I know that was among my earliest thoughts after I was able to determine what was going o…
Am I discussing death here? No, Im referring to life after having a spinal cord injury. As I did why did I phrase the subject of the article? Because for many people who suffer a cord injury, their first thoughts after being informed of paralysis, or wheelchairs, or a spinal cord, inducing the patient to never have the ability to go again, is definitely death. Why did I even live?
I know after I was in a position to determine what was going on that was one of my earliest ideas. I was recommended that I had an accident, once I regained consciousness from my three days of coma, by awakening to a breathing tube being drawn from my throat.
Maybe a hours later, its hard to recall just, I began to comprehend the great distress in the health practitioners face and voice as he communicated to me about how my back was broken in three places and the navicular bone had cut my spinal cord, and as a result I’d never be able to walk again. Perhaps it absolutely was at that time that I first wished myself dead.
Now its twenty-two years later. Ive had twenty-two years of utilizing a wheelchair for mobility. Ive had twenty-two years of Afterlife. My spinal cord remains severed. I still have paralysis from chest-level down (T-4 to be precise). I’ve numerous wheelchairs; a basketball wheelchair, a tennis wheelchair, a day to day wheelchair. Over the years Ive probably had close to 10 different wheelchairs. All of the seats, all of the catheters, all of the baclofen, all of the leg bags and tubes, all of the paralysis paraphernalia because of one moment in time of loosing get a grip on of my car, striking a, tree, and house, snapping my spine in three areas and hurting my back.
Wouldnt it have been better basically just didnt have this kind of after life and experienced the bog ending afterlife rather? Effectively, I cant answer that for certain because I have not had the oppertunity to compare the 2 alongside. But I can tell you that you can have a life and a fairly satisfying and satisfying life, if you so choose, even after a spinal-cord injury.
Michael E. Hylton, TheWheeledWorld.org, June, 2006
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