“Work was my driving force after becoming a quadriplegic”
PatientsEngage is a patient/ caregiver-focused healthcare platform for supporting the management of chronic diseases. They have featured my journey of getting back to work after a spinal cord injury.
You can read the full article here.
Excerpt:
March – Goa with friends
April – Pune & Lonavala with mom
May – Oslo on work & Amsterdam for a solo holiday
June – Taipei on work & Nagpur to be with family
This is what my life looked in the months leading up to the accident. Living independently in Mumbai, doing work that I enjoyed and living life my way. I was literally having the time of my life.
On 9th June 2011, I met with the fateful accident that gave me a Cervical Spinal Cord Injury. Most parts of my body were paralysed.
A combination of my consulting neurosurgeon, energetic rehab therapists, peer counsellors, the company of fellow-freshly-injured people like me and my family helped me in keeping cheer even after knowing about the permanent implications of my spinal cord injury.
My mindset evolved from ‘waiting to recover and then resuming life’ to ‘resuming life and let health recover at its own pace’.
My office work is the only thing I can completely do by myself. I cannot get ready by myself, but I am completely capable of launching a new product by my company. Working for a company gave me a purpose beyond myself. I am not just responsible for my own well-being but also, partly, for the business objectives of that company. I set short-term goals for myself and achieving them helped me build my confidence back brick by brick.
I had polio at age 7. I still walk and do self care, but I also have many limitations. My rehab docs say I am a quad who walks. The world of disability is complex and curious, is it not?
Completely agree with you, Michael. Even people with the same level of spinal cord injury face different challenges and can have different levels of independence.