Celebrating Second Life Day
It has been two years since my spinal cord injury
Description:
Pic 1: woman in wheelchair (wc) below deck in a wheelchair accessible boat.
Pic 2: woman standing in front of drawing of wings
Pic 3: woman and husband making silly faces in front is Swiss Aldi store holding swiss candies and snacks
Pic 4: woman hiking with golden retriever on a wooden bridge
Pic 5: woman in WC celebrating Halloween with incredibly fluffy puppy
Pic 6: 3 hikers atop Mt Washington- my hiking partners
Pic 7: woman in WC in her new home under renovation
Pic 8: couple smiling at each other at their bridal shower
Pic 9: woman in wheelchair with her 5 week old puppy
Pic 10: woman in wheelchair with puppy chewing on WC armrest
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Today I am celebrating my life day, the day that I survived. This will make exactly 2 years since my injury.
I have honestly been dreading this day all month. January is a challenging month for me. Today was the start of a great deal of suffering for my husband, family, friends and myself. I hate what a toll it has taken on my husband and family. That first year was hell. Gosh, I really should have written this a different day, not actually on my life day, whew.
I am not quite sure when this happened in the timeline of the last two years, but I came to realize that my injury has not been all negative. This injury has given me gifts that I don’t think I ever would have gotten pre-injury.
I have gotten to experience the generosity of complete strangers. You will never know how much that has meant to me. I have gotten to see just how truly amazing my friends and family are. They came through when my stock was down.
I made new friends in the SCI community that have quite literally changed my life. They were the helping hands that guided me through some of my most challenging experiences.
My husband and I joke that we have advanced to a whole new level of jokes. There is so much more material to pull from and funny situations in this new life. Perhaps one day I will write those down. There are just so many opportunities to laugh.
These past two years have been quite the roller coaster ride. One of the perks has been the new perspective on life. I have gotten so much better at not taking tomorrow for granted. There is really no guarantee that life will turn out how we expected. As a result, things that would have upset me pre-injury just don’t have the same impact.
I think when you get to experience such a traumatic painful experience, you get to see how low your “lows” can truly be. It gave me the ability to truly treasure life’s high points.
These past two years have made me realize how lucky I am. Life has given me so much to be grateful for.
P.S. One thing I can certainly never recommend is going through pictures from your injury on your life day. Welp, learned that one the hard way (laughing).