Living with Multiple Sclerosis

http://www.star2.com/living/viewpoints/2015/07/02/wheel-power-living-with-multiple-sclerosis/

Reaching Out To Dyslexics

http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Viewpoints/Wheel-Power/Profile/Articles/2015/03/05/Teachers-learn-to-reach-out-to-dyslexic-students/

Depression, A Serious Medical Condition

http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Viewpoints/Wheel-Power/Profile/Articles/2014/11/06/Depression-a-serious-medical-disorder-thats-underrecognised-and-undertreated/

WHEEL POWER: World's Greatest Gift For A Special Mother

LIKE any other mum-to-be, Ezreena Abu Bakar was hoping for a healthy and normal baby when she discovered that she was pregnant. She did – or at least thought that she did 11 years ago when her first child was born.

After Azahan Azani was born, her family who resides in Taman Melawati in Selangor, was blessed with another boy Areean Aqeel five years later before their daughter Arissa Zerina entered their lives four years ago.

For Ezreena who is homemaker and an online business entrepreneur, her kids are the best things that have ever happened in her life. Although she is more than prepared to do anything for them, the challenges that she faces in particular with two of her boys are something that she did not quite expect after she found out that they were dyslexic.

Dyslexia is a learning disability.

“The first day of kindergarten especially for my boys was just as exciting for them as it was for us, parents,” recalls Ezreena with a smile.

“There wasn’t much that we knew about Dyslexia then and we also didn’t get any negative feedback from the teachers about their learning abilities,” Ezreena went on to explain.

“My hubby and I thought everything was normal. Perhaps it was too early to detect the symptoms or it might have been because of the lack of awareness of the condition not only from our side but from the teachers as well.

“But problems immediately cropped up for Azahan when he started primary school. Suddenly everything became too difficult for him. He had trouble reading, writing and in spelling.”

Although Azahan is intelligent and a complex thinker but he simply couldn’t decode the simplest of words.

“The class teacher just brushed it aside thinking that Azahan was probably just a slow learner,” Ezreena recalls.

“So my hubby and I were misled into thinking that our boy was just a late bloomer, so we decided to be patient with his progress.”

Azahan continued to get the help that any parent would give their children. He was enrolled for extra tuition classes.

However, Azahan strangely kept bringing home lots of homework that he hadn’t completed in school.

“I had to sit with him for hours, sometimes past his bed time, to complete his homework which was all the copying work from the whiteboard into his books.

“But he only kept bringing home more homework. This led me to talk to some of Azahan’s teachers about his problem but some of them unfairly labelled my son as being ‘lazy with some attitude problem.’”

I later discovered that children with dyslexia also face confusion and fear over their conditions and even humiliation in the classroom when they are laughed at. This leads to rejection, demotivation and finally low self-esteem.

It wasn’t until Azahan’s performance dropped tremendously in standard four – and when their other boy Areean was also starting to show the same symptoms of his elder brother – when their family realised that they could not solve the problem on their own.

“After doing some research on the Internet we took our boys to the Dyslexic Association of Malaysia in Ampang Hilir in Kuala Lumpur to have them professionally assessed.

“They were immediately diagnosed with dyslexia and advised to enrol our boys in their special programmes for people with dyslexia,” Ezreena said with great relief.

With support from their relative and friends, Ezreena and her family had to come up with new ideas of communicating lessons to their children.

These include making and playing with traditional toys and handicraft projects from time to time which the boys loved because the interaction was more creative and fun.

They also made it a point to involve them with outdoor activities from the start like sports, swimming, cycling and running in the marathon, triathlon and biathlon.

“These activities not only immensely helped to add balance into their lives but also made them stay focus. We were amazed to see how much their confidence and self-esteem levels were boosted.

“It also helped build their social skills with their peers and others. I am so happy to report that they have less difficulty now in mixing with people and that life goes on regardless of their disabilities in learning.

“They are treated more and more as normal children as they should be treated as they continue to get the right support from their special education teachers in Ampang Hilir. 

“There is no greater love for a mother with special kids than to be able to get this kind of support from our society,” concludes Ezreena, adding a quote from Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”.

Ezreena is married to businessman Aref Zaharin.

The End.

PET+BLOGSPOT is the ONLINE BLOG of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or Petpositive. Our stories are CURRENT, ACCURATE and RELIABLE. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then are now 150,000 and ever increasing! PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly note that views expressed in PET+BLOGSPOT are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my You can also find us in Facebook under PETPOSITIVE EMPOWERMENT. Please sign up as a FOLLOWER of this Blog if you haven't done so already in order to show us your kind support for our work. Thank you!

Chap Goh Mei Joy For The Disabled

CHAP Goh Mei also regarded by many as the Chinese version of Valentines’ Day – and traditionally to mark the end of the recent Snake Year celebrations – took place on Sunday last week.

It was celebrated with lots of reunions and romance in public parks, shopping malls and restaurants across the country.

People with disabilities like Teo Kah Choon, 44, enjoyed the fanfare with his family and friends. The afternoon was spent over a special lunch in a wheelchair-accessible restaurant in Petaling Jaya with his non disabled sibling and parents.

In the evening Teo who works as a data entry computer specialist from his home, chose to spend it with his disabled friends in Kuala Lumpur.

He joined a group of several dozen wheelchair and blind friends at a sumptuous vegetarian dinner in a Chinese Temple.

“It was simply marvellous to be out with my friends and to be able to belt out our favourite yesteryear Chinese songs with the able-bodied and collecting our Ang Pow’s afterwards,” Teo told Wheel Power this week.

  

“The Chap Goh Mei’s in the past that I recall used to be very private before mainly between employers and their staff. Now I’m happy that that more people from religious to business and political groups are not only celebrating the even but the disabled are also actively being included in them,” grinned Teo who has been a resident of PJ all of his life. 

Teo contracted poliomyelitis when he was three years old. He was rushed to the hospital with a persistent high fever and given a jab.  But his legs only got weaker after that episode and even a special trip to China years after for traditional healing didn’t solve a thing.   

Teo decided that the best thing forward was to accept his fate and start using a wheelchair for mobility in 1985. Today he lead a very active life as a disabled activist and is vice president of the Independent Living and Training Centre in Rawang, Selangor.

He travels virtually everywhere with his hand-powered three wheel motorcycle with a side car where his wheelchair is placed.

“I can avoid traffic jams because of the motorcycle lanes, the petrol and maintenance is much more affordable and there’s no need to pay the toll; only RM1.00 for yearly road tax,” Teo pointed out.   

He went on to say that taxis are not only expensive but they won’t stop for wheelchairs because it’s too much work and the guys just want to stay stuck in their seat all the time without needing to get out of the car to help put the wheelchair into the booth.

“Rain doesn’t bother me as my trusty raincoat still gets me to my destinations well ahead of time.” 

Teo says the best part of using a three-wheeler motorbike is that he gets to park it virtually anywhere – of course, never anywhere where it is an obstruction to others.

Most of the enforcement officers in his experience are very understanding to “handicapped bikes” and close one eye to it.

   

The only real worry about travel for Teo is potential robbers on the road. He makes it a point to avoid unfamiliar areas and take the ones he knows well or that is well-lit with people around.  

“There are certainly angels among our midst,” he told me. On a couple of occasions when Teo had breakdowns in the motorcycle lane, strangers rushed to his rescue!

One of these “heavenly beings” even went to the extent of removing Teo’s punctured tyre, go to the nearest service centre and return with a fully functional one – an exercise that took nearly an hour!

On another note, people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers are in for a special treat this Saturday (March 9).

The Kuala Lumpur-based Malaysian Parkinson’s Disease Association (MPDA) will be holding its second public forum on Parkinson’s at the Kompleks Masyarakat Penyayang from 1.30pm – 5pm. The event is free and open to the public.

A specialist on the disease and other movement disorders and other medical experts will be present.

They will be highlighting the very latest developments in Parkinson’s disease and on Deep Brain Surgery treatment for person’s with Parkinson’s.

They will also expound on the psychiatric manifestations that persons with the condition go through.

There will also be lots of opportunities for those interested in the disease to ask questions.

MPDA was set up in 1994 in Kuala Lumpur as the first national support group for people with Parkinson’s, their caregivers and families by the late Mr. Lloyd Tan Pao Chan, a person with Parkinson’s himself.

Its main aim is to provide support and improve the quality of life of people with Parkinson’s and their families.

   

MPDA President Sara Lew, says that one of the objectives of the forum is to start a local support group in the island.

All those interested, please contact MPDA at 03-79806685 or Mr. Looi at 0178871859 (Tuesdays – Saturdays). Website:www.mpda.org.my.

The End.

PET+BLOGSPOT is the ONLINE BLOG of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or Petpositive. Our stories are CURRENT, ACCURATE and RELIABLE. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then are now 150,000 and ever increasing! PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly note that views expressed in PET+BLOGSPOT are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my You can also find us in Facebook under PETPOSITIVE EMPOWERMENT. Please sign up as a FOLLOWER of this Blog if you haven't done so already in order to show us your kind support for our work. Thank you!

CNY - A Welcome Break For The Disabled

Thursday February 21, 2013

A welcome break for the disabled

Wheel Power
By ANTHONY THANASAYAN

LAST week’s Chinese New Year break was a godsend for my good friend, Chong Tuck Meng, from Bentong, Pahang.

Although Chong dislikes snakes of all kinds, the Snake Year wriggled in with a rather timely and pleasant opportunity for him to spend some time focusing on a chief priority: resting in bed to cure a couple of pressure sores which he had developed recently.

“Pressure sores are the bane of wheelchair users; if not attended to, they can kill you,” said the 51-year-old who became paralysed from the neck down following a road accident in 1982.

Chong spent most of last week resting in bed. It is one of the best ways to relieve pressure on your buttocks if you have pressure sores there.

The disability activist’s latest project was managing wheelchair basketball and rugby players at the National Paralympic Sports event held in Kuantan, Pahang, last December.

“It wasn’t easy being responsible for two teams (of 12 players each) in wheelchairs,” said Chong. “One had to look for suitable trainers for them, sourced for funds, and made sure the venues were accessible by wheelchair.”

All that activity made Chong’s pressure sores worse, and he had them treated at Hospital Kuala Lumpur several times. Chong had to hire a taxi, and brought along two gentlemen as his caregivers. They had to carry him out of the taxi and into his wheelchair, at the hospital.

Once home, Chong had to lie sideways or prone on the bed to take the pressure off his sores which needed to be dressed twice a day.

Trying to be a good patient did not stop Chong from enjoying a couple of dinners out with his family during the celebrations.

“It was disappointing to find that the restaurants we went to were not accessible to wheelchair-users,” Chong lamented.

He hoped the Snake Year would bring positive changes for the handicapped. The festive break also enabled Chong to catch up with friends via Facebook, e-mail and chats.

C.K. from Klang, Selangor, has been pretty much alone since his parents passed away a few years ago, and his siblings moved to work elsewhere.

C.K., who is in his 50s, became a paraplegic following a construction site accident 25 years ago. Although he does his own cooking, it is heartwarming to know that he has neighbours who come around to help with the shopping. In the evenings, C.K. has karaoke sessions at home to liven up the neighbourhood.

Despite the festivities, it was work as usual for another paraplegic in his 50s in Ulu Langat, Selangor.
T.W., a lottery ticket seller, continued to make his rounds on his three-wheeled motorcycle even though his regular customers had returned to their hometowns for the holidays.

T.W. became disabled after he was involved in a motorcycle accident more than 40 years ago. Despite his handicap, his friends say he has never complained about his misfortune.

I didn’t get to find out which zodiac sign C.K. belongs to, but he could very well be born in the Year of the Snake, for Snakes are said to be a source of inspiration to others.

PET+BLOGSPOT is the ONLINE BLOG of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or Petpositive. Our stories are CURRENT, ACCURATE and RELIABLE. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then are now 150,000 and ever increasing! PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly note that views expressed in PET+BLOGSPOT are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my You can also find us in Facebook under PETPOSITIVE EMPOWERMENT. Please sign up as a FOLLOWER of this Blog if you haven't done so already in order to show us your kind support for our work. Thank you!

Blind But Not Battered

 

LAST WEEK I shared with you about an incredible story about the Thongs.

Although the couple were suddenly struck with stroke, they did the best they could to turn the disease around - even to the point of calling it a “blessing from God.”

Not all disabilities, however, occur overnight.

Some are so subtle that it may take several years before you realise you have it.

Madam Lim, 55, who hails from Klang, Selangor, knows perfectly what that feels like.

A legally blind mother of two grown-up children and a devoted wife and homemaker, Lim faced two major problems with the onset of her disability.

The first was realising that she was going blind. The second was what does she do from then on?  

Although born with perfect vision, Lim now has a condition called Retinitis pigmentosa or RP – an inherited eye disease that gets worse over time. There is no cure for the condition.

“The problem started manifesting itself only when I was about 17-years of age. And the funny part is two of my siblings also have it but none of us knew about it until later,” said Lim with a laugh.

“I started to kick things over like footstools and smaller objects frequently and sent them flying across to the other end of the room. I thought that I was only being clumsy and even got told off by my parents about it,” Lim went on to explain. 

“I had trouble seeing things below my feet and especially at night. So much so I had to pin my focus on each object that I wanted to avoid knocking over.   

“I had serious trouble making out things on the classroom’s blackboard. I had to go near the board or ask other classmates to tell me what they were in order to write them down.”  

Thinking that it was only a problem with short-sightedness Lim visited an optician and got herself a gleaming pair of eyeglasses.

The problem was Lim did suffer from short-sightedness. And the eyeglass specialist didn’t see another bigger and more worrisome problem in her eye.

Despite her new shades, Lim still kept on having night blindness episodes, walking into puddles and holes in the road and falling down the stairs.  

It wasn’t until one of her brothers with a similar eye problem had gone to see an eye specialist when Lim and her family realised that there was, pardon the pun, more to their problem than what normally met the eye. 

Even upon visiting a specialist and after diagnosing her condition, Lim says the doctors she consulted could’ve been more helpful in helping her cope with her illness.

“Instead of just saying that he ‘hopes that my condition would stabilise one day’ and to ‘take care’ of myself, he offered no useful health advice on how to deal with it physically and emotionally,” Lim recalled.

Fortunately Lim eventually met other blind friends who helped her along. 

One of her first lessons was how to hold a while cane.

“It had to be about three steps in front and away from me in order to ‘detect’ objects like stones, lamp posts and even uneven ground that I could trip over or bump into,” explained Lim who is able to make out some shades of light and object shapes.

Rearranging the furniture in her home and keeping it barrier-free is vital for the blind.

“We have to know exactly where they are so that we don’t knock into them and have a nasty accident.” Lim pointed out.  

Lim said she is proud that her entire family got involved in her rehabilitation process – from her children right up to her hubby who has always been an invaluable support.

Even though Lim lives in a split-level home her blindness does not stop her from being the perfect homemaker.

She does the cooking and cleaning in the house. 

“You would be surprised by the things the blind can do even if they can’t see. I still cook the favourite meals for the family – the proudest of my creations and ability is my chicken rice,” Lim laughed.  

“And cleaning is made easy once you grab and feel the furniture around you especially when you are armed with a vacuum cleaner!”

Lim said her blind friends are her best motivation.

“I am not worried about the future as I once was before. What is more important now is the love, understanding and support where there is no short supply of in my family I’m glad to say.

“Sometimes I do occasionally miss the gift of being able to see a beautiful scenery of nature and photos of holidays gone by but when I think of my family, they are irreplaceable!”

Last week Lim and her family took turns to do all the necessary spring cleaning to usher in the Year of the Snake.

And guess who did the cooking? Wrong! It was Lim’s turn to take a break and leave everything to her hubby.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all!  

The End

PET+BLOGSPOT is the ONLINE BLOG of the Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association or Petpositive. Our stories are CURRENT, ACCURATE and RELIABLE. We offer both local and foreign news on animals, disability and the elderly. PET+BLOGSPOT was first established in October 2007. Our hits since then are now 150,000 and ever increasing! PET+BLOGSPOT is updated daily. Kindly note that views expressed in PET+BLOGSPOT are not necessarily those of PETPOSITIVE. You may also visit our Webpage by browsing: www.petpositive.com.my You can also find us in Facebook under PETPOSITIVE EMPOWERMENT. Please sign up as a FOLLOWER of this Blog if you haven't done so already in order to show us your kind support for our work. Thank you!