What’s your best advice for patients and families after a spinal cord injury?

Adjustment takes time, it’s not all going to happen by the discharge from acute rehabilitation, it’s not going to happen in the first year.  It’s a process, it occurs over time, and the journey is every…more important than the end destination.  None of us knows where we’re going to end up in our life, it’s enjoying the twists and turns of fate, and realizing that it’s going to take a while to figure out what good might come of this major disruption in my life.  

Life is not over. You have a life ahead of you, with a lot of learning. You're in school again, whether you want to be in school or not, this is going to be a lifelong education. But the road ahead is going to bring you places you've never dreamt, and to be with people you've never imagined to be with. And you're going to walk away with, figuratively—maybe you're not walking—but you will walk away with a new sense of purpose, and an idea of where you need to take yourself in life. And I can guarantee that it will happen, that I can tell you.

If you can reach out to a family who has experienced something similar, it is a beneficial thing for many to do so—to see what’s in store, and what types of things they did and they would recommend.  If you can tour a rehabilitation center that you’re looking at beforehand, talk to patients, staff there; that’s also very beneficial.  The Internet can be good and it can be bad.  There’s an overwhelming amount of information on the Internet, but if you can go to some of the sites that specialize in spinal cord that are very reputable—meaning, these are sites that offer support, and, perhaps they’re from a rehabilitation center that may have some research-based, evidence-based practice, those are the types of sites you want to look at.