Kim & Duke
There Is So Much More to a Spinal Cord Injury Than Not Walking
I think the following joke sums up a spinal cord injury nicely…
Doctor: “I’ve got some good news and some bad news”
Doctor: “You’re never going walk again”
Patient: “Whats the good news?”
Doctor: “The bad news is, that was the good news”
When people think of a spinal cord injury they generally think of a person not being able to walk. This is the part that stands out the most (pardon the pun), and a lot of the time no one realizes that not being able to walk is just the tip of the iceberg. The hidden parts of a SCI that the public don’t usually notice is the bladder and bowel dysfunction, risk of pressure sores, autonomic dysfunction, nerve pain, muscle spasms, the hardware and pumps inside bodies, the scars from surgeries, and the list goes on…
Sometimes I wish people would look past the fact that I’m sitting in a wheelchair and notice these other things, but other times I’m happy they don’t because then I am not viewed as so different than anyone else.
Chloe and 
Chloe 2:54 am on August 1, 2011 Permalink |
Kim, I always appreciate your ability to say how it is, without either understatement or overdramatisation, just keeping it real. Your thoughts and feelings from different perspectives do not imply a contradiction, just complementary aspects of the same situation.
It seems very presumptuous of me to say that I get what you are talking about, so I beg your indulgence. Yet I do feel I have some understanding of such things. I have things visible, like being in a wheelchair, and things hidden. And I have exactly that same apparent conflict of emotion concerning what is not visible.
Even some specific things of which you talk, the universe has seen fit to give me teasers thereof. On Thursday night I experienced the most intense, and most painful, spasms yet. A few months ago I had my first, and only, very minor very small pressure sore.
Perhaps I am simply sending my resume to demonstrate that I am qualified to feel empathy. But it goes well beyond that. When I think of Kim I think of brilliance, integrity, compassion, understanding, problem solving, loyalty, determination, positivity, realism, creativity, kindness, humour, imagination…
Thank you for your openness and vulnerability, Kim. In a nutshell what I have to say is “There Is So Much More to Kim Than a Spinal Cord Injury.”
Kim & Duke 1:16 pm on August 4, 2011 Permalink |
Thank you so much Chloe! When I was younger I remember so many painful nights of spasms where my mom would sit on the bed next to me rubbing my legs to try to help. I’m glad I don’t feel them now, although they still cause AD sometimes and sometimes I do get them in my neck. The ones in my diaphragm that prevent me from breathing are the most worrisome at the moment.
I’m flattered by the last paragraph of your comment! I don’t know how to reply to that besides saying thank you…
Chloe 1:06 pm on August 7, 2011 Permalink |
I’ve been trying to bend my mind around how I would handle diaphragm spasms, without yet coming to a comfortable brain space about it. My leg spasms (from SCI), and upper back spasms (from fibromyalgia), don’t seem even remotely to prepare me for such a thing. How did you develop the psychological technique for dealing with this?
Kim & Duke 2:51 pm on August 7, 2011 Permalink |
Well I had no choice in the matter. They happen and I can’t tell when they are coming, how many there will be or how long they will last. The only thing I can do is either panic, which wont help at all, or wait them out.
Chloe 11:09 pm on August 7, 2011 Permalink |
Exactly the same words appear to be applicable also to computer malfunctions and bureaucrat attacks. These are the main things in life which cause me serious anxiety. Thank you for the expert psychotherapy. I feel like I should be paying you.