Spinal injuries can have devastating results on the human body, and it can take a lot of rehabilitation of both the mind and body to get you back on your feet. Fortunately, with the help of surgeons like Dr Timothy Steel and therapy sessions, you’re on the right route for recovery.
As a survivor of a spinal injury, there’s a lot to think about. Not only might you have to seek a solicitor to claim compensation for a spinal injury, you will also have to persevere with your rehabilitation.
In this post we’re going to briefly touch on what spinal injuries are, before giving you some advice on how to recover and rediscover yourself.
What is a Spinal Injury and How Can it Affect the Body?
The spinal cord is an extension of the brain made up by a thick bundle of nerves that carry messages from the brain to the rest of the body. If the spinal cord is damaged because of a spinal injury, this communication pathway is disrupted, which can cause a loss of movement and feeling below the injury. The causes of spinal cord injury are usually either an accident, infection or disease.
How Will a Spinal Cord Injury Affect my Body?
The higher up the spinal cord injury is, the more movement and feeling will be lost. The most common spinal injury symptoms, dependent on where you damage your spinal cord, include:
♦ Paraplegia, resulting from damage in the back, which affects the movement and feeling in your legs and potentially your stomach muscles.
♦ Tetraplegia, resulting from damage in your neck, affecting the movement in all four limbs, the stomach and some of the chest muscles.
Both tetraplegia and paraplegia can be either complete or incomplete. Complete is the loss of all feeling and ability to control movement, and incomplete is where there is still some movement and feeling.
Recovering and Rediscovering Yourself After Your Spinal Cord Injury
Now that we have an idea of the types of spinal injuries and how they affect the body, it’s time to give you some tips on how to recover and rediscover yourself.
Recover
The level of spinal cord injury treatment you need depends on what type of injury you have and how severe it is. So, try your best to apply the ones that relate to your condition specifically.
1. Train yourself to move again
If your spinal injury was incomplete, then you should take short walks as frequently as you can and increase your distance incrementally each day.
Speak to your surgeon about whether you can go up or down stairs and, if you can, how long you have to wait before you can do it. Once you have the go ahead, you should start making the trip up them a few steps at a time, and increase the number incrementally.
2. Manage your pain
It goes without saying that you should take whatever medication your doctor has prescribed for your spinal injury. However, if you need something extra, you can try moist heat, gentle exercise, massage, and frequent repositioning to help you manage the pain.
3. Take care of your spine
Sitting puts stress on your back, and it’s often recommended that you get up and walk around for 10 minutes every half hour. The general rule is to never sit with your knees higher than your hips.
Sleep is another place where you need to watch your posture. Sleeping on your back with your upper back, shoulders and head raised on pillows, and pillows under your knees so they and your hips are slightly bent, is the general rule.
Rediscover
Now that we have some tips on how to recover properly, it’s time to work on rediscovering yourself.
1. Plan a daily routine
Having a daily routine allows you to forget the spinal injury and plan a new life for yourself. Just because you have restricted mobility, doesn’t mean you can’t be a more productive, dynamic and superior version of who you were before the injury.
2. Exercise and eat well
If you’re looking to create a new version of yourself after the incident, keeping fit and trying a new diet is an effective and manageable way to make that transformation. Create an exercise routine, clean out your cupboards of your old food and try something new.
3. Get a new job
Getting back to work will keep you busy and save you from isolation at home. However, now is also the perfect time to look for something new. Think about the sort of job you’ve always wanted to do, plan a career trajectory, and apply for a position on the first rung.
4. Get involved in adaptive sports and recreation
With your spinal injury, you might have a limited number of sports you can get involved in. However, this narrows down your choices and can force you to get involved in a sport you never even considered getting into. For example, kayaking, wheelchair basketball, or hand-crank biking could become your new favourite hobby.
Will I Recover From my Spinal Injury?
Although it’ll be tough, you can definitely recover from your spinal injury, and get back to being yourself. Ultimately, there’s no reason you shouldn’t succeed if you persevere. Who knows, you might even become a better version of yourself than before!
Shift Frequency © 2020 – The Best Ways to Rediscover
Yourself After a Spinal Injury