i'm just trying to find someone to relate to. =]

Me, 17. My accident happend about 4 days before the start of my senior year. :/

I had just turned 14 before my injury. That was back in 2000

My wreck was a week after my 18th birthday.

mine was like a month before i turned 18.

Mine happend 11 days b4 my 18th birthday. today is my 3 year anniversary

ugh it was such a bummer. i was so flippin' excited to turn 18.

Oh yeah i know i couldn't wait to go out an buy all the stuff i couldn't before but nooooooooo instead i had my birthday in the ICU.

i know how you feel, i spent my 22nd bday in the ICU. not fun at all.

Yes, a car accident a couple months after I turned 17. I'd also only been driving for a few weeks when it happened. But that was 11 years ago.

Mine happened a month before turning 18. But that was 32 years ago. The only advice I have is to just take it a day at a time and try your best to live your life as if the SCI doesn't really change things. Sure the SCI does "change things" but in the end you still have to get up and go to work, you have to do chores around the house, you have to live your life just like everyone else has to. The big difference is we get to play the game of life on hard mode while everyone else plays on easy.

About 4 months before my 15th birthday we went out to dinner to celebrate my Aunt's birthday. On the way in I had a sign fall on my head: caused brain injury, numerous dislocations, and a break at L-2 with a spinal cord abrasion.

And yeah high school changed BIG TIME! I went from having all these different circles (several different sports, honors program, church, and others) then went to the person they waved at & said hi to but never hung out with anymore because I couldn't do many-most of the things I could before. Rather than whizzing through college prep and honors courses and still getting A's I struggled with "regular classes" just to get a C. Oh goody TBI's (Traumatic Brain Injury). Lucky me.......I got the "CNS combo package" ;)

But that was almost 20yrs ago. ;)

I was a few months shy of my thirteenth birthday; I'm now almost 17.

I was 16 years old, an above average athlete, I was talking with 2 different university's about scholarships.. i had it all figured out.. then BAM. lights out, no more football no more life.. so i thought. now i wouldnt change anything that happened for the world it taught me about life, and alot about people and what we are.

i had just turned 18...my accident was in aug 07, so im now 19, i was 2 days into college

I had my aaaccident when I youst turned 18 in november 2007 and now I am stuck in a stupid wheelchair but what could we do about it life is a bitch so whe have to move on.Some people like being paralyzed they say its fun,me I dont find nothing fun in being in a wheelchair.I have to deal with all this nerve pain that I have alat of medication for it and it doesnt seem to go away.So life bieng paralyzed for me a some people could be painful

Hey I was 18, now just turned 21

I was 18, now 37..time goes by so fast.

I was 18 and a month, but am now a knackered old 44.

The older I've got the more I realise that I've missed out on in this rather poor existence as a tetra.

But you've got a whole life to live in front of you, and as you only have one, you have to make as good of it as you can.

Good luck!

I x

Oh and by the way.....your gorgeous..

my sister was 16...it will be three years this may

Who in gods name have you met who likes being paralyzed and say's that it's fun????

I was 17 and that is four years ago now.My 18th birthday was in the hospital and it was one of the worst days of my life.I always looked forward to that birthday partying and having fun instead I had a uti that week.My biggest fear that day and today is growing old in the chair I'm 21.

i was 17 n now im 19...n i definitely fell like Andrew i had everything going for me and was looking at some college for soccer when bam..life was changed..but i cant change the cards i have only how i play em

strange: i spent my 18th biday in the hospital and also had a uti.

Well that makes 3 of us that spent our 18th in the hospital haha woot.

bummmmmer!

I was 17 and it happened just two months into my senior year of high school. The rest of my senior year was a real suckfest. That was 13 years ago though...14 this upcoming October.

Tom

ryan was 18 on saturday !
managed to get home for the day for the 2nd time just! was great

16 When I had mine 18 1/2 years ago. A life changing experience no doubt, for the better or worse? Who knows, I can't say where I would be had I not got injured, it's a pretty good assumption that I wouldn't have ended up where I was at in college when i met my wife.

I was injured when I was 15. I am T-12 incomplete. It has been 7 years (Feb. 11) now. I was very athletic I played volleyball, basketball, softball and I ran track. Volleyball & Basketball were my favorite sports and i was good. Basketball was my life then I averaged 16 points a night I had a few colleges looking at me already and I was only a Freshman. I took my life away by my own hand. I was very depressed my Freshman year one of my best friends was in a car accident she had tramatic brain injury she couldn't talk, walk, eat, nothing. She was going to be a senior that year and already had a basketball scholarship. It hit me really hard. I got really depressed started hanging out with the wrong crowd, started drinking, grades started slipping. The depression med they put me on I found out later it can make kids under 18 really suicidal. One night I got sick of everything and committed suicide I was lowering the gun cuz i decide not to do it as I was lowering the gun about half way down it went off. It turned into one big nightmare. I found out later the gun was old and touchy. I was in the hospital for 3 months. I got out in time to celebrate my 16th birthday that may. Early June my family, my sister and her now husband and his family and some of there friends all went to Vegas for my sisters Wedding. I was the Maid of Honor it was an awesome wedding it was like we had an outside wedding back home. I was happy i got to see my sister walk down the eisle with my dad and watch them get married. I still have the bullet in my spine. The rest of my high school years were hard. I did go to my Junior prom with my boyfriend at the time and stand for pictures thanks to my leg braces and walker. It is still hard to deal with being in a wheelchair and that I put myself in it but in some ways I'm happy cuz it saved my life at the same time cuz i was heading down a bad road. But Now I'm 22 and a Freelance Graphic Designer and Newly engaged and getting married June 12, 2010. I still feel like i'm a burden to my parents and my fiance cuz all they have to do with all my health stuff but my fiance says it does not matter as long as he is with me and my parents say they a just happy that I'm still here with them and alive.

I had mine just over a month after my 18th birthday. I was lucky to have it at that age as the doctors said I was super fit and wouldn't have survived it otherwise. I was released a week after my 19th birthday.

i was diagnosed at 4 mo. of age. my entire life has been a struggle for every ability i have. school was never easy, kids always made fun of me. as much as i lement on my short comings in life, i wouldn't have it any other way. i love having to work hard for what i have, i know that i can do anything i put my mind to. the doctors said i would be a complete vegitable, that i would never walk. i can walk and although i love my veggi's, i am certainly not one. having an SCI is devistating no matter your age. although, we have a unique oppertunity that no one else has in life. we can inspire by simply being ourselves. never give up hope!

p.s. don't forget to smile!

I was 18 when my acc happened...23 now and going strong. God, its 5years already. I'm getting old.

my fiance was 16 years old and had his wreck on july 4th !!! It will be 15 years this year !!!

Sheesh, If you're old at 23, what does that make me at 41. Actually, I have noticed I am able to give the right change when buying things these days and even find myself driving at or under the speed limit occasionally, OMG I must be ancient!

I was 16 at the time it was December 30th 2006... so no happy new years for me that year...
I'm t-7 complete..

I turned 15 and now I am 29. Wow how far away was that

I was 10 when a botched operation left me a complete T4, I am now 39!

I was 16 yrs old ... this is my 28th para-fest! lol

Hey, "J"
I was sweet sixteen when I had a miscue on a trampoline in gym class. That was 55 bears ago.

same here..exactly a week after

I was 17, 6weeks before i turned 18... nice birthdayparty in rehab.
I'm 22 years old now, so olmost 5years ago.
times fly's when yu having fun right?!

I was 17, the summer between my Junior and Senior year of high school, playing guitar in my band and working on my '52 Mercury. That was 1965. I'm 61 now. Time flies when you're having fun.

I was 13 when I had my accident which left me a C4 Quad with no movement from the neck down and that was 21 years ago. BLOODY HELL time fly's. Best advice I can give you IF any. Don't let the disability stop you from doing what you want to in life, make goals and chase them.

The worst thing I see and hear is when some people just wait and wait for a cure to happen.
I TOTALLY understand each individual needs there own time to accept their injury but the sooner the better. When that cure for SCI eventuates don't worry if we are alive when it happens then we will ALL know about it but in the mean time ENJOY life and do as much as you can.

P.s. HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT EASTER AND ABOVE ALL A SAFE ONE.

Cheers

I was 15 and my accident was 17 years ago.

I had just turned 14, just got released from the surgeon after having scoliosis surgery, was down the entire summer... not even a month of being "able" to do whatever I wanted physically... car accident and broke my neck. Just my luck... always been accident prone LOL. Evidently still am, learned a lot about my body after all the x-rays and ultrasounds... I only have one kidney and never knew it!

Hey,
I'm 17 now I broke my neck a little over a year ago snowboarding haha
Feel free to PM me

I Was 12 or 13 I forget?? I'm Now 42... Scary stuff when I think about it...

I became a c5 c6 Quad after a failed scoliosis operation. It was to cut off curving as I aged - Otherwise I Was Excelled in All Sports & was strong as an ox for my age...

Matt