The Root of All Our Troubles

Spinal cord injuries can be caused by trauma, disease, infection, a tumor or a number of other things. They can be complete or incomplete injuries, incomplete injuries leaving varying degrees of sensation or even movement below the level of the injury. My injury was incomplete, but the residual below-level function is limited to barely perceptible sensation in my kneecaps and soles of my feet, along with the tiniest flicker of inutile movement in my right ring finger.

Most traumatic injuries, where broken bones were the cause of the injury, requires surgical repair. Mine was performed after a week of traction that was increased to 55 pounds over that period of time. The crushing motion of my injury required the traction to stretch my neck out so the vertebrae would realign in preparation to be fused with the assistance of harvested bone fragments, two titanium plates, seven screws and about three feet of wire.

One of the worst parts of the recovery was the first few days after the surgery. The neck muscle spasms were fighting the realigned spine. Not so different than the discomfort faced by a person with bad posture sitting or walking straight after a long time of living the way that caused the poor posture, initially. Surprisingly, neither the surgical pain nor the installation of a halo in my skull without anesthetic were not as painful as those spasms. Those first days after surgery are one of the few memories I retain from my stay in neurology. It must have been intense.























Without question, it was not pleasant. However, to preserve my remaining function, and restore strength to my neck, it was a necessary surgery and a critical early step in my recovery.

One last note, from a photography perspective, out of focus x-rays can only have so much made out of them. Making a photo out of a two dimensional image was not the easiest thing I've done and wish I would've had a better creative spark for these but at least you got a glimpse of the inside of many of our necks.

Eye Drops

It's not that eye drops are necessarily a common need for quads, it's that administering them is difficult to do independently for a few reasons.

First is simply the dexterity needed to control the bottle with two hands in order to squeeze it gently and precisely enough to apply just a drop or two. Both hands are occupied so forget using one, or both, to hold your eyelid open.

Second is the complication of the reduced range of motion in our necks. Many of us have had neck vertebrae fused as part of the treatment after our injury to prevent further damage by stabilizing the neck with hardware. This reduction in our range of motion makes it more difficult to tip our heads back far enough to administer the eye drop. As much as we become good at compensating for lost range by bending at the back or waist, being in a properly fitted wheelchair holds us in an upright position quite well. This struggle to overcome limited range can be eliminated by administering the drops while in bed, but many eye drops call for more than the two times per day when you'd definitely be in bed.

Holding the bottle two-handed, without dropping it in your eye, keeping your eyelid open, all while maintaining your balance is no small task. But practice makes perfect. Of course, I do not take for granted the times my wife has taken care of the application leaving the balance and eyelid to me.

Solution: Look away from the bottle to prevent blinking and back up to a wall or corner and lock your wheels then use the wall to lean on to help with balance. These tricks may help with or without someone else's help.