Is it because they don’t want us to get our hopes up? I will never give up hope.
I have had lots of ups and downs over the past ten years since my bleed happened in 2011 and Dr Lawton saved me with some really high-tech medical procedure he called the Cadillac of brain surgeries, a brain bypass. He harvested a vein from my arm and attached it in my brain for a brand-new blood flow. I’m bionic now. My most recent neurologist told me that there will be an implant to help me get rid of my stroke soon. I am not on a plateau. Plateau what? Sometimes I feel like I am though, but in retrospect I have come a long way.
My love of my God became more important to my daily life than my disability. I would say that I put my all into everything. I put the glory of God himself into my music. Can you imagine what it takes for me to do that? I don’t settle for less until the good is better and the better best. And I am challenged by the tests.
I have always been an entertainer. I wanted to perform for my friends before I finished my rehab. I was still in a wheelchair when my speech therapist taught me “Change Gone Come” by Sam Cooke and I learned it along with a lot of mouth exercises to help with my speech.
I felt depressed and sad at times because I lost so much. My ability to work, to drive, to create beats in my own studio, to perform, and I lost my vision. I had hallucinations and I was tired all the time. Then I started volunteering and holding Drum Circles for people in much worse condition than me; They had Alzheimer’s. I worked in a program called Music and Memories. I felt like I could still do something! My physical condition improved slowly. I didn’t need a wheelchair. I got special glasses. I got medicine for my hallucinations. The California Rehab gave me an Ipad, and lessons from the Lighthouse for the Blind helped me learn to get around with low vision. I had to learn to live with my disability.
I took up chair yoga and chair aerobics this year, and my balance is better. I don’t use a wheelchair. I need an enormous amount of sleep. My connection deepened with the many people in my community and family who have prayed with me for healing and helped me heal. I made a new recording last year with my beautiful daughter Marissa. And Stephanie and I are engaged.
The joy I find in every little second of life, with my music and my rich spirituality, has continued from before I was sick, and makes me hope for more ability in the future. God is in control, and I’m so thankful to be alive.
It took a million healing hands to make me a million-dollar man. Give Thanks for life. For more about me and my history as an aneurysm survivor and entertainer see my www.bionicroots.com.
Click the photo to learn more about Ras Kidus.
