Rehabilitation: Life after.. Till this day..

In many many ways, my trip to Rehabilitation Institute has made life easy on my return. Mistakes help you learn in one of two ways. You either learn by making them or you learn through the mistakes of others. I had made my share of mistakes ( letting the pressure sore develop was one of em ), so had many others who had come there. The advantage of being among such people was seeing how these mistakes happened in their lives through their eyes, how they can affect your life and how they can be avoided. While people learnt from the mistakes I made, I learnt from theirs. RI lifted much of the ignorance related to my condition. In a way that lifted a lot of anxiety and kept me away from many worries that could've otherwise given me difficulties all this while.

Till this day, I have been waiting for Gods intervention in my life, but contrary to what one may think, that isn't a reason for me not taking up some kind of assignment. I'm not saying in my head that I'll never do anything worthwhile till I receive God's healing. The bed sore is one thing that has kept me from sitting down and becoming more productive. But the major reason is that I haven't been convinced in my heart to take up anything in particular. Not doing much though has kept my mind less cluttered. It has helped me look deep within myself like I have never done before. This phase of seclusion has been an effective catalyst to my spiritual journey. I have learned a lot about my faith far quicker than I ever would've had I not been let alone for so long..

Perhaps my healing will come before I take up anything, for even by staying within these four walls for these past couple of years I have learnt much about life and myself. Maybe I will have to wait a bit longer and will find something useful to do in these days. I don't know what God has in store for me, but whatever it is, I know that it will be for my best.. 

Rehabilitation: Inflow of Knowledge

While I made progress on the physical front, there was also much I had learnt as a person during my time in CMCH and RI. Even in the condition that I was in, I realised how much there is to be happy about. In fact after the accident I never felt like I was a cursed person, I always believed I was blessed. I believed that I was blessed to be alive. But over here, I realised why I felt that way and that there's a lot more I was blessed with..

I met so many different people at Rehabilitation Institute. Along with paraplegics, RI also offers therapy for quadriplegics ( people paralysed down from their neck ) and people who have injured their brain through accidents. The people there had injured themselves through various ways, some common, some not so. Motorcycle accidents and falls while climbing trees were more common. Some injured themselves playing pranks while some other injured themselves doing regular chores at home or work. When they gave an account of the the accidents that caused their injury, I realised how different each persons individual stories were. 

In contrast to my tale, some of their lives changed all too suddenly. Within a matter of days, some of them had gone from being perfectly to healthy, to people who bear the burden of being differently abled. I was in the ICU for a matter of weeks. Though my time there was challenging for various reason, one good thing about the long and arduous stay was that the information about my SCI and my future wasn't clearly put in front of me immediately. Even when people around me gave in to my pestering questions about why I couldn't move my legs, I didn't spend much time thinking about how it would affect my life. I surely had a lot of other things think about in the present. By the time I was thinking straight and truly understood the magnitude of my situation, I had gone through so much in the ICU that I was grateful to God to just be alive and breathing, literally. 

The way things happened in those initial stages moulded my attitude of my life post the ordeal. For such was the magnitude of the initial injuries and the pains that I faced during recovery that instead of facing despair at losing half my body, I was just happy that I hadn't lost it all along with my life. Some people may not need to go through all that I did in order to look at life with positivity. But for many others it's hard to feel as such. Perhaps I as a person am one who needed to go through these struggles to be able to come out of it in good cheer..? I can never be sure, only God will know. But I feel so..

I believe in the scriptures, and I don't believe that anything happens randomly. Everything happens for a reason. And the scripture says that "..all things work together for good, to those who love God" in Romans 8:28. In hindsight, I believe God planned out everything so that I might be able to hold in my heart that feeling of joy in being alive through these days. Had I never met such lovely people at RI who shared their experiences with me either directly or through a group, I wouldn't have realised some of the good in that journey filled with hardship..

Knowledge is precious gift that I received in RI. Apart from having systematic classes that discussed topics related to health and wellness for SCI affected people, the people of RI also gave me an insight into their lives and despite their challenges, how they are still being productive. Some take up regular jobs in the government or in IT companies. Some embrace their creative side. A few take up sports.. ( ever heard of Paralympics..? ), while a few others involve themselves in activism. While I heard all these stories, I had the chance to look at it in a way that someone without SCI or someone who is strongly connected with someone with SCI couldn't take notice. I looked at it all through a different lens. If I had never visited RI, and had instead stayed at home, all this could never have happened. Still, till this day I haven't emulated any of them. But at least it helped me know that I am capable..

Rehabilitation: Physical Training at Rehabilitation Institute

Even before we got there, we had come to know about the rigorous schedule in RI. The center is in high demand always. Due to a lack of quality rehabilitation centres in most places, people all over India travel to Vellore for therapy. But the centre can accommodate only 80 people at a time ( when I was there, there were plans of expansion, but I'm not sure if it has materialised.. ). So the doctors and therapists stress on delivering a concentrated program that will benefit the individual and also make sure that they can serve as many people as possible.

After the initial assessment of my conditions were done, my therapist set a goal for me. For my level of injury, I could be trained to 'walk' with the help of full-length callipers/leg braces ( KAFO ) and elbow crutches. While I was in CMCH ( Hospital and RI are a short distance apart.. ), I had been on a 'Tilt Table' to help me get used to the sensation of standing. It took my body about a couple of weeks to endure ( not pass out ) an hour of staying in a vertical position. I also received some therapy that made my upper body stronger than what it was. But still, in order to be able to 'walk' with the callipers and crutches I needed much more strength. So, as plan for formulated to suit my personal needs. All I needed to worry about were my daily activities. Everyday, the therapist would tell me what I needed to do and all I had to do was follow the instructions. Simple. 

Progress was quite speedy once we were in RI. Initially, I was fitted with callipers and made to walk holding parallel bars for support. ( Whenever I say walk in this article related to my time in RI, I'm talking about the pattern of walking that people use while they're fitted with full leg braces, i.e. walking with all the joints of the leg fixed. Since there is no movement of the joints of the leg, all the work is done at the hip joint. While one leg is firm on the ground and two hands are holding a support (bars/walker/crutches), the other leg is raised using the hip and placed forward. Then one hand moves forward while two legs and the other hand are fixed. Then, the next leg is raised and moves forward. This is the pattern of walking I'm talking of here.. )

Once I was comfortable doing this on the bars, I was made to walk with a walker which was a lot less stable than parallel bars. In a few weeks I was walking easily with a walker support. Then I returned to the parallel bars. But this time I held on to the bar with one hand while the other hand was given an elbow crutch. As always, it was difficult at the beginning, but then became much much easier. Finally, I let go of the bars and started walking with only the elbow crutches for support..

Each progressive stage was physically more taxing than the previous. Hence, while I was practicing walking during one session in a day, there was another session where I was working on my upper body strength. All these sessions came under the watch of the physiotherapy (PT) team. Side by side, I was also receiving occupational therapy (OT). When you hear the word 'occupation' therapy the immediate idea is about rehabilitation related to your profession, but this therapy isn't just about preparing you to face challenges at work. Along with such training OT also involves training you to face all daily activities, and enabling you to became as independent as you can inspite of the disability. 

So while PT was helping me walk around, OT helped me to stand up and sit. It helped me develop enough balance to reach out and do something. How to move from a bed to a wheelchair, how to transfer in and out of a car while wearing leg braces, these are a few of the things that OT works on. As I had my bedsore however, I was not allowed to sit, and hence most of the things related to a wheelchair couldn't be taught. Yet, I did learn a lot of skills that has helped me so far in my day to day life..

Rehabilitation: Going to CMCH

When I came back home from the hospital, I was in a miserable state. I was severely weakened and my body was just a little bit more than skin and bones. I had become so weak that initially even holding my phone up to type a text was quite strenuous. Muscles all over my body had deteriorated to such an extent that I could practically do nothing. This weakness is common for anyone who has been treated for severe trauma. And there is a systematic way to recovery. The solution.. Rehabilitation therapy. 

Daily exercises at home with the help of a therapist was a possible option. But we decided to go to a rehabilitation centre. CMC Hospital in Vellore has one of the best SCI [Spinal Cord Injury] Rehabilitation Institute's [RI] in India. Though most hospitals have physiotherapy units of their own, SCI patients have a lot of specific requirements that not all therapists are used to handling. In CMCH, the therapists work day in and day out with such people, so they are more adept at meeting their needs. 

The time we spent in Vellore was a matter of months. A lot happened at that time, both good and bad. Most of em though weren't as exclusively personal as what I went through in the ICU. You could say much of the events were usual hospital stuff. So instead of really describing the journey in detail, I think it'll be better if I briefly ran through what happened in my stay there and then spoke about all that I gained. As you would expect, there were lessons on how to manage my health and activities on a daily basis. But more importantly, there were lessons for life..

Our stay in CMCH was longer than most others who come for the same purpose. Though we had gone there for the purpose of rehabilitation, we weren't sent to RI immediately after reaching Vellore. We were admitted into CMCH's A-Ward. While we were there, therapy was available. However, it wasn't as intense as we had expected. We received around an hour of therapy each day. While in RI, it was almost like a school with nearly six hours spent solely on physical and mental training. We weren't told about the exact reason was for keeping us waiting in the ward for so long, but after persisting, we were sent to RI by the end of June..