The first of my blogs for SIA unfortunately had to be postponed, as I was recently knocked for six by a dreaded U.T.I. As someone who has had a spinal cord injury for over a decade now, I am still shocked by how easily these occur and how debilitating they can be, and ultimately how difficult life can be when trying to juggle the health complications of spinal cord injury and an active and diverse work and social life.
In fact, I recently met a newly injured young woman who asked me how I manage, and for a few seconds I was silent, as I tried to pull together an honest answer. How do I manage my life, and at the same time cope with the threat all of the primary and secondary complications of spinal cord injury?
The threat of pressure sore, the complications of bladder and bowel management, or mismanagement, the risk of U.T.I., kidney infection, chest infections etc. etc. the list of possible problems is never ending. And many of these worrisome obstacles can leave us bed ridden, unable to use our chairs or worse, and realistically all of them can happen very easily and often very suddenly. So how do I cope I wonder?
I think I learned the hard way.
Three years after my injury, I was at university in London, and was sat with some friends on a pub bench. I didn’t have a cushion underneath me and unfortunately, unknown to me, I got a splinter that turned overnight into an abscess. The abscess had to be quickly removed, and by the end of a couple of dramatic days in hospital, I found myself at my parent’s home, lying on my mum’s bed, looking at what was the start of my first experience of bed rest. The abscess was very slow to heal, and I had to lie on my stomach for six months straight before it was almost healed. I was able to continue my degree from home, and I remained positive, learning to knit to pass the time! However, the wound hadn’t healed correctly and after six months lying in bed, I was told that in fact, I would have to do ANOTHER six months. I was deeply upset, and to make matters worse, I was forced to postpone my year at university. I started to get depressed. After a year of bed rest, I desperately tried to return to my wheelchair, but the pressure caused problems. A further YEAR of bed rest was recommended by the doctor.
It was then, after two years on bed rest, that I really learned how I was going to cope with life as a paraplegic. And the answer was, and still is, with the support of my family.
Whilst I was on bed rest I was utterly dependent on my parents, not only emotionally and physically but also financially. Despite keeping myself active doing Open University distant learning courses, I was utterly incapable and needed all of my basic needs met. My mother and Father looked after me, and without them I would have been totally stuck.
So even now, at 30 years old, working and living independently, I have to admit that the answer to how I cope with the added complications of spinal cord injury, is the knowing that I have a strong supportive network of family (and friends) around me, who enable me to go out and live the life I am able to live, whilst at the same time have my back when dark side of spinal cord injury – inevitably – happens!
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