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So,
now you’re home and the whole situation might look pretty unpleasant. (For some of you I realize that is a vast understatement.) There wasn’t time for your family to adapt your home, you’ve barely made a medical recovery, the rehab center taught you a few skills and some exercises that don’t
feel like nearly enough, and you, your family, your friends,
and your colleagues are still trying to absorb the emotional
impact of the whole thing.
Welcome home!
That first few days away from the safety and consistency of rehab
can be as shocking as a dive into a freezing pool with a live
wire in it — and can seem
to confirm the worst scenarios that have run through your mind from the
start about how hard it is going to be in the world with a disability.
I beg you to pause and reconsider. You are just at the beginning, and
you have no idea how much untapped potential there is for you.
Trust me on this. Here’s how I know.
People used to arrive home much closer to their ultimate potential,
because they would spend weeks in an acute setting, recovering
from the medical issues surrounding their SCI/D. No one would be
sent on to rehab without being medically stable, and ready for
the hard work of getting trained for maximum independence. That was
the whole idea.
Which I consider proof that you have a ton of potential yet
to reach.
In my case, in 1973, there wasn’t much choice. They didn’t insert braces
in the spine, so it was necessary to lay around until the surgery healed.
There was plenty of time to absorb what had happened, to be spoiled silly
by loved ones (if you were lucky enough, like I was), and for the medical
staff to get your body ready for rehab. Regardless of your level of injury.
Then rehab — for as long as it took to get you strong, teach you wheelchair
skills, how to dress, manage your waste systems, mess around in
the kitchen, and so on. If you had enough upper body potential, you might
go home with some stretch marks from the speedy enlargement of your muscles
(my mark of pride on both shoulders).
Now they put in braces, send you off to rehab, and the clock starts
ticking on your insurance coverage until you’re shipped home,
regardless of your remaining potential or your ability to participate
fully in the rehab process.
The reasons why this is happening
are too complex to go into here, and not really the point I want
to get across. I’m asking you to look to the past and see that putting the requisite amount of time into strengthening and skill development paid off in more independence and confidence and possibility. I’m
asking you to look at the proof of what people used to commonly
achieve thanks to longer rehab stays.
The difference now is that you have to do it more on your own,
without the convenience of inpatient staff dragging you into
the gym and cracking the whip every day in rehab.
The fact of
your potential to be stronger and more skilled is entirely unchanged
by the fact that you’re doing the work at home instead
of in rehab.
Maybe you’ve got access to outpatient services, maybe not. In any case, don’t let the process stop because things seem nasty once you get home. If you give it up now, you’ve cost yourself your own options — only
multiplying the injustice of being pumped through the rehab process
before your time.
You have no idea how much untapped potential there is — until you take the
time to find out. Rehab was just the beginning. For better or worse, the rest
is up to you. |
New
Injury
