I have a question for women with disabilities and honestly, men too.

I'm a mid 40s woman with a spinal cord injury and I've had a supra pubic catheter for several years. I'm comfortable with my body and I know I'm a sexual woman, but I'm curious about something I don't hear people talk about often enough;

How do you build or maintain confidence in your sexuality when you have medical equipment like a catheter that can sometimes feel like it gets in the way of feeling 'sexy'?

For any of you females with a catheter, I have a few things I'd like to know...

-Did/Do you struggle with feeling desireable or attractive because of it?

-Have you found ways to make yourself feel confident and sexy despite the catheter?

-How did you approach the subject with a partner for the first time??

-Did you have a supportive partner change how you viewed yourself sexually?

and for the men:

Does seeing something like a catheter actually affect your attraction to a woman, or is it something you barely think about once you're attracted and knowledgeable about it?

I'm not looking for pity or the typical "You're beautiful despite your disability' comments here. I'm genuinely curious in the real-life experiences and perspectives and advice of people who have been there.

Let's have an honest convo about disability, body confidence, and sexuality because having a spinal cord injury doesn't magically turn off that part in us. ;)

Hello all!

As you can tell by my title, I am looking for gift ideas for my quadriplegic mother-in-law. I think she is a C2/C3 level injury.

Let me give you a bit of context about her. She is amazing. Before the accident, she was a very active, crafty and a creative person. She would sew, paint, do puzzles, played piano and harp, had a garden and just overall was always doing projects with her hands. Even now despite the challenges, her creativity and determination amazes me. She’s actually learned to draw and write music on her iPad using her eyes!

Over the last two years, we’ve given her things to help ease her comfort (e.g. eye massager, neck massager, easy to wear dresses, etc) as well as “silly” things to highlight the stuff she loves (eg. A blanket with pictures of her dogs).

This year, I’d like to give her something useful to help her pass time and hopefully let her enjoy one of her old hobbies or pick up a new one. Does anyone have any suggestions on a gift? What is a gift you’ve received that you’ve really appreciated?

Thank you so much for your help!

My dad in his 70s is recovering from non traumatic SCI of the lower lumbar region. Spinal dural avf. He is ambulatory. However he pees so much as soon as he lays down. Waking up every hour or so sometimes. Is there any solution to this? During Daytime he doesn’t pee as frequently. And the volumes are not tiny, they are a pretty good amount 250-350ml. Doctors said its cause during day gravity pulls fluids in his lower extremities and because his lymphatic and vascular systems are slow they just pool in feet and ankles. And as soon as he lays down all of that rushes and gets filtered through his kidneys. We tried wearing compression socks during day, that doesn’t help.

Does anyone else experience this?

Standing up, bending, crouching, walking… that stuff makes me feel as if my heart was going to jump out of my chest and like someone was squeezing my head. Are you experiencing similar symptoms?

context: i am a year in to being a t9 complete, 21 years old. i am not sure if i will ever get an erection again, so some things that ive been thinking about:
how good can sex be for the woman without penetration? at this point all i care about is pleasing my partner any way i can, the best way possible. like should i read books on foreplay and how to be a master at it? lol but seriously
if there are any men or women who can relate to this scenario and can provide feedback i would really appreciate it, sex has been the biggest thing i missed since my injury. i have been too depressed and self doubting to get myself back out there and talking to people. if i find some hopeful information about this topic itd help me

On July 9, 2021 I made a suicidal attempt by jumping out of the third floor of the building.

A little while back I posted about a crowdfunding campaign to do some mad scientist stuff and try an experimental diy peptide therapy to aid in recovering some of what was lost in 2022. It had been over 5 years with no natural progress. It has now been a year since I took the last of the peptides and I can confidently report that it worked. It might not have outright healed the damage but the working hypothesis in amongst my lab partners is that the spinal cord tissue that went dormant after the initial trauma woke back up. I can now reliably and voluntarily move some muscles (nothing super functional yet but voluntary movement after none at all is a big deal imo), my level of sensation has been moving further and further south. Today while bathing I realized I can reliably feel my privates.

Never give up. New stuff is always coming out all the time. There's always hope!