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September 3, 2008 Something I wrote a couple of years ago. |
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Posted September 3, 2008 at 12:53 am
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A pair of Quadriplegic Shoes, want to try them on?
You always hear, “If you could only walk a day in my shoes”…. Try these on for size and then think about your life.
Just imagine, for just one day, or even better, just one hour, sitting in a wheelchair or even just lying on your bed, unable to move, no matter how bad it hurts, no matter what itches. You can’t readjust so that you’re comfortable, YOU CAN”T MOVE! You’re brain isn’t really receiving that information, because you have an injured spinal cord. Now imagine, you’re on a ventilator. You can only breathe when the machine pumps air into your body. Then for some unknown reason, one of the tubes pops apart. You can’t move, you can’t talk, you can’t yell for help. All you can do is wait and wonder if anyone hears the alarm on the ventilator going off, or if they even care what it is. Just try to hold your breath for just 1 minute, ok, now 2, now 3….no cheating, you can’t move or breathe on your own, remember?
Now matter how hard you try to do this, it’s not even close to what it is really like. An able-bodied person passes out after a few minutes with no air and starts to breathe again when the brain takes over. If you are uncomfortable, you readjust your body to a comfortable position.
This is just a sliver of what being paralyzed is like. If you are at home, with friends, who just happen to also be your nurses, these worries are a lot less. But, if you are in a nursing home, these concerns are always in your head.
Rick Davidson, Author
Written November 12, 2004
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