128 replies to this topic

[Irish Wheelz]

I had cancer (astrocytoma http://en.wikipedia....iki/Astrocytoma) at 1 year old. Chemo and surgery got rid of it. Was using walker and cane to walk till I got my first wheelchair at 8. At 13, had surgery on my back to input a rod to straighten my spine out. After a 10 hour operation, I woke up in ICU not being able to move my legs, foot, and toes and couldn't feel below my stomach. I'm 23 now and I have partial feeling now, and I can move my hips a little. But still can't move my legs, feet and toes.

[scaldedcat]

I had a gutter cleaning franchise and foolishly decided I didn't neen to wear my harness on this particular job as the roof had quite a low pitch. Unfortunately the tin roof was in very poor condition with nails poking up everywhere, and yes I tripped on one and was in the air falling before I knew it. As I mentioned in previous posts, it was our Prime Minister's house at the time that I fell from, but didn't matter whose house it was, result was always going to be the same.

Tim

[bythegraceofGod]

I went in for spinal surgery on Jan 10th, 2011. I had to have a spur removed from T9 in the canal, and severe stenosis cleaned up from there down. My 6 hour surgery took 10.5 hours. There were issues in my lumbar area. I came out not being able to move from the waist down. I spent a day in ICU, and then went to ECU for 4-5 days, and was then moved to a general surgery floor. That is when the fun began. I was there a couple of days when I had a hard time breathing, it felt like someone was setting on my chest. They checked me out, gave me an EKG, heart rate was about 240 at that time. Dr. called a code, and the room exploded with people. He said I wasn't having a massive heart attack, but more than likely had a clot in my lungs. They rushed me to cat scan, and had to pull me out because my heart rate was at 300. They got it calmed down and found I had a massive clot saddling my lungs. They put a filter in my vena-cava and started blood thinners. I asked that they not call my wife because we live an hour away, and my thinking was that if I am going to die it will be before she can make it here so why have her racing down the highway. When I came out from having the filter put in they told me she was on her way, I was a little pissed, but what could I do. It wasn't a few days later that I spiked a 104 degree fever that wouldn't go down. They put me on a cooling blanket for 12 hours (that sucked!!!), and afterward determined I had an infection in my incision. I had emergency surgery to clean up the incision, followed my 2 more surgeries to get it under control. We later found out I had contracted MRSA. There is a plus to having MRSA; no roommates........lol. I was able to leave after 22 days in the hospital, and go to a rehab center. I was there for a week when I spiked another fever. I was taken back to the hospital and had another surgery to remove a 500cc clot from my incision. Another 8 days in the hospital, and then back to rehab. I spent 51 days in rehab. I left there in a wheelchair. I have in home therapy twice a week. I am able to walk 100-150 feet with 1 helper and a wheelchair follow. I am hopeful that I will walk again, my therapist is certain I will.
There were several occasions in the hospital that I asked God to just take me, I had had enough. I had more complications than what I shared. I was put on zoloft in rehab, and am thankful that they did.
I am happy and positive most of the time. I cannot change my situation, only work harder. God has given me the gift of patience. The Lord blessed me with many wonderful people, and experiences throughout this as well.

[chat]

I was only 13 years old when I was hit by a stray bullet in my lumbar area.

[Lovleysons]

my brother went to catch his own football toss...and fell....breaking his c-2. on a sunny beautiful spring day in a park.... u never know what tomorrow brings or for that matter today. live love and laugh.. ..

my brother went to catch his own football toss...and fell....breaking his c-2. on a sunny beautiful spring day in a park.... u never know what tomorrow brings or for that matter today. live love and laugh.. ..

[tsh3406]

You people really piss me off. I lived my entire life around horses, cattle, guns, farm equipment and 18 wheelers. The best I could do was an f'n CHEVETTE?! REALLY?! How embarrassing....

[Ms. T]

Here's the "condensed" version....My spinal cord/nerves were damaged during one or both parts of a non-invasive 4-level lumbar fusion in July 2011. I woke up after the second surgery and could not feel/use my right leg. I underwent a third surgery two days later and was able to feel the leg afterwards, but the nerves were and still are damaged. I spent a total of 26 days in the hospital where I underwent extensive rehab. I am now at home and am still mostly in a wheelchair, but can use my walker for short periods of time as long as I am wearing my brace and am able. I am so glad I found this site, although my problem seems small compared to most I've read here!

[Cathelena]

Was driving homee, a five hour drive after visiting relatives, in the early hours of the morning. Was a couple of miles from home when my car skidded on ice and turned over. Ended up still in the seated position with my legs completely over my body, after crashing into a tree. Broke all my ribs, my collar bone and broke my spine at T4.
Remember every second of it and was terrifying. All i can remember thinking is that a car was going to come up behind me and crash into me. Luckily, a guy living nearby heard the crash and called 999. Remember being cut out of the car and then blacked out somewhere between there and being in the ambulance. Woke up two weeks later in hospital, after being in a coma, and the first thing i was told by the nurse was that i would never walk again. I was still so out of it from all the drugs, i simply said "thanks very much for letting me know" and went to sleep!!!

[kidrock]

Medical accident in 2007 caused spinal cord disease (Arachnoiditis) took about nine months and full paralysis kicked in.

[Willdeacon]

hi, I feel abit of a fraud writing this but here goes, 16june this year out for a leisurely mountain bike ride with my gf in dalby fores, yorkshire,uk, came off my bike landing head first in the ground, new straight away id badly hurt myself as was totally numb from waist down and right arm was pointing the other way! air lifted to james cook uni hospital and went straight into a+e resus, had mri,ct,xrays etc and was told id fractured c6,c7 and compound arm fracture. Went straight to theatre for vertibectomy and decompression, woke up next day in itu and told mite not ever walk again.....gutted! to cut a long story short I walked out of hospital after 7 weeks with a walking stick! 5 months later im back to work on light duties...i met some great friends on the spinal unit, felt really guilty walking outa there, im one very lucky man.

[Raspberry]

Sunday March 10th 2002. Luxembourg. Nice day. World Superbike season starts. My boys, Chelsea, away at Tottenham in the FA Cup Quarter Final.

Phone the UK girlfriend* (Long story, for another time...maybe ) - she was too busy to chat, so I just let her know my plans for the day.

Ride my 6 month old Kawasaki ZZR600 up to Vianden in the north of Luxembourg, to a biker-friendly café. Watch the WSB, cheering on Chris Walker, in the company of German & Dutch bikers.

After the WSB ends, I ride back south, heading to the ex-pat Pub in Luxembourg City to hook up with all my mates and enjoy the footy...as the main roads are fairly busy on a Sunday afternoon, I decide to take the back roads, behind Radio Luxembourg (iconic for us old gits).

And then...somehow, for no apparent or obvious reason, I (and my bike) leave the road. An off-duty policeman in his own car is following me, 100m or so behind, and he reported that I was riding normally, not speeding or looning about (I'm an Advanced Motorcyclist - or was, anyway). He sees me enter a bend in the road, then when he arrives at the bend, he sees me & my bike in a heap in the field on the outside of the bend.

I probably have him to thank (or curse) for my surviving, as he knew the right course of action to take instantly. A short helicopter ride took me to the nearest hospital, where they realised I was beyond their help. A longer helicopter ride took me to Luxembourg City Hospital, where the initial prognosis was "Not long to live".

I'd broken C3, pulverised T4/5 & 6, punctured my aorta, and a lung, and broken several ribs. And a chest infection, which I'd been unaware of, prevented them from beginning too much treatment. 9 weeks induced coma followed, during which time their fantastic surgeons managed to repair my neck break so that I avoided quadriplegia, and got away with 'just' paraplegia.

If Google wasn't down (), I'd tell you how Chris Walker did in the World Superbikes...I've got a vague inkling of a faint memory that he might have come in 5th? Or 9th?

I do know that the mighty Chelse stuffed Spurs 4-0 at their place...

And after 11 weeks in the Intensive Care unit, I was transferred to a Rehab Centre where I got into my 1st , and waited to be repatriated to the UK, and the Odstock Spinal Centre at Salisbury Hospital.

[AmericasHorse]

I was 10 years old and I was on a trail ride and the horse I was on reared up twice. The first time I grabbed the reins by his mouth and he settled down. Being an experienced rider I new to get off and as a young child rider most are tough to put there leg over the front of the horse to dismount and I put it over the back, but i was experienced enough to do it either way. I did not get the opportunity to release my left foot from the stirrup yet (i wish now quick release stirrups had been invented then) and the horse reared up again and I got thrown. I flew threw the air like a rag doll with my hands and feet straight out in front of me and I hit a tree. First my spine hit then my head flew forward and snapped back and hit the tree and i slid straight down and slumped over. They thought I broke my neck first off and actually the way they carried me off the trail down to the driveway and the way they secure my head saved me from becoming a quad. I had one moment of lucidity while waiting for the ambulance to come and I remember hearing a gunshot, yes they put the horse down, had to for it almost killed a child. I was in the hospital for 6 months then did another 6 months of rebah.

[BoyFallDown]

Bad skydiving accident. Landed face first into a steel cattle fence. It's easier to tell you what I didn't break lol. 6 months in icu/rehab later and im trying to figure out how to skydive in a wheelchair haha, must have damaged my brain too.

[Raspberry]

BoyFallDown, on 16 November 2011 - 07:58 PM, said:

Bad skydiving accident.

While I was in the Spinal Unit, a girl came in who'd had similar.

What made her case unusual was that she had been signed up to be the skydiving body double for a Bond girl...called Jinx...in Die Another Day (Halle Berry). Owing to her professionalism, she went out to Spain to do a practice jump on the day before filming started...and her contract.

Uninsured loss...ouch.

[BoyFallDown]

Raspberry, on 17 November 2011 - 12:36 AM, said:

BoyFallDown, on 16 November 2011 - 07:58 PM, said:

Bad skydiving accident.

While I was in the Spinal Unit, a girl came in who'd had similar.

What made her case unusual was that she had been signed up to be the skydiving body double for a Bond girl...called Jinx...in Die Another Day (Halle Berry). Owing to her professionalism, she went out to Spain to do a practice jump on the day before filming started...and her contract.

Uninsured loss...ouch.

Wow, talk about bad luck. That beats my story

[KayDub]

Transverse Myelitis. The outpatient admissions woman at Craig is helping me come up with a more interesting story ha ha.

But I went through a lot of garbage to get the diagnosis. I started having ankle pain on the same foot I'd had multiple metatarsal fusions on a few years before when I ran college track (basically 2 years of surgeries putting metal rods in my foot then taking some out because of problems) The second surgery did nerve damage that they were unaware of and after months of crutches, pain pills and barely being able to leave my bed not crying to crutch to class in the sleet, they found out they sliced some nerves. I had a lumbar nerve block done and was even able to return to running. I was training with my old coaches in hope to qualify for the US Outdoor National meet/team up until I moved to Australia with my fiance (then boyfriend). The ankle was sore then and I shrugged it off to training or maybe tweaking it when I moved out of my apartment the week before. I didn't remember hurting it at all though and I had never had pain in my ankle just my foot with all my problems. Should have given those two "buts" more thought. Oh well.

Anyway ankle flared up more giving me excruciating pain, I got into a great ortho in Oz and he did a bone scan showing a stress fracture and tendon inflammation. Seemed minor for the amount of pain I was in but I shrugged it off, he gave me some Endone and a PT script and he left on holiday. The next day my ankle had swollen at least 3 times its size, like a balloon. After a day it got so bad I started using crutches. A day into crutches my left calf starting hurting, like a muscle pull. In the next day it quickly escalated to feel like a pull then an outright tear. I went to the ER who sent me home with pain pills and a sprained ankle diagnosis, telling me to just wait it out until my doc got back from holiday. A day later my legs were so swollen you couldn't see any bones below my knees (and I'm pretty skinny and boney). I went to a 24/7 clinic and was called a pill seeker and sent home. That Monday I went to get out of bed and couldn't move below my waist. It had been a week since my ankle bone scan. After two days of staying in bed, elevating, icing and taking all the pain killers they'd given me yet still bawling (and I really do have a high pain tolerance) my fiance insisted on taking me to hospital. At the ER I was classified as a child, put in the separate room in the ER and left alone for 4 hours despite having hard, hot red legs, paralysis and the fact I was bawling in pain. I overheard a nurse explaining to another I had a sprained ankle and wanted pills. When the doc finally made his way in and saw my legs he ordered blood tests. Once the results came back, they all came running back in saying I had very bad infections and clotting.

The whole time I was in hospital and hooked up to IVs of all sorts, I was told I was being treated for the clotting and infection and then had to be sent back to the US per my insurance. When I'd bring up my paralysis they'd say they were treating me for my clotting. When I finally was stable enough to be medevaced back to the States I was sent to my orthopedic surgeon since everyone assumed whatever happened was caused by my bad foot. An MRI, CT and X-ray later and everything was fine. I also saw a hematologist who said I should walk soon (but everytime I saw her would forget I couldn't walk at all) and to just keep using my blood thinners. After I felt they were getting worse and couldn't get ahold of her for an entire day despite multiple emergency calls, and when she finally got ahold of me at 5 pm and told me to go to the hospital for emergency ultrasounds, the radiologist said he couldn't even share the results since they couldn't get in touch with her and after I spent hours waiting I got sent home. On my birthday. I got a new hematologist who was much better and seemed to care about my situation. He did a few ultrasounds to monitor the clots and finally they disappeared but I was still unable to move. He said the clotting started in my right ankle but most likely had nothing to do with my previous injuries. Meanwhile the pain doc I saw had done a bilateral lumbar nerve block for my pain, thinking I had chronic regional pain syndrome from my track injuries. Oops.

After this revelation I finally got into see the neurologist I'd been waiting 2 months to see. He suspected Guillian-Barre. Until he did an EMG and while there was damage to my lower peripheral nerves in my legs, nothing was wrong higher up. That's when TM first came up. He suspected it was in my lumbar spine until an MRI showed the damage was in my T10 and it matched a physical exam for sensation and motion. I got the specific diagnosis almost 5 months after I was admitted to the hospital.

So yeah.... boring. But complicated.

[sisofbumface]

Hi,
I'm new here - although I have lurked for some time!

My little (I say little, but he's just turned 25!) brother is a C4 Complete Quad. He's my world and my inspiration. He's also an idiot and a pain in the @£$% at times, but such is family!

He was in a taxi, on the way to a bar for a night out when he was injured. He was 23.

The taxi simply didn't slow down and hit an oncoming vehicle.

He's ventilator independent, which is great for his level of injury and I'm hoping that he'll join the land of the living and the 21st Century when he gets his first laptop in a few days' time.

I don't need to tell you how heartbreaking it has been since his accident.

I must say though, without forums like this, it would be a million times harder.
N x

[Tetracyclone]

sisofbumface, on 19 November 2011 - 08:35 PM, said:

Hi,
I'm new here - although I have lurked for some time!

My little (I say little, but he's just turned 25!) brother is a C4 Complete Quad. He's my world and my inspiration. He's also an idiot and a pain in the @£$% at times, but such is family!

He was in a taxi, on the way to a bar for a night out when he was injured. He was 23.

The taxi simply didn't slow down and hit an oncoming vehicle.

He's ventilator independent, which is great for his level of injury and I'm hoping that he'll join the land of the living and the 21st Century when he gets his first laptop in a few days' time.

I don't need to tell you how heartbreaking it has been since his accident.

I must say though, without forums like this, it would be a million times harder.
N x

Hey Sis,
Great to have you here!

[Pete13]

I got injured diving into a pool i thought that was how everyone became a quad hahaha

[Raspberry]

KayDub, on 18 November 2011 - 08:03 AM, said:

Transverse Myelitis. The outpatient admissions woman at Craig is helping me come up with a more interesting story ha ha.

Holy crap KayDub...helluva nightmare - almost worth the last Brownie?

[Niceparalegs]

I was paralyzed on Dec 12, 2011 in a bad car accident. I was going 80 mph on a curve in the dark. Lost control, went into a couple ditches, rolled twice and wham bam boom...here I am.

[happywheels 88]

22nd of July 2011! Was driving along a dirt road and suddenly swerved for a animal, lost control and smashed my car along with my back, T12 incomplete.

[Ggerry123]

I was diving off a roof top of a boat in shallow water all afternoon aug 2010 the last dive a freind said something funny and I laughed as I was pushing off and slipped a little sending me straight down instead of out. I knew it was going to hurt when I hit bottom but I sure didn't think I wouldn't be able to at least crawl to shore, air lifted to hospital with broken c5 fracture! Come to find out because of my reckless and careless younger years,car wrecks,mc wrecks,snowmobile and body flipping my c5 had grown shut leaving a narrow path for my spinal cord ! It could have happened with just a small blow to my neck or head ,thank GOD it happened where there was a bunch of friends around !

[Wobbly]

Back of black cab who dint stop for a statonery car, hit roof, compression injury. Oops

[munkypoop]

Mine was a stupid drunken night. I was the passenger in a Ford Ranger pickup and my airbag had been turned off because the driver had a child in a car seat in that seat a few days before and never turned airbag back on. We hit a brick wall doing 70 mph.. I became a quadriplegic from that. The driver just hurt his ankle. I never have and never will, blame him. I blame myself, I knew better. In fact I sent my mom to his court trial for DUI/harming a person, and had her read that I did not think it was his fault and should not go to jail, etc. and it worked! He is now one of my PCA's, personal care attendants, and has been for 4 1/2 years.

[Xeres21]

 neilo96, on 25 June 2011 - 03:26 PM, said:

June 2010 out for a motorcycle ride. Drifted off side of road. Got thrown over a cement guard rail. Fifty feet down a rocky bank. Broke c1, fused from c4 to t4. A C7 incomplete. Both legs broke. Left wrist, multiple ribs, upper jaw and many teeth.

Very similar story here neilo, mine was border line deliberate however. Was racing early in the morning and wrecked going about 175mph.. went right under a semi when switching lanes. (shattered left hip, fractured pelvis, fractured scap/clavical, compound fracture left ankle, fractured my C5 and T3 vertibrae and a T5 compressed spinal cord. misc. fingers/toes/ribs.) I luckily went into a coma for a little over a month so I don't remember anything from the crash aside from what the police report reads.

I've read a lot of these of these stories and am saddened when I read people say "my story is interesting,cool,exciting etc as others" IMO be very fortunate that it isn't!

[SequinScandal]

Shot twice once in the face and once in the neck all because a girl was jealous of the fact that I was dating her ex and she had her brother shoot me. Stupid & senseless I know. I am embarrassed to even tell the story.

[tallgirl]

29-06-2007 Had a high fever and asked my friend to drive me to a doc...from then on I remember nothing, apparently came to hospital..on ICU the next day....woke up after three weeks......paralysed from the neck, ventilator and the whole shebang....then it went down to T4 a few weeks later and stayed there...first I was told it was TM...next day it was ADEM...nobody ever told me anything about prognosis or anything at least not as early as some of you guys were told.

[The Black Sheep]

I have been going through these posts again and I'm surprised to see how many people were diagnosed with TM. I was told it was extremely, extremely rare, and it took 4 neurologists 3 months to diagnose me back in 1998. Sounds like a few of you guys were assumed to have TM, then it changed. TM must be trying to become the new Polio, or something.

[tallgirl]

 The Black Sheep, on 16 April 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

I have been going through these posts again and I'm surprised to see how many people were diagnosed with TM. I was told it was extremely, extremely rare, and it took 4 neurologists 3 months to diagnose me back in 1998. Sounds like a few of you guys were assumed to have TM, then it changed. TM must be trying to become the new Polio, or something.

Hi Black,
I thought exactly the same....it's scary how the docs don't know too much about Myelitis. Before I left the hospital one asked me if I had been on a foreign holiday and were bitten by a mosquito.....if they don't know we're bummed...;oP