From: Jerry.Pickup@f1.n360.z1.fidonet.org (Jerry Pickup)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Injury Level
Date: 15 Dec 92 22:21:36 GMT
Reply-To: Jerry.Pickup@f1.n360.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:360/1 - Augusta Forum, North Augusta SC
X-Fidonet: Spinal Injury Conference
Originator: wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com

Index Number: 26840

[This is from the Spinal Injury Conference]

In a message to Jerry Pickup <16 Nov 92 23:07> Keith Jones wrote:

 KJ> Wow, I didn't realize your injury level was this high. What kind of a
 KJ> job did you ever find? I presume you must have recovered an awful lot?

Yep, it was a high one but you are correct.  I recovered an awful
lot.  I feel that God was really with me and have no trouble at all
dealing with the loss I've taken.  All I have to do is take a look
at what I COULD HAVE lost.

I call my injury 'weird' in the sense that some of the first things
that quads (and even paras) loose, I have retained.  On the other
hand there are things I've lost that low or mid level quads usually
have.  I don't remember ever having any diminished sensation
anywhere.  That in itsself is worth all the gold in the world to
me.  I'm not too sure about the first two or three months after the
accident.  Besides the C-1 injury I suffered a head injury and was
eventually diagnosed with hydrocephalus (sp).  I don't remember the
first three months after the accident.

During that time I wore a halo (I was no angel) and could not move
at all.  I was on a respirator for a couple of weeks.  One of the
toughest things I do remember was having sensation but not being
able to move.  You can never be comfortable without being able to
squirm around.

Because of the paralysis all of the way up I could not swallow
right and every time I tried to drink anything it would go down the
wrong way.  Due to the head injury I had lost my sense of smell and
my taste was all screwed up. Between not being able to taste and
smell it and having such a hard time getting it down I really lost
interest in eating.  I'm 5'11" and got down as far as 80 pounds.  I
looked really sick.  They fed me through an NG tube in my nose and
it was not fun.

When I began to be able to move it was my arms and legs at the same
time.  My shoulders were the weakest but my biceps were ok.
Triceps were not too bad and get this - my grip was excellent!  In
the right hand anyway.  My right side is still alot stronger than
my left.  I have great extensor strength in my legs and if I get my
feet positioned just right I can stand with no problem.  However, I
can't "flex" my leg to pick it up and take a step.  I can also not
lift my arms high enough to reach the top of my head!  Weird
enough?

I eventually got to where I could eat and drink ok and I'm back up
to about 160 or 170 pounds.  However while not drinking I managed
to form my first kidney stone.  OUCH!!  In all of my experiences I
have never felt such pain.  I get them every so often now and they
are less painful than the first but still hurt badly.

 KJ> Do you use an electric chair and how? Sorry for all the questions, it's

I use a standard electric chair and have no trouble operating it.
I retained (or more correctly - recovered) the fine motor function
of my hands & wrists so this is not a problem.  I'm still not
strong enough to push a manual chair.  I have one and on a flat
smooth surface if I'm not in a hurry I can get from one end of the
house to the other.

Don't apologize for the questions.  I like a few questions every
now and then.  I guess I'm like most people, I like a chance to
talk about myself every now and then.

 KJ> just that I have never met anyone with that high of an injury that was
 KJ> able to find employment.

Well, voc rehab wanted me off of SSDI real bad and I took advantage
of it while it was available.  My VR counselor found out I was fond
of computers and told me about a training program on the Ga. Tech
campus called the Georgia Computer Programmer Project.  It was run
by the state and was free.  I had graduated from high school about
a year before my accident and had not gone to college because I 1)
didn't want to and 2) didn't have the money anyhow.  This was free
and was 40 hours a week of nothing but computer programming.  It
lasted only a year and had a 95+% placement rate.  It was a tough
program to get into but I went after it with an 'I can' atitude and
alot of prayers and once more God came through for me.

After finishing the course my VR counselor and other friends I had
made helped me to locate a job opening for a computer programmer at
the VA hospital here in Augusta.  I interviewed and got the job.  I
truly started at the bottom of the ladder.  They hired me and
another guy (not disabled) although there had only been one
opening.  I think they originally hired me because it would have
looked bad not to hire the crippled guy.

I soon came to the realization that people expected the other guy
to do the work and me to watch over his shoulder.  Well, lucky for
me the other guy didn't know what he was doing and I came up to
speed quickly on my own.  (Well, not really on my own, God was
still there.)  It still took awhile for people to realize what was
going on.  The boss gave the assignments to the senior programmer,
he brought them to me, I completed them, he took them back to the
boss and got the glory.

Well, it couldn't last long that way mostly because people began to
wonder why he couldn't answer questions about the software
intelligently but I could.  Finally he found a higher paying job
and I was left there on my own.  That was my chance to prove
myself.  I did and after five years I am now the software section
leader and have two other programmers under me.  They switched me
to four ten hour days and then offered me a chance to work for
overtime on the other two, thus a normal week is between 50 and 60
hours unless we have a special software install or something.

So far my longest day was about two weeks ago when things didn't go
well during a hardware upgrade.  When you upgrade the hardware you
have to make software changes as well so I had to be there.  I went
to work at 8:00 Thursday morning and didn't come home until 4:30
Friday afternoon.  I hope to never do it again!

Anyway I've rattled on and on to answer a few short questions and
I'll bet you'll be careful about asking any more!!  Now it's your
turn.  Tell me about your injury and other stuff about you.

                               God bless!

                                     -Jerry

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