wheelchair worries

vintage,
Vintage I'm sorry to here that your recovery was awful, as if the whole deal isn't bad enough! One of the things I'm working on in rehab is my arm strength, I have quite high level of pain I'm my arm ands shoulders, so its a bit tough at this stage to steady myself, if I start to fall. The safety strap is permanent so far, I'm hoping to prove them wrong and not need it anymore At this stage the nerve pain in my upper body is the same horrible level as when I was first injured, having said this its only been two months, so anything can happen. When I first woke up in intensive care (I was in a coma for 4 days) after the initial holy crap what the hell happened wore off and I started to think a tiny bit clearer I tried to sit up, well the pain that shot through my upper body was enough to make me scream, but I remember thinking thank god its only the top half of me thats injured ill be back on surfboard in no time. That's about when I realised that not feeling pain from my chest upper chest down was bad. Because of the other injuries i got in the car wreck, i've pretty much just started rehab, but last week we were working on using my arms to lift my upper chest up that's step on of the "Ellie will sit up on her own again" journey, it must of looked hilarious! Even I was laughing, I kind of felt like a fish out of water my head goes so far forward and the shoulders go no where. First time they moved me from my hospital bed to a wheelchair, my twin brother went to push me and i had a complete melt down, I was so scared of not being able to control my upper body. Now I'm not scared just frustrated! I have been watching you tube clips of paraplegic and quadriplegic's doing transfers and things, quadriplegics have more control over their upper body then i do. This is going to change eventually but for right now i have to deal with it. Like i said my arms and shoulders have a lot of pain there, and they are very weak, i cant push my chair for very long at all. So for right now the strap is my friend but later on the strap will be banished

Okay, so the strap will probably be phased out later on. Or, maybe you would wear it only when you are alone on a campus, or something like that,...just for extra safety in certain circumstances. I'm sorry about your arm and shoulder pain. The pain would certainly interfere with 'strength building'. I didn't have arm or shoulder pain from my accident, but I had something a little similar. I'd had a 'slip and fall' accident eleven years previous. That gave me a rotator cuff injury (right shoulder). So, when the therapists told me to pull myself over and transfer to the wheelchair, I couldn't do it without help. I was also quite overweight at the time. I could tell that I would re-injure my shoulder if I tried to force it to do more than it could, but the therapists wouldn't accept this. Later, I figured out that they were under a time constraint to get me to transfer unassisted, or else they would have to suspend my services. If they would have just told me their time constraint, rather than treating me like I was a failure, I could have solved the problem. They would have had to allow me to transfer my own way, and they probably wouldn't have let me do that. (I lost a lot of weight soon after my accident. I don't use a sliding board. I tie my wheelchair to the bedframe. I turn sideways and fall backwards onto my bed. Then, lying on my back, I reach over my head and grab the rail on the far side of the bed, then pull my body further onto the bed.) The hospital therapists cancelled my rehab without teaching me hardly anything. More on this later.

I used to have a little herb garden. I thought I'd get home to it. But I can't cross the grass in my wheelchair. And the faucet is over by the herb garden. I can't get to it to water the plants. I'd planted seeds in pots when I had an aide to bring me the pots. But I lost the service that paid for the aide, and all my herbs died of thirst. So sad.

I want to get hold of my medical records to find out if I was in an 'induced coma', and if so, for how many days. I saw that for three days, the police department was calling every day to see if I'd died yet. Oh, and besides my broken back, the car took off my left leg above the knee. The impact also caused a nicked spleen. I have a scar from belly button up the middle of my chest from that surgery. ...pretty much 'road kill' that didn't go ahead and die. (I was standing behind my car when I was hit.) And, just like you, I'm just so happy for everything that I have left. I think that one thing that helps us through this is that we have always had a variety of interests and projects. Are you like that, too?

And thanks, Lara. You posted while I was writing.

Yes to what Iain says. You desperately need a seating evaluation with a very experienced wheelchair PT specialist. they are rare. Mostly we get evaluated by salespeople and only learn after years of poor seating that there ws a solution all along.

Was your upper body quite weak before your injury, or did something happen in the accident that affects your upper back and arms? Get an opinion on your MRI or xray from a competent neurologist. Or a second opinion. Most people manage to strengthen what they have.

Hi jzschaefer, and welcome. Will you be telling us a little about yourself?

elena , A seating evaluation will also help determine whether the dump (center of gravity) in your chair is enough. For your level, you need a bigger dump and some side guards so you have less chance of falling out of your chair.

Also, if you want to get stronger, the best starting place is to use exercise bands to build up strength. There are some good videos on the Shepherd Center app (SCI-Ex) for helpful stretches. Check out explanation of app on the link below.

news.shepherd.org/new-mobile-app-promotes-fitness-for-people-with-spinal-cord-injury/