I had another ordeal earlier this (July 12th, 2010) morning. I was getting some classic symptoms of Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD). For some reason, I chose to ignore it and soon, found myself sitting in cold sweat, feeling all sorts of headache and truth be told I was starting to be delusional. So I called a good family friend, Mrs. N, and told her that something was wrong and I needed help. She and Mr. N rushed me to the ER. From previous experience, I somehow knew it was AD. I knew the symptoms and I knew what I needed to do to try and make me feel better.
But at that point I was already in my own little world of pain, agony, delusion, and panic. I felt like I was dying and my blood pressure was at a record high. It's one of those moments if the blood pressure kept on rising, I could die. AD is an extremely serious condition and needs to be dealt with, and fast. There was only one problem, no one on call knew a thing about Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) let alone Autonomic Dysrefleia.
It was truly a crazy morning and at that point, I realized that not every nurse/doctor knows about SCI and AD. And I truly believe that everyone should know about it. You don't have to be an expert and know everything like the specialist does, but at least know some important facts about SCI and AD that will help the patient feel better and get 'em out of danger.
That's when a good friend Janice Semmel said then asked, "Oh, I agree with you wholeheartedly that they should know about AD. I wonder why they don't?"
The answer is simple:
NOT everyone specializes in SCI and other effects associated with SCI. Doctors and nurses in the ER are trained and taught in emergency medicine. Things that will help someone if they accidentally cut their finger off, not extremely specific condition like SCI and AD.
Though this new section of my blog, I'm hoping to spread some knowledge of SCI and how that connects with me as a quadriplegic. I'll be going into just what parts of the body is affected by SCI and what that means to the person and so forth. At the same time I'll be explaining other effects of SCI which may or may not be limited to medical and social aspect. Lastly, I'll introduce you guys to many of the adaptive equipments out in the market right now. That includes anything from gripping aids to hand controls and so forth.
There are a lot of things I can talk about but I think it'd be rather boring if it's always something that I chose to write about. If there is anything relating to SCI you'd like me to address, and I mean ANYTHING, please contact me and I will write about the topic you are curious about (And yes, entries can be anonymous if you wish)
Hope you guys will find these information interesting and well-presented.
Don't forget that no questions are "stupid" and no questions can offend me.
Thanks guys
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