Life in a wheelchair, adapting to spinal cord injuries

The statistics about the quality of life of people with spinal cord injury are dismal—with less than 33% employed, 27.3% living in poverty, and a 2 to 3 times greater likelihood of living with depression—all of these statistics and common stereotypes tend to paint a very gray picture of a life for someone paralyzed. Part of this can be attributed to the challenges of adapting to spinal cord injuries.

But when you think about it, how can you expect a paraplegic or low-level quadriplegic to find motivation to get out of bed if they don’t know that it’s possible to do it themselves? How does a ventilator dependent quadriplegic find motivated to go back to work if they don’t know others already do? Your entire daily life is shaken after a spinal cord injury. Houses have stairs, pants are usually put on standing up, and everything seems just out of reach. Many of us have experienced this or watched ones we love go through this, but it’s hard to understand this challenge until you have what I call “paralysis eyes”.

I never noticed the presence or lack of curb cuts until my quadriplegic friend was unable to get on or off a sidewalk. I never considered door width until my dad was unable to get into my apartment. Even the simplest daily tasks are a whole new process. For those who haven’t learned the tricks of the trade or acclimated to life in a chair, those challenges become insurmountable barriers that blur a view of a happy future.

SPINALpedia has a variety of videos for people to master the first steps to get one’s life back on track.  It is the simple tasks that are often overlooked, but are the foundation for adapting to spinal cord injuries. Again, it’s hard to imagine getting excited for the day, if you focus on what you “can’t do”. Our mission is to let people know what they “can do” by providing a platform that gives those of us who know what is possible an opportunity to share our experiences. It is vital that everyone living with paralysis knows that 1) they are not alone and 2) their life isn’t over.

In those first moments after learning someone has sustained a spinal cord injury, as the shock and disbelief started to wear off, many of us fell into fear. Most if not all of us know what we know now after enduring a steep learning curve as new members of the disability community. But now, we have the power to change this process.

The more people with paralysis motivated to take back the ownership over their lives, reaching whatever level of independence is attainable while improving overall quality of life, the more people we will have out of their homes, in the workforce, in schools and in society. People who already do this on a daily basis do not have to be anomalies. These people are trailblazers who have set a standard and now it’s our turn to make sure that the wealth of knowledge is shared to those who are still struggling in the world of the unknown.

People who operate with full mobility of their bodies have a constant source of input, learning from the majority of people around them. The same mutual learning can happen for those with paralysis, we just have to work harder to unite the community where that knowledge exchange is possible—hence the need for SPINALpedia.

Let’s be honest, everyone has challenges to endure in this life and they take a variety of forms. Sometimes they only manifest internally, other times you are left sitting in a wheelchair, putting your challenge out there for the world to see. Regardless of the nature of our life challenges, the mentality is the same for us as human beings: we support each other, we overcome, we thrive. There’s no reason we as a community can’t paint a more colorful picture of life with disability. It’s often not the life you plan, but it’s the only one you got, so it’s up to us to make the most of it.