I am a complete T4/5 due to an auto accident on 30Nov08 and I have gained no sensation below my level of injury. I can make my toes, left leg, and gluteus muscles spasm slightly through concentration, but it is a sometimes works/sometimes doesn't deal. I gained this about 4 months post injury. My question is, what is the longest time post injury that anyone has gained either sensation or movement?

Injured 16 DEC 06. Got some feeling back on the right side of my butt about 6 months post, and got some feeling back in my left testicle shortly after (found out when I sat on it on the bedside commode... ). Nothing else so far.

You're going to find that people heal for years to come, post injury..

Dont give up hope or feel defeated just yet.. Its too early to 'settle'

I am 3 yrs post injury and am STILL getting feeling and muscle control below my injury. I was even changed from a complete to incomplete injury 9 mo ago, ASIA A to B. You just have to keep working at it and don't give up!!

This has been a question that has haunted me many times in reading posts like the above.

What defines a complete injury? If you are complete,, can you really become incomplete,,, or were you really incomplete all the time? If you get any return below your injury level,, can you be called complete?

Brenda is not the first to claim "completeness" then return of sensation or function,,, so what are we talking about,,, a diagnosis by a doctor,, or a description of a condition?

I know that doctors can be mistaken about some things,, but can we really know what we're reading if we don't all subscribe to the same definitions?

A little help here,, please.
ed

Good point Ed,
There are NO absolutes in SCI's. What was diagnosed as complete at the time of injury, may very well become incomplete when movement suddenly appears. This occurance must be seen as a misdiagnosis, although the doctor would argue that vehemently, no doubt stating it as a CHANGE in diagnosis. God knows, doctors by todays standards are never WRONG.--haha. They just don't have all the facts laid out in front of them.

I'm 24 years post injury and still expect to get a little bit of sensation return here or there. It's been happening for years, why stop now?

BTW, I was absolutely diagnosed at a 100% complete back in 1985. I've been recovering a little, VERY slowly since.

Howdy mcfergeson .. I'm 25yrs post injury, & I attribute 50% of my 'almost full sensation' to my brain back in '83. Whilst lying in traction, stoned out of my tree for 8wks, I counted on my fingers & toes, in my minds eye .. 12345678910 & 12345678910, over & over until my brain trained my thoughts/nerves to hang onto the feeling of a typewriter/piano key, skin, material, anything! You do not have to pray, physically work on it, only consentration, visualisation & positive thinking is required. I don't mean to finish on a negative note, but 5yrs ago, I noticed tiny numb patches on the back of both legs getting larger. The complete opp to 4estGimp.
I was also initially diagnosed wrongly as a complete for a whole 5 days. None of us are alike.

thanks for the tip, i'm going to start trying to do that!