Living ones life day to day life is fairly safe. Most people decide for themselves if the benefits or thrill outweigh the risk they are willing to take. People who play sports know there is some degree of risk of injury but participate anyway. People who drink to get drunk or do drugs know the risk but do it anyway.
I woke up, went to work and became paralyzed and unable to breathe in less then 10 minutes. I was walking around doing my normal daily life. I was not doing anything out of the ordinary. No one did anything to me. I could not blame someone for doing it to me. I could not blame myself for somehow causing it. It's just something that happened to me.
I don't sit around feeling sorry for myself. A little over a year after I became paralyzed I was doing some computer programming work for the same company I use to work at. Computer programming was not my job. I had been an assembly technician many assembling parts for a medical device under a microscope. I learned how to program on my own so I could do the job they need me to do at the time. I now volunteer at a non-for-profit association helping others. I spend a lot of time with fundraising efforts for medical research, not with the illusion that it will benefit myself, but with the hope a cause and prevention could be found. I have found a purpose for my life.
I know I am fortune to have a good support system around me, and for that I am grateful. I know my life could be a lot different if it wasn't for the family support I have.
Jim
17 year c2 quad due to acute transverse myelitis at age 21.
At 09:10 PM 6/7/2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Wow Jim,
Riding in a car puts your life in danger. Eating fast food, breathing our crappy air, drinking our crappy water, going out in public, jumping bikes, kissing, smoking, taking drugs, landing on your feet from jumping..,.... what exactly would you consider 'safe'? I remember my 1st gimp visitor at about 2 months post, I told him to get out - that wasn't going to be MY life, I was going to walk again.
Dave
In a message dated 6/7/2006 7:43:56 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
- Well, I was one of them.
- Like Stacy, I got sick and the result was me becoming a vent dependent and paralyzed from the neck down when I was 21. I woke up with a sore shoulder, an hour later I had trouble standing, then stopped breathing. I've been paralyzed ever since.
- When I was in rehab, the psychiatrist in all his wisdom, had another vent dependent quad come in to talk to me. This guy had gotten drunk and dove off a pier into shallow water. So me who never drank before and became paralyzed by a completely unknown cause thought this guy was an idiot and brought it upon himself. Can you see why I would feel that way? It's not like I did anything to put my own life in danger.
- Jim
Jim Lubin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://makoa.org/jim
disAbility Resources: http://www.makoa.org
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