My Story: My experience as a patient dealing with a serious medical condition

Patients dealing with serious injury or illness often rely on caregivers and coping techniques to set goals and achieve them. In this video, HealthMaker Rolf Benirschke describes his own experience.

Transcript

00:00

Walk to the neighbor's mailbox and back. The next day, I was going to walk two mailboxes and back. I mean, that's ludicrous.

00:06

California, the houses are very close, right? It's not a big accomplishment. But it was a goal that was achieved. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:17

I was lucky. You know, there are some things I learned. I learned that you have to break time down into bite sizes. You can't look at six months from now.

00:24

You've got to look, how do I get through the day? I learned to set little goals. For me, it was to get out of bed and walk to the neighbor's

00:31

mailbox and back. And the next day, I was going to walk two mailboxes and back. I mean, that's ludicrous. California, the houses are very close, right?

00:38

It's not a big accomplishment. But it was a goal that was achieved. It was-- it was discovering this indomitable spirit

00:45

that we each have. It was recognizing that I had to lean on others. I couldn't do it alone, even though my pride--

00:56

our pride-- makes it really hard to accept help from somebody when you know you'll never

01:02

be able to pay it back. Incredibly difficult to do. But when you do that, you bless the person

01:09

that wants to help you. And one day, you--

01:15

you do get a chance to thank them. You'll never repay them, but you get the chance to thank them. And I-- and I think, in coming through

01:23

that, you learn what you're on this Earth for. It gives you a mission. Our challenge is to find out what it is.

01:31

And when you find it and can serve others like that, it's--