My name is Catie,
My boyfriend Billy was hit by a drunk driver 33 days ago walking on the side of the road. He suffered an incomplete C-1/C-2 fracture and obviously venilator dependent. Everyday is hard but I pray every night for his recovery and have several prayer chains in kansas going for him. Billy's lungs are in terrible shape, doctors said he will never move anything below the neck again and will live off of a venilator the rest of his life. With my prayers and all the other prayers Billy started moving his left leg week one. Week two he started moving his left fingers and reacting to pain. Week three he was able to lift his hand up, squeeze, flip you off, and twist as well as bend his knee upward and side to side. Week four he can now move fingers on his right hand and slightly on his right leg, he lasted 7 hours yesterday off the venilator and can currently swallow things. Keep your faith and keep praying. Its so hard to stay strong for the both of us and were both so young but the thing that keeps me going is his sense of humor, he is still Billy and thats what made me fall in love with him. Im just trying to find as much info on this type of injury to the c-1/c-2 and what type of recovery he's looking at, statistics, and possibly personal experiences anybody could share with me to encourage him to keep fighting.

Hi Catie!

I am new to this too. My brother was injured..paraplegic a couple of weeks ago due to a gunshot wound. Keep praying...and remember All Things Are Possible With God. You are in our prayers.

Thank you! I will keep your brother in our prayers:)

I am a C/5 incomplete, I was injured more than 13yrs ago when I was only 16. I was also given the list of thing I would never do but I proved them wrong! Every time something new came back I was told it's just spasms or a reflex and they would remind of all the things I'd never do. Well long story short I walked out of there three months later and went on to recover more than 80% of my abilities. Never let anyone tell him what can't be done, focus on what he can do and improve on it. Life will never be the same but strength and hope will get you both through.

Thank you very much, I appreciate your post more than you know.

The joys of being Incomplete. I say look at a GP on Neuro-Plascity. A study on retraining the motor units (nerves) to gain more movement. I hope this helps

C1 C2 incomplete injury here for you... proving doctors wrong is always a lot of fun! Tell Billy to keep up the sense of humor

Hey, My friend has just had his accident, and he has major damage to t4/t5, apparently severed the spinal chord. Is this what the difference is between when everyone says complete or incomplete. Does this make the difference to his rehab in as far as what movement he will be expected to have?? I have been told he has autonomic nervous system is fine. Can you tell me what this means?? I am really niave about all this and do not have access to my friend in hospital at this stage.

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. A complete spinal cord injury is when there is a complete disconnect of the spinal cord. If his spine is severed completely, with no sensation or movement, I believe he would have a complete injury. Incompletes are when there is still some connection. This varies from person to person, but people often have sensation but not movement or vice versa. It doesn't have to be this though. You could have loss of a few sensations and movement, or any combination of loss and this would be an incomplete injury.

I believe autonomic nerves are things that you don't consciously control. Your heart, for instance, beats on its own. You don't really control it. Things like your digestive track are also autonomic.

To the original poster: My prayers are with you. I love to hear that he's beating the doctor's expectations! That's insanely awesome - the amount of progress he's made.