER YOU READ:
1. Describe the challenges Alejandra faced as a child. Cite evidence from the text.
2. Note the words and phrases in bold. Use context clues to determine the meaning. Try writing your own sentences using those words.

Alejandra Mora Gonzalez is an ESOL student at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon. She’s 28 years old and a single mom. Alejandra is focused on the present and trying to get the best future for herself and her daughter.

Back to Issue 67

3 WAYS TO LISTEN

1. Click the icon on the right to listen to the full article (coming soon).
2. Right-click here and “save as” or “save link as” to save an mp3 of the article to your computer (coming soon).
3. Listen to sections of the article by pressing the play buttons that appear before a set of words in the article below (coming soon).

Social Media for Raising Awareness

Jihong Hwang

BEFORE YOU READ:
What does it mean to “raise awareness”? Has social media ever helped to raise your awareness about something?

Social Media Gives Disabled People a Voice
When I was in elementary school, we had some lessons to teach us about people with disabilities. Some kids covered their eyes. They didn’t want to learn about people with disabilities. Other people felt sympathy. I was young, and this lesson impressed me, but I did not think too much about it.

These days, I notice that the media can play a big role in helping people learn about disabilities. There are characters on TV who have disabilities, but they are just part of the story. Their disability is not the most important thing about them.

Social Media Helps Connect People
Social media can help caregivers and people with disabilities find each other and share their experiences. For example, parents of children with disabilities use social media to share ideas about how to find the right school for their child or how to find transportation. People with disabilities talk about how they spend their time. They gain courage from each other.

Disability Matters to All of Us
It makes a difference for people with disabilities to be more visible. You can change your perspective when you find out how people with disabilities navigate the world. Maybe it can prepare you for when you are disabled. You never know. You might become disabled. You might get in an accident. I am aging. Every person I know is aging. Disability sometimes comes with aging.

We need to recognize that disabilities are our business. Recently, I saw the bus driver wait and help someone who uses a wheelchair get on the bus. Everyone on the bus waited for them patiently. I was surprised and pleased by this experience. Maybe we are learning. Maybe social media is raising our awareness.

We Should Pay Attention
When I started to write this essay, I thought my elementary school lesson did not matter much. But now I think it was important. It helped me learn how to pay attention to people who have disabilities.

If you don’t have a disability, it might be hard to understand everything that about people with disabilities are going through. But we can learn. We can pay attention. We can value everyone and try to understand their situation. One day, we will probably all have a disability or be a caregiver for someone with a disability.

AFTER YOU READ:
According to the author, what are the benefits of making people more aware of disability?

Jihong Hwang is an ESL student at Piedmont Virginia Community College. She is Korean but he lived in Japan for over 10 years. She now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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