RC with physical disabilities?

[Rinskie]

Has anyone had to overcome any sort of physical disability to run or build their cars? Ever since my brain surgery in Feb I have had nerve damage in my face that left me with bells palsy. The left side of my face is paralyzed so I can't blink and at any given moment I can lose focus on what I am looking at or my eye will roll back and my whole face painfully contorts. It's super frustrating trying to do anything up close as I generally have to try what ever I am doing 5-6 times before I can get the screw in or what ever else I am trying to do. I have tried my reading glasses that I use to use when I was tying flies but that only helps so much. I am also now extremely sensitive to light so I can really only drive my cars inside or in the early evening as the sun is going down before the lights starts to come on. I also have trouble hearing because they had to destroy my left ear drum to get to the tumor so standing in a parking lot not being able to hear cars approach has lead to some exciting moments. The right one does not work very well due to a lot of gun play when I was younger. I don't want to give up but I am starting to become tired of the things I love biting me. I have had to give up a lot of the things I used to do because of health issues and I am worried RC may be next. I am not so much a complainer as I am more of an inappropriate joke kinda guy but I am running out of jokes. What do you do when the things you love are more frustrating than the joy they bring?

[skom25]

1 hour ago, Rinskie said:

What do you do when the things you love are more frustrating than the joy they bring?

Leave them for a while.

I know that feeling and I cannot suggest you anything else. Sometimes you need just to wait some time.

Sorry to hear about health issues.

[Super ally]

Sorry to hear about your health problems hopefully you can still do rc with a bit of time.

[junkmunki]

1 hour ago, Rinskie said:

Ever since my brain surgery in Feb I have had nerve damage in my face that left me with bells palsy

I know exectly what that is like, i had Bells for about 4 months a few years ago. I was jokingly known by my friends as 2 face (after the Batman character) because if you sat on my left, i was animated, but on my right i had no facial movements at all. After a course of steroids, i did regain facial movement, but it was an ordeal just doing the basics like cleaning my teeth etc.

One thing i did find, was if you wear an eye patch over the affected eye while you are doing stuff that requires focus, the other eye will compensate. It will stop you getting blurred or double vision when working close up.

Stick with it, and i hope you recover soon.

J

[Rinskie]

@junkmunki Thanks man. 

[MadAnt]

I know a contractor who had half his face paralyzed, he did not let his damaged nerves stop him from working. Sure it was rough for him, but he got things done. It may be a long bumpy road to recovery and still not 100% in the end, but don't let the negatives drag you down or they will take over your mind. Take control now, look forward to the positives, set goals, celebrate progress no matter how small it is and take in the love from family and friends. Take advice from people who were or still are in similar circumstances, who are still getting things done everyday. Just like @junkmunki said " Stick with it".

I wish you the best and hope to hear about your progress in the future.

[Andreas W]

Well thought out words from @MadAnt here. 

 

@nicksincrc is also physically disabled. I didn’t knew before he posted it. When I heard about the equipment he is using for a handset I was amazed. I have seen the results he was making at the time in the RBP and after I knew about this I was impressed. 

 

I have personally no experience regarding this,  so can only wish you the best of luck, don't give up, take your time and do things in your own pace. 

[Mad Ax]

I wish you all the best and hope that in time you're able to enjoy RC again, either by learning to manage the condition or by improvements in your health - I don't know what's more realistic in your situation.  Are you having any post-op care and do they have any advice, exercises, physio etc. that you can do to help your recovery?

I have family members who have suffered setbacks due to injury, illness and surgery, and although it seemed at the time like they'd never get better, they were able to improve with exercise and perseverance and are enjoying life now, albeit at a slower pace than before.

In terms of RC, I do know one guy who races at a local club.  I don't know what his condition is or how long he's had it, but he only has full use of one hand, so he has a modified transmitter that hangs on a plate in front of him (kinda like those big construction rig transmitters but just a normal basic stick transmitter modified to work like that).  His eyesight is kinda poor so he gets first choice on where he stands on the rostrum so he can see the cars on track.  He's currently racing in the same national series as I am, so he's got the confidence to go race at new tracks, but he has been racing locally for many, many years.

[Torhaantje]

I am very sorry to hear about your physical problems. I am in no position to give you advise. I can only refer to my own experience when I was confronted with  several physical and mental satbacks which are still with me today and are here to stay. At first I couldn't do anything RC related other than looking at my cars.

One time I got so frustrated and angry that I deleted my showroom here on TC 😪...

Slowly I tried to pick up some small rc projects. I had to accept I could only do things for about an hour. In that hour I dropped screws, had to use a magnifying glass over my spectacles, was swearing inside......

Gradually I came to the conclusion that I would never get back at the level I was used to and that Murphy's law would always be a constant factor.

Still I found that the RC hobby had so much to give that it was worth not giving up.

I had two things to do: let go of what was and accept the new situation. That meant I had to redefign my goals of the hobby.

The last 6 months I spent turning a dt03 neo fighter in to a 60's F1 car and was proud to put in my, now empty showroom here  on TC. I normally could have done this in a fraction of the time, but I somehow reinvented myself by going back to the basics of the hobby i.e.: tinkering and modding: the two things I did as a kid ( because I had no money for new parts, let alone new cars).

Despite of all the difficulties and mr. Murphy looking over my shoulder,  I rediscovered the enjoyment of the hobby once again.

That is what I whish for you also: acceptance and being gratefull of the things you still can do and achieve in this great hobby.

All the best,

Rick

[JimBear]

Too bad, man - but don't give up. Just don't quit.

I don't know if sunglasses help with the light sensitivity? To me, they've been useful after my eye surgery. The eye patch as @MadAnt suggest is a good thing for calming things down too.

Best wishes for your recovery - we need more tracked SJ30s and more Raikiris with a roll bar ...

[Rinskie]

Thanks guys. I have made a lot of changes but I haven't given up. I do what I can when I can but not without difficulties, not just with RC but with everything I do from sleeping to being awake. My palsy is a result of the surgery They had to move some nerves to remove the tumor and it seems damage was done. They had all sorts of electrodes hooked up to me during the 10 hour surgery where they would stimulate my facial nerves to make sure everything would still work. I see the neurologist in 2 weeks but up till this point I am considered still in recovery. I'll spare you the details I am aware of but I do know they had to remove some parts of the inside of my skull. They said recovery would be slow where most of the results would be seen at 3 months and the max results will be at a year. Well we are at that 3 month point and I have made a LOT of recovery but the palsy still remains.I also still have some pain in my skull where they cut a little window but the cool part of that is they plugged the hole with titanium. Since it's past three months I figured instead of wishing for further recovery, it's time to start thinking about leaning to cope. 

I went into the surgery knowing there would be risk but I was unaware just how serious of a surgery it would be. I really didn't care knowing before because living with the tumor was presenting some nasty complications, it had to come out or I would not have made it much longer. Moral of the story? Don't go get you a tumor folks, they are not a lot of fun. I wrote my "vent" out of pure frustration. Yesterday I reached the tipping point with everything all once. I had an awesome weather window to paint but my eye said nope to getting the window masking in. Thanks for the moral support guys, means a lot to me. Right now if it were not for my faith along with RC I would have probably been committed already. 

[Gebbly]

Stick with it @Rinskie. As we get older were each going to have to start adapting to how our bodies change. It sounds like you had some really serious surgery and on the bright side you came out the other side of it which is a huge win. In times gone by I guess that kind of surgery wasnt even an option.

Generally our hobby doesnt have any deadlines so if something is problematic and taking longer try and relax and just accept that some tasks may just take longer now. If you need a breather you can always log on to TC and vent a little, chat a little and even share your experience and knowledge in the RC hobby with us beginners. I'm always grateful of advice

[El Gecko]

Lots of good advice in here already. I had to deal with something similar over the last decade but not nearly as serious. It's definitely challenging, and depressing at times, but I will just echo what others have said, to give yourself grace in whatever you do. It's ok to do things slower, or differently, or not at all. And it's totally ok to redirect your focus elsewhere until you feel comfortable coming back to it. I have somehow managed to keep the passion for my hobbies through a few fairly debilitating injuries (with MUCH longer recovery times than I ever expected), and I think that if you truly love something, you'll always find a way to be engaged with it.

One of my other passions is BMX, and Scotty here has been an amazing inspiration for my recovery:

 

[2qwik]

**** man, hang in there, time takes time and wounds heal. I wish you all the best mate, just, Never give up, EVER.