Hello and welcome back to A Nu You: Maximizing Life with a Disability! Today’s topic is quality of life vs cure. This is one of the hottest topics when it comes to disability and if you are living with a disability, not only should you be thinking about it, but you should be living it. Just so everyone has a firm understanding on this debate, "quality of life" is how you live your life with a disability and “cure” is removing the disability from your life.

While we would all probably give back our disabilities if cures were made available, it is not unfortunately that clear. There are more scientific breakthroughs each and every day; some that are nearly promising cures to people, while for others promising research continues to make progress but cures are still not in sight. So while cures offer us hope for the future, it is very difficult to imagine a “one size fits all” type of mentality as two people, even with the same disability, may not benefit from the same cure. 

As far as quality of life issues, these are expanding more and more every day as we become more active both personally and professionally in society. The more that we push our boundaries and limitations, the more we are realizing as a population what is possible. By enhancing one’s quality of life, one is actually preparing themselves for that day when/if a cure is made available. You stay active, exercise, eat healthy, keep your mind active, etc, all of which will only help you when the day comes that a cure is available.

How do I, personally, look at this debate? Well, today I am on two paths. The first path is about cure. I am doing everything in my power to get up and out of this wheelchair because I know it would make my life much easier, physically. Being able to walk again would free up time for me as well. I am listening to the pulse of research both here in the United States and around the world. I am listening to people’s experiences who are undergoing treatments and evaluating their effectiveness. That is the first path.

The second path is doing whatever I can to have an extraordinary quality of life. Since it is very possible that I may be in this wheelchair a little bit longer, possibly for the rest of my life, I want to live my life to the fullest. So if it is taking care of my mind, body and spirit each and every day while having this paralyzing experience, I am going to do it. 

These are the two paths that I am on, giving an equal amount of attention and energy to both paths, knowing full well that at the end of this thing called life, all I know is that it will have been one heck of a ride and one amazing and rewarding experience, whether I am walking again or not!

So here are today’s Nu Challenges for you:
  1. If you are interested in removing a disability from your life, become a researcher of different treatments both here in the U.S. and around the world that are focusing on finding cures for your specific disability.
  2. If you are interested in living your life to the fullest with your disability, explore ways that you can enhance your quality of life –mind, body and spirit!
  3. Become a part of an online community in which this debate is taking place and evaluate both sides of the argument and determining where you best fit in at this time.

If you have any questions or comments regarding today’s topic, please email me at scott.chesney@numotion.com. Until next time, when we will be talking about finding balance in one’s life, thanks for playing full out in creating A Nu You.

Scott Chesney

Author

Scott Chesney