IamA 30 Year Old With A Spinal Cord Injury In The Neck and After 5 Years I am Walking a bit With 2 Sticks AMA!

Ever consider stemcell?

i can't afford it...i have no money

Hey man :) Good to hear you're slowly recovering - you keep at it everyday!

Have you ever thought of leaving Pakistan to a country with medical facilities that may cost less, or have less discrimination towards those who are disabled?

thanks for your suggestions, but as i said i am financially not able to travel to other countries. Pakistan is a very cheap country for medical treatments but i don't even have like $5000/...

Right after the crash did you know that you were seriously hurt?

No actually i was able to walk like normal people and then suddenly after a few days, my back was in pain real badly, then i started my visits to the hospital, but the doctors give me some pain killers, they were thinking that i pulled my muscle or something in the back, after one weak my full body was paralyzed and i was admired to the hospital where they did a few tests of MRI and found out that the spinal is traumatized. the next day i had surgery and now i am here hope you get the point///

Wow i had no idea that a spinal cord injury could have a delayed impact on motor function... Were you examined after the crash? I wonder if you made it worse by walking around after it happened.

Yes this what exactly happened i walked and made it worse after the accident because i was unaware that my spinal cord is traumatized...

What was the most thing you wanted to hear / didn't want to hear from your close friends who visited you?

Well Whenever Someone comes and visit me then ask me, how r u...? this is the most annoying sentence that i heard for all these years, i tell them that i am fine but deep inside i whispers to myself that how the heck am i right, can't you guys see that i am stuck in a bed for these years and you are asking me how am i...Every time i started to forget about my illness or disability someone comes and asks me how r u...and boom i become aware that i am not ok, i wanted my friends and other visitors to just act normally talk to me like normal people don't feel sorry for me and that is it. but i never told anybody the opposite thing, because it is considered as rude here in our society if you reply to someone in an unexpected way...that is why i am here to express my feelings openly on the internet...

Were you wearing a seatbelt?

No Dear, Here in Pakistan There is no concept of seat belts, we have outdated public transport, i was traveling in a public transport at the time of accident...

Was it a partial or complete break? How did you start getting feeling back?

my spinal cord was damaged partially and after the surgery my hands were working but was very weak but my lower body was completely unresponsive, after one year my hands were completely recovered and my lower body was gaining momentum, after five years i am able to move with sticks...

Does being able to walk with support make you feel more free? After such a long time immobile, I would have to imagine just being able to move yourself without a wheelchair would be joyous.... Or is it so hard that it just feels like a struggle?

The process is very slow that is why i can't feel that kind of happiness, but when the picture of my first days come into my mind then i suddenly thanks God for everything and feel a bit of happiness that i am recovering. It is a struggle and i can not say that its a breeze of fresh air but one has to deal with life and i think life is hard for every human on earth, its just a matter of perspective, some see it as a blessing while other think of it as burden, i am the first one. i think its a blessing in disguise thanks for your comment...

Would you consider walking with four sticks, so you could be awesome, like the Led Zeppelin song?

Well i never Heard the song and thought about it but after your suggestion i will take a look at it and search for it on Google Thanks for your opinion...

What's the biggest thing that's changed about your view on life?

Life Was Hard For Me Before the accident and now its worst in terms of many things, but i think its a blessing in disguise. some times i get very upset and then the other moment i am thanking My Dear God for what is still with me, for example the love of my parents and everyone else in this world who is praying for my health day and night. Before life was meaningless for me but now i learned many things through life and that is the beauty of life, my advice to everyone out there is that live with what you have and don't complain about things. live every moment of life as this is your last and stay blessed.

What is one positive thing you could take away from your experience?

The Thing What I learn from my experience is that one should be thankful with what you have and don't complain about the things that you don't have because health is wealth, if you are healthy then nothing else matter in this world. this is what i learned...

That's such an amazing outlook, I completely agree with you. Health is so precious, it's taken for granted so much until it becomes a problem. I hope you're doing well now!

This is what i am saying today people are careless and don't know the value of a healthy life, instead they are complaining that there life is not good, but if they get into the boots of those who are not healthy, only then they will feel how good and precious their life is, thanks for stopping by..

Do you think it could be partly due to the fact that in the first world countries haven't had to be faced with an imminent threat from a deadly virus in the population in this generation like Tetanus, Cholera, etc. I mean, sure, we've had the potential threats of bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, etc but they (thankfully) haven't caused a widespread of deaths in the first world countries that would make people more aware of their health. Also, with the medical technology of today, people probably think "oh well, if something bad happened to me then there's lots of stuff at the hospital to treat me with" and take for granted how serious medical situations can become. Also they take for granted just how traumatic certain illnesses or injuries can be on the body. A few years ago, I had an open cut on my arm that had to be glued and taped, for the first week of healing, I was paranoid about the cut re-opening so I barely moved my arm at all, which resulted in muscle stiffness and the pain when I started to use it again. I couldn't imagine how difficult and exhausting it must be to have to relearn how to stand and walk again. Really, it's a credit to you that you managed to retain a positive outlook despite the difficult journey to getting where you are today from the accident.

Thanks for the encouraging words mate, Completely agree with you, i think the people in the first world countries got more facilities than those living in the third world countries, but due to some awareness from the internet and social media now people are forcing their corrupt politician to stop robbing us and use some of the money on providing us some facilities in terms of health and education as well. therefore society is waking and the environment is also getting a bit better for us as well but still we have a long journey in order to get rid of the corrupt people and get a fair share of our country resources///

Get well soon! .?

Thanks mate...