It's now July 2020 which means it's already been two years since i took my
last steps. Last year we made a video all about how
Craig was paralyzed and we made the first ever video for
this YouTube channel on the day that Craig left rehab and returned home,
but we've never talked about those six months in between when Craig was
recovering from his spinal cord injury. So in this video we're going to be
talking all about the rehabilitation and physiotherapy that I received
after my spinal cord injury. Craig was first taken to Southampton general
hospital which is the closest major trauma hospital to where he had his
accident. He underwent some surgery where he had metal rods placed into his back
to help stabilize his spine and he was in the ICU for about a week and a half
after this in intensive care. So while my wound was healing I had to stay quite
still not able to move and laid flat on my back for days on end.
So i was just staring at the same old boring ceiling. So we ended up getting
these cool mirror glasses which allowed me to look down my body and around the
room. These were so great that we actually
ended up giving them to another spinal cord injury patient when we left the
hospital. Once Craig's wound had healed enough he
was able to be moved up to the spinal ward
and he was here for about another week and a half or so.
While he was here this is where he first started very early stages of physio,
which mostly involved learning how to try and sit up again.
Now this sounds like it should be easy, but after my spinal cord injury
every time i tried to sit up my blood pressure would just plummet and I'd get
really light headed and feel like i was going to pass out.
About three weeks after his accident, Craig was stable enough to move on.
At this point he would have normally gone on to a specialist spinal cord
injury rehab center however, this year was so
busy in terms of the number of people having spinal cord injuries
that there was no space in any of these centers, so instead he ended up moving to
Luton hospital which is a small hospital. He wasn't able to stay in
Southampton hospital any longer because it is a major trauma
hospital and they had to clear the beds for
other patients. So while i was at Luton hospital, I continued my physiotherapy
and managed to crack sitting up. In order to do this i needed to use an
abdominal binder and i needed to take a drug called
Ephedrine to help manage my blood pressure.
Once Craig was able to sit up, he was then able to
go into a wheelchair for the first time. Now this was great, even though it was a
big clunky thing, I was able to get out of the ward and
actually go outside for the first time since my accident,
which was really nice just to get some fresh air. After about a month
in Luton hospital, space opened up in a neurological rehab center. Now a
neurological rehab center wasn't perfect for someone with a spinal cord injury
but it was a little bit more specialized than the local hospital,
so it was a good temporary measure while the waiting list for the actual spinal
cord injury rehab center was cleared. Here at this new rehab center i had an
hour of physiotherapy every day which was a huge step up
and they also let me borrow a wheelchair which was so much better than the one I
had been using. I started off mastering basic bed
mobility sitting up, moving around and rolling over
and then moved on to more advanced things such as basic slide board
transfers. He was also able to have a daily session
of occupational therapy which involved learning how to do stuff
such as how to get dressed independently. The nice thing about this rehab center
is they had a lot of specialized equipment,
so I was able to stand for the first time using a powered standing frame
and I was also able to use an FES bike which used electrical stimulation to
move my leg muscles, so I was able to pedal the bike by
myself. Up until this point, Craig had been
using an indwelling catheter, but while he was at this rehab center he was able
to try out intermittent catheterization for the first
time and also learnt how to do his own bowel care.
I also had access to a regular shower which was a huge improvement,
because up until this point I'd only been able to wash myself on the bed.
By the time Craig moved to this rehab center, his medical needs were very low.
Because the occupational therapy and physiotherapy sessions were only during
the week, it meant that on the weekends we were
able to go out into the local town or go to the local restaurant,
which was so nice after having been in a hospital setting for so long.
After about a month at this rehab center and about three months total after my
accident a space finally opened up at Stoke
Mandeville which is the spinal rehab center that i went to.
Stoke Mandeville really was the turning point for Craig's recovery.
He spent about three months in total doing rehab there and this is where
real progress was made. The physio and rehab at Stoke Mandeville was really
intense, it was essentially a full-on
nine-to-five timetable, which compared to what I had been doing
before, which was at most two hours a day, it was a huge step up. A big part of the
physio that Craig did at Stoke Mandeville was mastering transfers. So this went
from using a sliding board to learning how to do all the transfers
independently and eventually working towards doing the floor to wheelchair
transfer which was considered to be the holy
grail of transfers. The other nice thing about Stoke
Mandeville is they had a fully kitted out spinal gym
which you could use at any time during the day. Now this was nice because
between sessions I would go in there and work on things like strength building on
their adaptive equipment and also working on things like standing.
Now standing was quite difficult for me, it was the same as when I first started
sitting up, my blood pressure would drop and I'd
feel really faint like I was going to pass out.
But with a bit of perseverance and using an orthotic corset,
I finally managed to crack it. While at Stoke Mandeville we were able to try out
a whole host of different sports including hand cycling, wheelchair
basketball, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis,
badminton and table tennis and this was such an important thing for us because
it was the first time we realized it was still possible to do fun things
from a wheelchair and I was also able to get involved in the sports as well.
So not only was Craig doing something fun, but we were able to do something fun
together, which was a huge factor for us in
accepting Craig's injury. Stoke Mandeville also has its own
hydrotherapy swimming pool, which I got to use about once a week.
It was really nice to get out of the wheelchair and just rely on my own body
to move around. I love being in the water with no
mobility aids as it just makes me feel a lot less disabled.
Stoke Mandeville had a big selection of wheelchairs that you were able to
borrow for up to a week and try out a few different types.
This was the first time that Craig had been in a lightweight active wheelchair
and this was such a huge change from the wheelchairs Craig had been in before
because they are so much more maneuverable
and agile. They're really keen for you to master as many wheelchair skills as
possible. Because, although it would be really nice
to have a perfectly accessible world, in reality it's really not. They teach
skills such as how to do wheelies, how to go up and down curbs
and even how to go downstairs in your wheelchair so that you could be as
prepared as possible to overcome any obstacles you might encounter out in the
real world. I also had the opportunity to try out a
wide range of different wheelchair equipment.
External companies would come into Stoke Mandeville and demonstrate their
equipment to a big group of the patients, which was nice. Some of the equipment was
quite good and some of it was a bit underwhelming, but it was good to get a
feel for what was out there and what I may want once I left rehab.
Craig only had rehab and physiotherapy on Monday to Friday, so the weekends were
free. At Stoke Mandeville they were really
keen to encourage you to go home and stay
overnight if possible so you could get a feel for being back at home again and so
it wouldn't be a huge shock to the system
when you eventually leave rehab. The physical side of rehab at Stoke
Mandeville was excellent, but it wasn't the only thing we worked on.
With the doctors and the nurses on the wards we worked on things such as
bladder and bowel management. I had the opportunity to try out lots of
different types of catheters and different bowel management systems
and finally managed to figure out the ones which worked best for me.
One of the best things about being at a specialist spinal cord injury rehab
center was that we got to meet a lot of other
people with spinal cord injuries and their family and friends.
It was so great to meet other people who were going through exactly the same
situation that we were. The doctors and nurses and other staff
at the hospital are great and they're all
experts, but they can't really understand what it's like to live with a spinal
cord injury, so it's really nice to interact with all
these other people and actually, I ended up learning almost as much from the
other patients at the hospital as i did from the staff themselves.
Craig spent three months at Stoke Mandeville and
six months in total after his accident he was able to leave rehab
and return home. And the day that Craig left rehab was actually
the day that we filmed our very first video for this YouTube channel.
So for those of you that have been with us through this from the start, you'll
know exactly what has happened since then. And
for those of you that haven't been with us, feel free to go back and check out
those early videos now. But beware, those early ones are a little
bit cringey. So I hope you found that video useful
and if you did please give it a like and share it so other people can find it. If
you've got any questions or comments at all feel free to leave them down below
and we'll do our best to get back to you. Thank you for watching, see you next time
bye-bye!