Rachel Friedman - "We Want a Cure"

I was just made aware of this article on the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/racrachelle-friedmanhelle-friedman_n_4044820.html

Rachel Friedman, a C6 quadriplegic of three years, writes very truthfully about the realities of life with a spinal cord injury. The perceived non-urgency of the situation by the able-bodied public, the lack of understanding of what we face (hopefully partially revealed on this website), the unseen struggles and the unrecorded costs are only a very few of the issues that make many of our lives very difficult many days.

Thankfully, in Canada, we do not pay for our urgent healthcare, but for care such as home care provided by home health aides it is merely subsidized but still an out-of-pocket expense. Ironically, those that require higher care by registered nurses it is completely covered, but we won't get into the way many home care RNs treat you as a job to be done and not a person with a life to live by showing up whenever they feel like it, affected your ability to actually live a life for fear of missing your care for the day.

I have already spoken about the misconceptions of our only problem being that we cannot walk, but as she said, the constant pain many of us have, the aches, the lack of quality sleep, the greatly diminished life expectancy, all of these things should be given a higher priority than they are. Unfortunately, most healthcare systems can only react to emergencies. Preventative medicine is a rare thing and unless you are dealing with one of those severe infections, don't expect to receive full and quality regular observation without a great deal of personal advocacy for your own healthcare.

Usable exam tables, ultrasound stretchers of the height that's safe to transfer onto, even just access to a scale to monitor your weight, all of these are luxuries that should not be considered luxuries.

For reasons like this I ask that you take the few seconds to share this article and this website with people. It would mean a lot more to myself, and my peers, then the chuckle you will get from one more Internet joke or level of Candy Crush before bed tonight.

Thank you.