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  • Home
  • About ACENA
    • Our History
    • Conductive Education
    • Meet our Board
    • ACENA Bylaws
    • 2022 Plan of Work
  • CE Directory
    • Canada
    • Mexico
    • United States
  • Become a Member
  • NACA
  • Resources
    • Public Resources >
      • Conductor Training Programs
      • Testimonials
      • CE in the News
      • Videos
      • CE Job Opportunities
    • ACENA Members Resources >
      • Published Articles and Research
      • Presentations on CE
      • ACENA Documents
  • Events
    • National Conductive Education Day
    • World Congress >
      • Past Congresses
Picture

Ralph 
stroke participant
March of Dimes Canada


In October of 2016 I was offered a job with a company where the main office (my work place) was located on the second floor of a warehouse complex.  In order to get to the office I would have to climb a set of stairs.  As soon as I saw the stairs I said thank you but no thank you.  I did not think that I could navigate the stairs without help and I did not feel comfortable asking for help from the other employees to get me up and down the stairs.  In March 2018 of this year I was offered a job where in order to get to the office I would have to climb 3 sets of stairs, one being a fire escape staircase which consisted of grated metal steps with no risers.  Stairs with no risers are one of the scariest obstacles for a stroke survivor like me to overcome.  The fear is getting your weak foot caught underneath the step you are trying to climb to(risers prevent that).   The second stair case had a right side railing and risers.  The 3rd and final set of stairs was 14 steps, narrow, railings on both sides with risers (this was a piece of cake, it was like doing stairs in the parallel bars at March of Dimes).  Unlike October when I did not accept the job because of one set of stairs with risers due to the fact that I only focused on not being able to navigate the stairs.  Thanks to the education and training I received from March of Dimes I focused on how to navigate the stairs safely and with a minimum amount of help from my co-workers (I needed someone to bring my walker up to the office).  Since my first day at the office I now leave my walker at the bottom of the stairs and proceed up to the top of the stair cases where my cane is and I now only use my cane to move about the office.  On my lunch time I walk about the showroom and climb up and down the stairs for physical activity.  We also have had a couple of barbecues at work where I walked outside using my cane only.  I’m not very good at walking outdoors (uneven terrain) but I am not afraid to keep working on it.  I wear a step counter all the time and most days I took an average of 1,000 to 1,300 steps (more when I grocery shopped).  Now because of my job and the knowledge of more safe mobility I average 5,000 to 6,000 steps per day.  Where my targets were 3,500 to 5,000 steps per day, I now aim for 7,000 to 10,000 (my best so far was 7,900).

People tell me that the reason I have come as far as I have is because I am driven, but I know better.  Without March of Dimes I would not be close to where I am today.  People only see the physical aspect of March of Dimes when they come to the facilities to watch a session, what they do not see is the education and the mindset that we get to see a problem and figure out a way to overcome it.  Do not get me wrong the physical part of my life is still more difficult than a person who has not suffered a stroke but thanks to the people who are employed by the March of Dimes who taught me to look for a solution instead of just focusing on an obstacle that I think cannot be overcome.  All of the above has a snowball effect on one’s life because I find the more I improve, the more I want to do.  Before March of Dimes I was pretty much a shut in, but not anymore.  I also plan on trying to get as much of my life back as I can instead of just accepting my limitations.
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Thanks March of Dimes!  I hope you continue to do for other stroke survivors as much as you have done for me.  Every stroke victim should have the same opportunities I had.
 
Yours Truly,

Ralph Fedato

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