May 18th, 2012 is the UK Spinal Injury Awareness Day  check out the website http://www.everyeighthours.com/

Today is almost ten years from my discharge from hospital and this blog will be a discussion of my recovery following an accident on December 14th, 2001.  So much has changed over the past ten years, I was not aware of blogs, social networks and a whole host of smart technologies that might have got this going somewhat sooner.  I did keep some notes but this will be an unreliable memoir, which is part of the title of the book I have not yet written.

So where should I begin?   Given that I have been thinking about it for so long, perhaps I should explain.  I am by nature a private person, shy I will claim, I have never kept a personal diary which makes writing a blog something of a challenge.  On the other hand, I am a story teller and I assume some of them may be  interesting.  My intention is to share my experiences and develop a few ideas around spinal cord injuries and the recovery process.

It must be said that I am am a lucky boy, I have a spinal cord injury at L1 that is good.  The first thing you learn about spinal cord injuries is the lower the better and “incomplete” is better than complete.  This is obvious, but only if you think about it. A complete cord injury means that essentially no transmission through the damaged zone.  My injury at L1 is low and incomplete.  The second thing you learn is that at the time of the initial trauma no-one can tell the long term prospects for recovery.  It took me a year to walk, so as I said  I am a lucky boy.

I wanted to tell you the story has a good outcome, I am not looking for sympathy though I got more than my share.  I set out for work on a fine winter morning…