My reality.
I have been up all night with a terrible pain in my left chest. When I was home and this happened I would just get into my deep soaker tub for about 7 hours. After about an hour, it would start to feel better, and I knew it was just my spinal cord and not a heart attack. But without my equipment, I just have to put a heating pad on my chest, remain very still, take morphine and pray it is just my spine once more. I don’t run to a hospital in the middle of the night because I pass out from the spinal pain, and a doctor who doesn’t know my condition will punch me in the chest or put the paddles on me, because he cannot get a heartbeat. This is my reality and what I deal with every day! I was always scared, but never
unable to help myself. Life with spinal cord injury and severe autonomic damage is continuing medical crises that need to be continually managed: daily hazard. Nobody who is not affected by this 28-month-homeless nightmare can ever understand what each one of us lost!!!
