Life-changing injuries

Bill: Yeah, I was, but I was also beginning to feel the disability. So the first mind game that they played on me was they sat me in a in with other amputees and the guy next to me wasn’t even English. I don’t know what nationality he was, but he couldn’t speak English and he’d flung himself in front of the train and he’d lost both his legs above the knee, very high above the knee. He’d lost an arm and he’d lost part of his – I’m not sure which hand it was, right or left hand – but he’d lost part of his hands, his fingers. And all he had left was a leg like this. I’m sure it was deliberate, because even though I was feeling buoyant, it was like trepidation to move forward. What am I going to do now? You know, but it had the beneficial effect of actually saying, well I’ve only lost, I’ve only lost my leg. This guy’s lost two legs. And an arm. And you think, how is he going to cope? And it’s like you know, thankful for small mercies, you know, I’ve only lost a leg. Bad enough isn’t it?  

I emailed people because they told me that there was nothing that could be done. So I actually started emailing neuro-scientists, anyone that had something where it; it seemed they actually knew what they were doing and I found out what they were saying that worked and then what I did was I found programmes that seemed to be able to carry some of that out and I matched them to the areas of my brain that were injured because I figured that it would; it's almost like going to a gym in that if you've injured a shoulder then you might not necessarily be able to directly exercise that shoulder but you can exercise all the muscles and the ligaments and everything around that shoulder and strengthen it and protect it and then eventually get to the shoulder and make the difference. So I took all the areas like attention, processing speed, memory, executive function and I found out where I could work and kind of tailor made a plan for me and I do that a lot for people now. I do a lot of consulting in that field. And what people don't realise many times is they think that they can buy a computer programme off the shelf and if they're doing crossword puzzles or if they're doing something that says its brain training that it's going to make a difference and many times it's not. It really needs to be targeted to that person's specific deficits and those deficits need to be built for it to make like a long lasting difference because otherwise what we find is people get good at the games but they don't get any better at life which, you know isn't so helpful. Maybe they get a little bit of self-esteem but if, if those strategies are used correctly they can make, they can make massive gains. 

Yes, I think I was probably in bed for eight weeks before I sat in a wheelchair for the first time. Getting up for the first time, you’re warned that it will be very difficult and you’ll feel nauseous and you might well pass out. You are prepared for going into a wheelchair by taking some ephedrine, which raises your blood pressure, keep your blood pressure up, because having been horizontal, to go vertical your blood pressure drops enormously. And I certainly remember taking that. I also had a binder round my stomach and abdomen to also try and keep my blood pressure up. And I think getting up for the first time I was able to do 15, 20 minutes, something like that, before you have to go back to bed and, and lie down. And you feel exhausted after that. And then obviously, you know, it was extended over the course of time and, you know, after a few weeks you’re up to a couple of hours. And then at, at a certain point you sort of reach the, the situation where you can be up all day. And then, you know, in conjunction with that was various physiotherapy sessions that you attend, occupational therapy 

I guess the most important things that I wanted to improve was walking and talking. Walking would affect me a lot and decide what I could and couldn’t do. Also I had occupational therapy and I’ve been getting a bus to the supermarket with them. So that’s given me a bit of freedom. 

Like again, like that, it was all to do with the muscles. That was all it was. Like obviously there was other stages I needed, like think about, like obviously like the facial like expressions and stuff like that. I had to, it was like the same as walking, I had to just train it all back again. Like, my, especially my lips and my mouth that was the hardest bit, than the walking again. It was more I can’t explain it, but it was so, I was trying so much, but it never clicked, if that makes sense, whereas the talking and the walking did. I just, that spurred me on so much, and then when I couldn’t talk and stuff like that I just, well I’m not going to be able to talk again well, as much as I did, but yeah. It all, it all came through, thanks to the obviously the speech therapist and stuff like that. 

And the whole rehabilitation process is gearing you up to leave hospital and resume as normal and healthy life as, as you can outside hospital. And I would say that your rehabilitation continues really way beyond hospital, because hospital is quite an unrealistic environment. It’s, it’s a flat area with nurses and, you know, hospital equipment everywhere. And out into the real world is quite different. So I think, yes, your rehabilitation starts in hospital, but it, but it also carries on when you go home. 

And also it gave me self-confidence which I’d lost completely. And it gave me a sense of, contributing towards my recovery and I was actually actively doing something to, or I could see, I could see each day that I was making progress. I was getting fitter. And it was helping me relax as well afterwards I would say.