what is it like to be paralyzed from the neck down?

i've wondered about this before. being a paraplegic paralyzed from the waist down would be horrible but you could get used to it i think.

neck down? you couldn't move at all, essentially trapped in your own body. i think i would probably rather die, though if i was put in the situation I would probably feel differently.

i'm sure being paralyzed only from the waist down would start to sound awfully good if you were completely paralyzed.

does anyone personally know someone who is a quadraplegic completely paralyzed? what do they say that it's like? do u ever get used to it?

 

I know two people who are paralyzed from the waist down. I knew both of them before their accidents too. It was tragic and obviously challenging for them. They get around pretty well but still need help. I knew another guy who was a quad but could still use his hands a little bit. He needed much more help.

 

do you get used to being paralyzed? i could only imagine that when the accident happened you would be like "oh crap, i'm paralyzed!", but does it kick in immediately or does it take awhile before the fact that you're paralyzed kicks in?

I knew a girl who was a friend of a friend that got paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident but she actually recovered fully with rehab and physical therapy.

i guess my question is, after it kicks in that you're paralyzed, does it get easier .. do you just adapt to it and get used to it and learn new ways to do things?

i know if i was paralyzed that not being able to type would really suck. i know there are other ways to interface with a computer but it seems many of the things I enjoy doing i wouldn't be able to do any more.

being paralyzed would suck itself, but I think what would suck more to me is simply not being able to do the things I enjoy doing. even reading a book would be challenging.

I specify the quadroplegic variety of paralysis because I think it would be much easier to adapt if you still had your hands that you could use, basically it would only be your head that you could move and that would be extremely challenging.

they really need to do more research on brain-computer interfaces, i'm sure such a device would greatly improve the lives of people with paralysis. it need not be a hand that functions like a human hand, simply a way to interact with and manipulate objects in the world around you.

 

I guess you just adapt. One of my friends has been paralyzed for about 10-12 years longer than the other one. He seems to do a little better and jokes around about it quite a bit. He had a motorcycle accident. My other friend was walking home from a concert and took a shortcut over a rarely used train bridge. A train came and they had to jump off the bridge (I think it was maybe 15-20 feet high over a stream) Her companion landed ok. She landed wrong and hasn't walked since. And that really sucks because she was such a huge fixture on the music scene around here. She promoted shows, went to damn near everything and danced her ass off. It was her favorite thing in the world to do. I've seen and also played so many shows with her. I remember playing her benefit show a while after the accident. The place was big and had to have been packed past the legal capacity. It was almost wall to wall people and it almost brought a tear to my eye to see her in that chair, not able to dance with everyone else.

 

It sucks. I knew a woman who became a quad at about 20 yrs old, basically from the neck down, while she laid in a hospital bed for a few years she thought herself to speak again by making strange noises when no one was around, if she made them with people around they thought she was in pain and would try to move her.

She had a very limited use of her right arm returned after many years but that was it. She needed other people to do everything for her and yet she sat in her wheelchair with so much energy she couldn't burn so she got fat and that made her sad. Later she learned to limit her meals and slim out some but it meant she had to eat very small meals so there is more then the loss of your freedom to move involved, loss of friends, the right to enjoy eating like you did before, having others dress and undress you and even having caregivers put you to bed and get you up when they want, loads of excuses, like they need to go to bed too. Where it took over an hour and some to get her set up for the night people wanted her heading to bed by 8 pm, it meant she didn't get to watch late night tv and stuff she enjoyed before.

You lose a lot more then the ability to walk, the chair looks like it ain't so bad, you never have to look for a seat but you never get to get out of it either when you would like to just go for a walk or head to the bathroom for a moment of private personal relief. Someone else has to wipe your ass.

I remember a friend of mine, she was quite large but quite young also, she fell and landed on both hands breaking both wrists. She had to have her boyfriend wipe her ass for about 6 weeks as well as do many other things for her. She said that was the longest most embarrassing 6 weeks of her life. Imagine, the rest of your life.

 

i worked for three years as a Certified Nursing Assistant, and I had some quads and paraplegic patients.
unfortunately, some were the most bitter people i've ever met, especially. as our charge nurse explained, when a person can no longer manipulate their environment, they seek to manipulate people. they can only do or get ANYTHING by asking or getting help, so it wasn't uncommon for some of them to be nitpicky, controlling, and even cruel. but again, they're trapped in their body.

and then there's bedsores from sitting too long.
working in the nursing homes, CNAs and nurses always like early bedtimes because people are easier to care for when they're asleep! yes, it's not fair, and i know it was frustrating for my patients to not be able to have their own schedules, to have to rely on others.
often with quads, it took two people to get them up or down, and it could take as long as an hour.... so naturally there's only so much time, a CNA can only do it so many times without getting exhausted.

 

I guess the will to live under almost any circumstances is very strong. Even if a quad wanted to just give up----it couldn't be done. Unless there was a very, VERY good friend that would supply an overdose of pain killers. And jail would be the result of that. All and all, it's a sad scene to have to depend totally on others for the most basic of needs. Here in Oregon, we have the assisted suicide law.

 

Informative, Sappho. I KNOW I'd rather be gone than have to have someone change diapers for me. Man----there's no easy way to change form --unless it's lights out and done with it.

 

oooh, you've just reminded me of a very sad story of one of my patients.
this takes place in a small town. apparently back in the day, she was known as the town slut.... well, she got interested in this one guy, and asked him to leave his wife for her. when he refused, she attempted suicide with pills.
her brain swelled up from meningoencephalitis and she lost pretty much all movement.... anywhere.
but she didn't die.
instead, she's been living in a nursing home for 33+ years, only able to make gutteral noises and move a thumb.
her life is in the nursing home having her ass wiped, fighting off all kinds of health complications
and she was the meanest, most bitter person i've probably ever met in my life.
so not only did she fail to get the guy
fail at suicide
she trapped herself in a truly miserable horrible life.

 

Awful. When I was in Florida some years back, I met a girl whose sister took some kind of drug and thereafter she couldn't move anything but her eyes. She was 20!

 

it sounds like a real hell to me, I can kinda understand why someone in that situation might be bitter.

I'm sure it would be quite hard to kill yourself in that situation also ..

i wonder what it would be like to be deaf, blind, and completely paralyzed all at the same time .. it would almost be like being dead i'd think, except for that your alive.

 

When my dad was terminally ill and near death I honestly considered doing exactly that. It wouldn't have been complicated. I saw how the hospice ladies administered his meds. But I decided against it. I later found of from my step-mom that she had the same thought at one point.

 

i suppose it wouldnt be so bad

at least no one would expect much

more time to spend on the important things in life

 

Unfortunately, there are a lot more people around paralyzed from the neck up!!

 

haha lol, but seriously i've noticed that a lot of people don't seem to use their brain all that much, or only as much as is absolutely required.

the body is but a container for the mind, but some people seem to have it backwards, that the brain is just what makes the body go.

 

I think it would be really dreadful to feel trapped within a body that does not move at all. With having an active mind I am sure it is really difficult to adjust to no mobility. Those who do manage to must have a strong desire to live, hats off to them.

 

The thought of being paralyzed from the neck down is HORRIFYING to me. I don't think of it a lot but when I do think of it.. it really freaks me out. I don't think I'd handle it well AT ALL.

Lately I've been thinking about how I don't think I'd handle becoming blind .... living in the dark ALL the time very well either. As much as I love music I know I'd rather be deaf than blind.

 

Ace - good question.

I have a friend who is paralysed from the waist down due to a spinal injury suffered in a car crash when he was just 19. I don't want to list all his problems, but there are quite a few. He's now in his mid sixties.
Until a couple of years ago he used to talk a lot about how stem cell research would have him up and walking again in just a few years.

Now he's really had to accept that it isn't going to happen.

So - he sits in his wheelchair or lies on the bed and smokes up to 8 grams a day of weed which he grows himself. A few years back I took him to see Neil Young, as he's a big fan.
That was the last time he went out anywhere other than a day centre he goes to twice a week, and now thanks to *austerity* that's to be closed down soon.

It's sad to see. And also sad that it has affected him in such a way that he becomes at times a bit hostile to friends. I can understand and don't blame the man. But it's difficult at times to deal with.

But - he has had a life, even if a limited one where he's had a lot of frustration. He has married, had children. Had the advantages of a very good education and a fairly well off family to support him. As well as friends.

For someone paralysed from the neck down, life would not be like that. I think it would be a hellish existence. If I was in that state, I think my one aim would be to end it all.

Krishna said that the soul changes bodies as a body changes clothes. Maybe that or something like it is true. So why remain in a body that is in effect finished?

 

Ever heard of catalepsy? It's a condition in which you appear to be dead, but are actually still alive, although in some kind of deep coma.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story based on this - 'The Premature Burial'. It was later filmed by Hammer horror. A classic.

But what a horrible fate to be dead and yet still alive.

 

Ugh. How did I miss that stuff about being paralyzed, blind and deaf at the same time?

THAT is my worst fear. Worst, worst, worst fear ever.