What Happens in a Spinal Cord Injury?
There are two kinds of spinal cord injury — complete and incomplete. In a complete injury, a person loses all ability to feel and voluntarily move below the level of the injury. In an incomplete injury, there is some functioning below the level of the injury. What will life be like after an SCI? Adapting to living with a spinal cord injury and learning to live with new limitations can be difficult and frustrating. An SCI is a life-changing event for you and your loved ones, and getting used to a limited ability to move or feel sensation is difficult and can take a long time. However, it is important to remember that you do not lose the ability to think, feel emotions, learn, love, work, play, or to live life to its fullest. A common saying among those who have been paralyzed is, “Before your injury, you could do 10,000 things. Now you can do 9,000. So are you going to worry about the 1,000 things you can’t do or focus on 9,000 things you can do?” People with SCIs have jobs, drive, par
