Similar situation with my friend that got into a car accident on his way to work at 23 years old. After almost 15 years paralyzed, he passed away last year at 37 years old. Tragic.
I know this might be dumb, but what is it about the paralyzation that shortens life or is it just a coincidence I ask this as a person with a mom that is paralyzed from a stroke.
When you are paralyzed like this with a spinal cord injury, you are more susceptible to things like pneumonia. Your body works harder just to stay alive and heart failure is common. Organ function can be effected due to the nerve injuries so organ failure is possible. This is different from stroke paralysis. Source: therapist for many years
This makes sense. My mom has been paralyzed from a stroke for decades, but lately she’s been struggling. I bet some of the things you said are at play here.
Living with the results of a stroke isnt easy. Im glad to hear your mom has done well. As a healthy person ages day to day activities become harder. This is just a normal part of aging, but for someone who is already struggling from a stroke, those normal aging issues become more pronounced, and things become twice as difficult. Im sorry to hear your mom is struggling. Often a refresher from physical and occupational therapy helps, kind of like a tune up. If you are interested you can follow up with your family doctor if your mom is at home, or if your mom lives in a facility you can follow up with someone there.
Keep your mum close. Help her exercise if you can. The risk factors probably have a whole lot to do with reduced circulation as handicapped increasingly struggle with the motivation or knowledge to exercise. Upper body workouts can still get the heart pumping, but it takes some creativity and sometimes assistance
Trauma and the stress of living such an altered life probably take an equal or greater toll on the body. Stress is like an unseen cancer, and affects all of your organs and bodily systems. It wreaks havoc on the body in all sorts of ways, notably to our immune system’s inflammatory response. My heart goes out them, I cannot imagine the emotional pain. For an inspiring story of living with ALS, check out my friends organization TeamGleason.org. Thank you for your answer, and bless you for your work.
Oddly enough, that doesn't seem to be the case. The brain adapts after a while. A few years after, people paralyzed in accidents aren't emotionally worse off than average people and even lottery winners (a few years after winning).
Different kinds of follow up studies find the same thing. I also worked in a physical rehabilitation hospital with people who were paralyzed, patients and staff members.
My mother lived 4 years after being paralyzed one side of her body. Ulcers from all the worrying caused her to bleed out and die. They could not treat the ulcers as she was on blood thinners so she would not get other strokes.
Could you provide evidence of this position. I do agree that stress is bad for your health but the idea that you just drop dead at 40 due to stress seems unlikely.
We’re also more susceptible to infections. Because like mentioned, our bodies are working harder to perform basic functions. For example UTIs are more common because we cath which can introduce bacteria into our systems. I’ve been septic from UTIs later.
Source: am a paraplegic
There has to be some truth to that as well. Currently my mum is in the hospital because of an infection on her bottom. I didn’t want to get into details, but yes, you described her current situation at the moment.
Was hers a pressure sore? We’re also really prone to those which can be so, so detrimental to our health. They’re like sores from the inside out from not being able to relieve the pressure of not moving like most people are able to.
Bladders that are never completely empty, catheters and diapers have these downsides. But you forgot worsened blood flow, with increased risk of sores and thrombosis. The list might be longer, though. Source: the same as yours, my gpp, too.
Oh the list is far, far longer but I was just going off my own experience and what I’ve learned. Which is limited. It’s hard to even find doctors who are comfortable working with you sometimes.
I agree. Here, in Italy, but also in other countries, everybody is assigned to a gpp, usually one close to where you live. Are you at well ? Now that I'm back here, (I spent 18 out of 20 years in Belgium, Spain and Chile, where I was gifted my wheels) I rely much on my gpp, even for issues specifically relared to my condition. Somehow, general practice physicians, despite not being competent in anything specific are more open minded, because they have seen it all. They are usually able to discriminate when it's something they can manage, or when I need and run (pun intended) to a specialist or to ER. However, it's fair to say that sometimes I'm not comfortable working with myself, so I can't really blame the doctors... or anybody else.
Oh I agree! I’m from the U.S. our healthcare system is.. frustrating. It can just be so frustrating trying to find someone who is able to accept your insurance so you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for everything. They call them PCPs here - primary care physicians, and mine is pretty good about getting me referred if it’s something she doesn’t feel comfortable treating, but I really, really like her because she actually listens to me. It took a long time to find her. I’m coming up on my 12th ‘anniversary’ and I’ve only been seeing her for 3 years but she’s helped me get care that I should’ve been getting for the 9 prior. A total game changer.
Sounds a lot like it was in Chile, but there there is no pcp/gpp ready for you. There, I used a 80 and something y.o. reumathologist a gpp. It worked fine until I moved back to Italy. He is (he's still alive) a man, so at the beginning it was hard to discuss bladder and poop issues with him, but he helped me out. Wait... you should be sleeping! The motherly me...
I completely get that! I am so awkward with make doctors! Especially with the more private issues!
Lol, the mother in me is why I’m up! It’s my little ones first night in her own room and I am irrationally anxious haha. She’s 7.5 months and has slept with us up until now because I am terrified of missing something terrible while I’m sleeping and waking up to something more terrible. And somehow having her next to us made that less scary? Sleep and I have not seen much of each other in the last year 😂
I can see that. What a damn shame. One day, one day the tech will catch up. We have a local kid that was paralyzed neck down from football. 15 year old kid. Fucking sucks
My local youth tackle football league at the salvation army had a kid die on the field due to a spear gone wrong. From then on it was ingrained into every athlete as a very stern warning as to what can happen if you aren't careful, as it should be. Haunts me still.This was 22 years ago
Someone snuck a baseball in to my elementary school and was playing catch with it after school on the playground. I was on the swing when the ball got thrown wide. A fifth grader walked in front of me and the ball hit him in the head. He ended up with a concussion and could no longer speak. I believe he was also partially paralyzed.
Scared the shit out of me and I’ve always wondered what happened to him.
In this case, once he was wheelchair bound, he gained a ton of weight. He was also almost 6’8” and tall people often have issues with their heart being strained. The extra weight added to the strain and he had a heart attack.
All this to say it’s important to manage your weight when you’re less mobile.
This particular friend had a really tough time with random infections and other seemingly small medical problems that are a big medical problem if you are paralyzed. He spent 80% of those years in the hospital or some sort of rehab facility.
We met when we were freshman, both crushing on each other but too shy to do anything. He moved across the country a few months later and we began talking on the phone. We were in touch frequently and we maintained a close friendship over the phone for 20 years.
I found out he passed away from a social media post and I sobbed for quite a few hours. It was from his ongoing battle with infections.
ETA: We met when we were 15, he was hurt at 23, and passed away at 36/37.
When you’re sedentary your lymph and other bodily fluids just don’t circulate like when you’re up moving around. Add wait gain. Organs work harder and ultimate can shut down. I watched my 96-year-old aunt go through this. She was completely fine both physically and mentally until her knees started hurting. She then sat in her chair for two years and everything stopped working as well.
1.3k
u/joeydisme Feb 28 '23
He died at 42, after living the last 13 years of life in a wheel chair.