15 replies to this topic

[bdmpastx]

So the question looms...
What did you accomplish in your first year of being a para or quad?

As for me,
May 6th was my year since my accident. The first 7 months I was in a bed and 3 out of the 7 I was in the hospital. I started rehab in December...returned to work January 16th, 2005. Started driving February 7th. Right now I am about 90% fully independent. There are a few things that I am incapable of doing and will never be able to do like heavy lifting and such. But that's ok really. Age and level of injury may play an important part in this question too. I am a T4 ASIA A 30y/o. So post up what you have accomplished.

I also think it gives hope to the newly injured to see what one can do in just a years time.

If you feel like it, you can also look at my webpage
My Webpage

Edited by bdmpastx, 19 May 2006 - 12:58 PM.

[gazrobsuk]

Well in my case I had my accident on June 9th 2000 & after two weeks at Bath I was transferred to Stoke Mandeville but managed to escape on Dec 15th which is a very short time for a quad but I had already a bungalow & a strong wife :-) but a big ambition was to walk out & have no catheter which I did just by parking the car right in the main entrance, since then I started work full time from home but didn't drive until I received compensation in 2003.

Barring recent problems with my heart & osteomyelitus I've managed to keep achieving & beating my targets each month by being positive & fiercly determined despite chronic pain. I've achieved a hell of a lot even for an incomplete quad & hopefully once I'm over my ankle I'll carry on.

My full story is on my web below in signature.

bdmpastx, on May 18 2006, 11:34 PM, said:

So the question looms...
What did you accomplish in your first year of being a para or quad?

As for me,
May 6th was my year since my accident. The first 7 months I was in a bed and 3 out of the 7 I was in the hospital. I started rehab in December...returned to work January 16th, 2005. Started driving February 7th. Right now I am about 90% fully independent. There are a few things that I am incapable of doing and will never be able to do like heavy lifting and such. But that's ok really. Age and level of injury may play an important part in this question too. I am a T4 ASIA A 30y/o. So post up what you have accomplished.

I also think it gives hope to the newly injured to see what one can do in just a years time.

If you feel like it, you can also look at my webpage
My Webpage

Edited by gazrobsuk, 19 May 2006 - 08:48 AM.

[russ1]

After my injury I managed 2 helicopter trips - within the first 24 hours
6 months in hospital/rehab. Got car converted and was driving two months later and this was me at 11 months post injury on another continent



started back at work part time at about 1 year post injury.

I don't reckon I did too bad but I know a lot of paras who did a lot better including one T4 complete who managed a wheelchair marathon within his first year. Age and injury level play a huge part in this though.

T2 complete - 40 yr/old

[Gibbo]

I was injured 20th august 05 and was out of stanmore spinal unit by january 12th 06, i am t9 complete,
i had never drove a car b4 my injury now i have booked my test for 19th june and got a new car on its way, playing wheelchair basketball and independant now, and found out who real mates are.

Gibbo

[Lucydog]

I got pregnant which was a nice surprise! Obviously my SCI didnt stop me from being sexually active for long! We also sold our house and moved several hundred miles away and started a new and better life.

[In The Wind]

My first year…6 months in the hospital, another 6 of living hell at my new (old) home. It’s been almost 5 now and even though I still live at home I’m fully independent …even own a boat and do the lake thing as much as possible, swimming and scuba with bikini watching thrown in for good measure..

To those reading this thread;
DO NOT TAKE THE ABOVE POSTS AS ANY SORT OF BENCHMARK

Your injury is different than anyone else’s and your recovery will vary. While I applaud the advances made by the other members of this forum, and am grateful for my own, you will progress at your own rate, good or bad. I rode (bicycle) in the top 6% and it still took me over 2 years before I could get into bed by myself.

[bdmpastx]

In The Wind, on May 19 2006, 05:02 PM, said:

To those reading this thread;
DO NOT TAKE THE ABOVE POSTS AS ANY SORT OF BENCHMARK

Your injury is different than anyone else’s and your recovery will vary. While I applaud the advances made by the other members of this forum, and am grateful for my own, you will progress at your own rate, good or bad. I rode (bicycle) in the top 6% and it still took me over 2 years before I could get into bed by myself.

Absolutely true...
I just thought that it would give inspiration to those that have no outlook on their new life. It should open the doors for what can be accomplished.

BTW, you scuba? I have always wanted to scuba. Not to mention bikini watch...lol. I think I got that one down pat. I want to go to Cancun or Cosomel and do some diving. I have always had a facination with floating under the water and seeing all the interesting things that lurk below.

[In The Wind]

Navy Brat..been in the water my whole life...don't need legs to dive and I found these really cool webbed gloves (Board gloves) that give me plenty of power in the water

[Chilepepper]

Well I have to say that when I was injured I guess you can say I fall off the face of the earth for about 20 years. Overdoing everything in with regards to boze and drugs. I even ended up in jail for about a year. I really took it hard when my life changed in a heart beat. At the time of my injury I was 19 years old, and full of spit and viniger. So it's nice to hear that you guys got back on par so shortly after your acciedent. One last thing I have to say is, when looking back over those crazy years, man oh man I sure did have fun. But would not do it over it again? Not a chance

[itsjustme]

Hi Guys!

I so envy your strength your ability to move your bodies. I'm at the other end of the spectum.

I'm two years into my paralysis, a 55 woman with arthritic shoulders and not independent enough and wondering how to make the most of what I have left now.

I took a sweat band into rehab with me and I worked hard but I used to laugh and ask my therapist if a "fat old lady" could really do all that they were trying to teach me to do and in reality the answer was no, especially when I got out of the ideal setting of the hospital and into the real world.

I was so active before, not like you guys, not quite so physical, but always on the go, always busy, up with the sun and the hummingbirds. I can't figure out how to grab the bull by the horns anymore. Sometimes I can't even grab the cat by the tail anymore.

[Apparelyzed]

Ohhh, I'd love to grab next doors cat by the tail, but that's another story!

Before my accident, I used to cycle alot, weight train,and travel with my work. I used to film F1 racing cars, for 6 months before my accident around the world. I met Senna (not the Senna I now know!), Prost, Mansell and many others.

After my accident, I spent 12 months in hospital, so this thread excludes me then!

Not!

After 5 months in hospital, I'd finnished my relationship with my girlfriend (which was going nowhere), and met my wife who was my primary rehab nurse.

We're stil together, married since 1995, and have a 7 year old daughter.

So, I guess I've done quite a bit really, considering it all stemmed from my first 12 months!

Simon.

[Gary Anderson]

Difficult question, as it was 17 years ago, however, here goes:-

Spent time in Croydon hospital initially fighting for life after at train crash.
Spent 6 months in Stoke Mandeville being shown how to "live as a paraplegic"
Whilst in Stoke my marriage broke and I divorced my wife.
Got home to may parents in Middlesex, discovered that I could not be a surgeon as I had planned so re-trained and became an anaesthetist.
Learned to drive a h/control car.

In the years since I have built up my career; take up a new relationship which ended; been in another accident which this time paralysed my arm.

However, I continue to go on.

Life is never dull

REMEMBER - NO 2 PEOPLE ARE THE SAME AND WHAT THEY ACHIEVE YOU MAY NOT.

I am always getting asked about disabled sports - my answer is I NEVER played sports before my accident and have never thought about starting after. However, I try to do the things I did before - just in a different way.

[kanga2433]

Well, I suppose I ought to join in. As someone with an illness rather than an injury most of my first year was quite different from the rest of you. I had been receiving help with continence (urinary leakage) for a few weeks when on a Thursday in June when I had a neurology appointment my left left became numb and spastic and walking was very hard. A kind and helpful junior reg just told me that he was sure I had MS and that was that consultation. Great!

My paralysis came on a couple of days later and my GP decided with the consultant I should get steroids at home and this happened. It was the hot summer of 1983 and I was glad when the steriods finished! nothing happened to my condition though, and rather than offer rehab, I was told it would not be long before I recovered and it just wasn't worth doing anything. So I went back to work 4 weeks later by wheelchair. (That is another story, it took 3 weeks to get a chair. Good job I had been left one!)

Well left to ourselves I had to work out how to use the wheelchair and to jump kerbs and everything. we were helped by having worked as volunteers at Stoke Mandeville ih the late 1970s so we had some idea what was possible. I got a car and started driving on hand controls in November and was taking our 2 children out on my own shopping and museum visits etc.

By the end of the first year I was very independant and, apart from the wheelchairs dished out then, a couple of tons of steel!, we managed quite well. of course, I did not improve so and still here but sat in the best wheelcahir I have ever used a Quickie GPV. So, that's me.

[Roooost]

Nice pic Russ1.... I've always wanted to try that but there is no snow where i live

Well in my first year i didnt accomplish too much, i was only 14 years old. I was quite devastated and cried a lot. I did manage to become independant, return back to school and get my Special drivers lisence which allowed me to drive to school at the age of 15. Dont expect too much in the first year, regaining your independence alone is a challenge and a good accomplishnet.

From there things got worse before they got better, i got stuck in with a bad crowd and turned to drugs and crime and it took me some years to figure out i was heading down the wrong track and that life was still worth living.

Moving forward a few years (i am now 27) i have built a nice house, gotten married, have a great job that pays good money, raced go-karts and cars and kicked many an able bodied persons ass.

I have also kept going with the thing i enjoy most... Dirtbikes, unfortunatly i now need 4 wheels instead of 2 but i still have a blast as you can see below...



If there one thing i have learned its that you can do almost anything you set your mind too (within reason of course) Never give up cause there is plenty of fun out there to be had if you make the mose of your situation.

[Apparelyzed]

Great Wheelie Marcel, but you forgot to show what happened next!

[Roooost]

HAHA... oops, um yes that is what happened next!

Luckily i was only in 1st