Personal Narrative: Living With A Right Arm Amputee

My name is Rainee McDaniel and I am an 18 year old freshman at Texas State University. 1. My college experience is unlike any other because I am a quadriplegic. Quadriplegia is damage to the spinal cord around the area of one’s skull and neck, (Nathalie Smith, 2013). I can’t use any of my limbs, my arms and legs are basically useless to me. My wheelchair is what gets me around, I depend on it. (Józefowski, P., & Bolach, E) 1. There are many things I can’t do. I’m not given the opportunity to live that wild and crazy college life Nobody could even begin to understand what I go through on a daily basis, until they live it. “Quadriplegia involves paralysis of arms and legs” (Nathalie Smith, 2013), 4. I can’t even use the bathroom on my own.

There may be instances where I will have to deal with a patient who have both cognitive and physical disabilities that I will have to be mindful of in order to provide the best care possible. I am confident that this internship has made me more prepared for those instances, and that I will handle them effectively. On a few occasions, I have had parents of the gymnasts come up to me and thank me for working with their child, and told me what I great job I did. One father came up to me, and thanked me for being so patient with his son. He said that his son had a great time, and at home kept saying how he, "hung out with the boys at gymnastics". Not only did this make me feel good, but also will be a reminder as I advance in my career to be mindful how I act. A simple thing as being patient and have a positive attitude can make a world of difference for someone I am dealing with, even though I might not recognize

I retreated to the waiting room where my parents sat hopefully, hope which does not exist. I couldn’t bear to tell them, my parents whom have cared for me and love me, I can’t bear to see them worried. “I consulted with the doctor, I have decided to have part of my leg amputated.” I said this as calmly and confidently as I could, as if I had chosen to do this, hoping they would think it was my choice and diminish their distress with such a procedure. My father and mother stood up, smiling at me, a smile I will never forget.

I realized that my food consumption needs to improve, I did not realize I was that bad on my eating schedule but this assignment made me realize just how bad I take care of my health. I need to get better at feeding myself and making time for myself to get a bite to eat in the mornings. There are a lot of days I noticed in my journal that shows I only ate once so that was honestly surprising for

Oh yeah I almost forgot. The amputated leg, how is that going for you. You know if you're just too tired of walking around mostly on one leg, well just get a wheelchair so it is easier to get around. Or if you don't want to sit around all day, then get a cane so you can still walk around but still have support. Lastly wear it proud like a man. Don't be afraid to go out and show it off. You are a veteran. People should not hate on you are make fun of

As I pulled into the rehabilitation center’s parking lot Monday afternoon I couldn't wait to get inside and feel the breeze of the air conditioning as I escaped from the 95 degree blazing hot weather outside. I was very anxious because I wasn’t sure how this interview would go, let alone if it would happen. I wasn't certain the physical therapist I was going to interview would have time to fit me in. I was up the night before trying to figure out what I wanted to learn from this interview and what kind of questions I would ask. I decided to focus my questions towards the physical therapist I have been shadowing to get to know more about him and his experiences with the job. So far through out my research I have been focusing on the physical therapists and their relationships with patients. I wanted my readers learn more about the person who is caring for these patients and what goes on that patients do not see.

In the beginning, physical therapy made my recovery tedious. I was only interested because it allowed me the opportunity to learn numerous types of injuries from a variety of individuals. For example, I met a girl who broke her arm from falling off the monkey bars. Or the boy who had a complete elbow dislocation, while playing basketball. Although I was entertained by these interesting stories, they made me feel guilty. I was congratulating strangers for their quick recovery, while my own felt treacherous. Therefore, I grew frustrated and irritated with physical therapy and I denied any positivity in my recovery. I became envious until my envy evolved into a depression because I was incapable of physical activities. Therefore, I was forced

Instead of talking, I turned my back and grabbed my lunch sack. I took my lunch, and sat down with my friend group. In previous grades we had to sit with our class, which truly sucked, but now we didn't. Lunch has always been one of my favorite times of day, it still is. Earlier that day I left my breakfast on the counter which made me extremely hungry. I raced out of the creaky old wooden door my house could barely support and rushed directly to school. I knew that later my mom would have a stern talk with me about wasting the good food, but in that moment all I could think about was lunch. I began to starve, my blood flushed with the instant pleasure that euphoria brought as I gazed upon my phenomenal pizza stromboli. I gazed while my mouth hung open, taking in none of the conversation going on around me. My salivary glands began generating glittering drool that raced down my face as though it wanted the stromboli more than I did. I almost chowed down on the heavenly meal I recently unpackaged, but the lunch lady showed up out of nowhere. She asked me another question, one that had me scared, nervous, and dizzy all at the same time. This question made my

I insist on maintaining a healthy palate, thus I scarcely touched my meal. As my extended family became aware of my lackluster enthusiasm for dinner, they began to address their unwarranted concerns to my parents. This feeling of unease around others at mealtime did not cease there. In fact, almost every gathering – whether it was between my family, classmates, or soccer team – struck me with this similar discomfort. My parents grew wary, and I was even approached by a teammate who asked if I had an eating disorder. This dismayed me; I started to question my own dietary habits and felt alienated at every meal. From that climax, I realized I needed to make a change.

Upon arrival, Murielle had a stack of paper work that she needed to record in the computer system and filed. Though I wanted to help Murielle, I first had to assist Maggie with two hot packs, one for the shoulder and the other for the wrist. While patients sat with their pain management therapy for 8 minutes, I started organizing the paper to file during my spare time. Maggie and Issac was working on a patient's splint, while I supervised the two patients who were waiting to be seen. Once Maggie was available to assist the patients, she handed me their intervention sheet, which I was able to use as a guideline for the exercising equipments that I would need to set up for each patient. Both patient therapeutic session was difference since both

Anxiety formed within me while walking to the cafeteria. Everyday something was doomed to happen. Today actually marks the first day of me making it through the cafeteria without food being thrown at me. The last incident that occurred, mashed potatoes were thrown at me and hit my face everyone in the cafeteria laughed at me. “Haha, you big fat potato!!” The teens would call me. Humiliation would take over and tears began to form in my eyes. Looking around felt as if I were hallucinating the loud laughs turned into hyena laughs the eyes of my enemies were dark as the night and the aroma of food turned into the smell of dead flesh. The room became crepuscular and the faster I ran to the door the further it became.

The second surprise was the bathroom. I never thought this would be an issue since I considered myself to have strong arms, and felt that I would have been able to do the task with ease. Although APU has handicap accessible stalks they aren’t all that different from normal ones. Yes they are bigger that a normal stall, but I still had no clue how to go about transferring myself from the wheelchair to the toilet. It was not something that I was ever taught. After, the experience I had to look up a video how to do it, and I can say what I did surely was not as easy as the video made it seem. I realized that people that are wheelchair bound have many small adaptations they would need to learn in order to do daily activities. As a therapist I feel

The night before training which was scheduled for June 07, 2016 my fiancé and I had got into a horrible argument. I walked into work with a dark cloud hanging over my head. I was struggling emotionally that night and morning to stay composed for work. Sitting down in that room I listened to Jan tell us all how she became a quadriplegic amputee. Jan started out with explaining to us that of course when you put “dis” in front of any word it automatically makes it negative. The word created because she didn’t like the word “disable” for it meant she was not able and she knew for a fact that she was able, therefore created “differentlyable.” She shared some great stories, cracked a few jokes, inspired us, and taught me a few things about how I should perceive

I spent the day of April 21, 2016 as an amputee. An amputee is anyone who has had any limb or extremity surgically removed, or amputated (Web, MD, 2016). Obviously, I am not actually an amputee. In order to become one for the day, I used an ace bandage and wrapped my left, dominant, arm to my body. The second that I secured the bandage, I started to notice challenges arising. I required the help of my roommate to even secure the wrap. Next, I had to get ready for my day. I struggled through opening and closing the drawers of my dressed to pick out an outfit to wear. This was only the beginning. I have never had so much trouble applying makeup or fixing my hair in my life. After multiple unsuccessful attempts, my roommate offered to help me.

On Friday morning I woke up at 7:00 a.m. and did not use my right arm to accomplish all my morning tasks, which took a lot longer to accomplish. I went from my bedroom to the bathroom and back to the bedroom then downstairs and out to the car. I got a ride to class and was able to open the door fine and did not have to deal with driving and changing gears with one hand. I went to Andre’s building and used the handicap button to open the door. I walked through Andre’s and went to the computer lab where I sat down and emailed my partner.