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[wanting2understand]

I am new here and do not have an injury.
I am a woman who met a guy 2 months ago that I am enamored with and he happens to have had an SCI.
I see no reason to shy away from pursuing a relationship with him in any aspect.

Not knowing anything about what is appropriate to ask and actually which questions should be asked, I would like to find people willing to communicate with me about my sincerely genuine questions. I hope I have found a place that will help make me aware and understand. So please forgive my naivete or possible unintentional inappropriateness.

When I get interested in a person - I general go full steam and so my mind starts thinking of all sorts of stuff. Is it wrong to be thinking of ways to treat the injury (reverse-correct or improved coping mechanisms)? Is that too much like finding a love who starts out with wanting to "change" you (which nobody likes)?

The first flood of ideas that came in were really just a comparisons to other medical breakthroughs. Stuff along the lines of "if they can do that, why can't they do this" type thoughts.

Bad arteries around the heart are fairly easily by-passed these days using pig arteries or other transplanted vessels of the same person's body. Soooo - why can't they by-pass the spinal cord injuries? I considered this my "jumper cables" idea and started discussing it with people I knew in the medical field for just bouncing the idea off of them. I didn't want to discuss it with my new friend thinking it would be inappropriate and only talked with friends I knew who moved away out of my life (only pen pal status) to prevent awkwardness when/if this new guy were to meet family and friends. My medical friend was an occupational therapist and said I should have considered a career as a neurophysiologist based on my analysis and ideas. I gave her alot of detail and material, she suggested to bring my ideas to the attention of Case Western Reserve University since they have a bio-medical engineering department. I live in the Cleveland area.

Well I Googled some more after that and found this article. I am so thrilled to see I was thinking along the same lines as "people in the business". (and the actually people I was preparing to meet with)

What do you think about this article and how far out do you think in years will it be before they are able to offer this options to the public? I think I read somewhere that 80% of the progress that has been done so far with SCI has happened in the last 20 years. This seems like great progress.

If an option is presented to reduce the limits of your SCI, do you hesitate to consider it since you've adapted to your way of life and there is nothing wrong living a happy life just the way it is?

I think change can be scary especially a significant change. It's one thing when the change is not an option and it's another thing when it's a choice. Do I need to curb my enthusiasm?

Breakthrough regenerating nerve endings - seeking treatment for SCI