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Finding Hope for Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury

what every spinal cord injury patient needs to know about recovery

A spinal cord injury is a traumatic event that can lead to a wide array of physical and emotional problems. While it’s not always easy, it’s essential to be positive and stay motivated towards recovery.

To help motivate you on the road to recovery, we’ve put together a list of 6 things every individual needs to know after spinal cord injury.

We hope this article fills you with hope.

1. Things Get Worse Before They Get Better

hopeful spinal cord injury recovery facts

After a spinal cord injury, your spinal cord may go into spinal shock. This occurs when the body sends out a bunch of powerful chemicals in an effort to stabilize the spinal cord after trauma.

The chemicals can cause your spinal cord to swell, which affects the amount of blood and nutrients that it receives.

Remember, your blood is filled with oxygen to fuel your cells and allow the body to function properly.

Therefore, swelling that cuts off blood flow in the spinal cord can cause you to lose control over different movements.

Don’t worry, this is temporary! Healing takes time.

Once the swelling dies down, the function that were affected may gradually start to return.

2. Recovery is Possible

the single most important thing about spinal cord injury recovery

The spinal cord is made up of a bunch of neural pathways that connect your brain to your body. Once these pathways are damaged by spinal cord injury, they can’t heal. However, there is hope!

Neuroplasticity is your central nervous system’s ability to rewire itself. This is the most important concept you need to understand about spinal cord injury recovery.

The spinal cord is capable of learning, forgetting, and relearning functions. Chances are, your spinal cord injury did not completely transect your spinal cord.

Some pathways may have been spared (although, they might be a little bit traumatized). Fortunately, these spared pathways are your greatest hope for recovery.

Neuroplasticity works through these spared pathways. They can create new connections to the brain so that you can recover lost functions. 

Performing lots of repetitive movements is the best way to activate neuroplasticity.

The more you practice moving, the stronger the pathways get, and the more natural movements become.

3. It’s Never Too Late for Recovery

Drawing by Demitri Martin

Sometimes, you can go weeks, or even months, without seeing any improvement. This is completely normal because recovery does not progress in a straightforward path.

After a traumatic event, like spinal cord injury, the spinal cord enters an optimal period of learning.

This typically lasts for about 6 months and explains why the most recovery is observed during the early periods following an SCI.

However, this does not mean that your ability to relearn goes away. The spinal cord will always be able to adapt and learn, so if you’re willing to put in the effort, we believe it’s never too late for recovery!

Many patients see improvements years and years following their injury. It’s all about consistency and trusting the process.

4. Your Mental Health is Just as Important as Your Physical Health

spinal cord injury recovery is a physical and mental journey

Spinal cord injury recovery is both a physical and mental journey.

Your mental state affects your physical state just as much as your physical state affects your mental state.

Think holistically. Your mind and body function best when you eat well, exercise regularly, and get quality sleep.

But sometimes life gets chaotic and overwhelming, and your schedule falls off track. It’s not the end of the world, and you can easily pick back up where you left off.

5. You’re Not Alone

support system for spinal cord injury recovery

You don’t have to go through spinal cord injury recovery on your own.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Your friends and family want to see you get better.

If you ever feel like your loved ones just don’t understand what you’re going through, then consider joining a spinal cord injury support group.

There, you’ll be surrounded by lots of people that have been in your situation. You can help each other out by sharing experiences.

Joining a support group is also a great way to gain access to a plethora of information and helpful resources.

If you can’t find a spinal cord injury support group near you, consider joining an online support group or forum. Technology makes it easier than ever to communicate with others; you don’t even have to leave your home!

6. Hope and Positivity are Essential for Recovery

hope and positivity for SCI recovery

Be an opportunist! Spinal cord injury recovery can provide you with a new sense of purpose.

Dwelling on the past will hold you back. Think presently and envision a positive future.

This doesn’t mean that you have to find new hobbies and give up on everything you loved before.

However, you do have to be open to adjusting or relearning how you do things.

Accept your situation and figure out what you can do from now on to make ends work.

Spinal cord injury recovery is a long journey and not every day is going to be easy, but as long as you keep going, your hard work will pay off.

We highly recommend documenting your progress through pictures, videos, or journal entries to remind yourself where you started and how far you’ve come.

Hopefully, this article inspired you to continue working hard towards your recovery.

Spinal cord injury recovery may just be the most rewarding experience of your life, so stick to it!

For an extra motivation boost, check these spinal cord injury recovery stories!

Keep it going: Get 15 pages of rehab exercises for SCI recovery in our FREE ebook

exercise ebook cover for spinal cord injury with example pages

Get instant access to our free exercise ebook for SCI survivors. If you liked this post, you’ll LOVE our emails and ebook.

Each exercise features pictures of a licensed therapist to help guide you. You’ll also receive our popular recovery emails with SCI survivor stories and other useful tips — you can opt out anytime.

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More Ways to Recover with Flint Rehab:

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Do you want to improve mobility after a spinal cord injury?

Depending on the severity of your spinal cord injury, there may be hope for improved mobility. Consistent at-home therapy is key to making this happen.

That’s why Flint Rehab created FitMi, a motion-sensing, gamified home recovery tool designed for neurological injury like SCI.

Here’s what others have said about it:

Say bye-bye to your Physiotherapist

“I purchased this wonderful equipment for the use of spasticity for my right hand. Initially I wasn’t sure if it would work because of the various treatments I tried and also many physiotherapists who tried their level best, but didn’t achieve any positive results.

However after trying FitMi, I could feel that slowly and steadily I am improving. It’s really a great device that minutely takes care of each and every muscle of your affected body part. The biggest plus point is, you can use this device anywhere, anytime with precise exercises that you need and also saves your money and time spent on your physiotherapist.

— Chandrakiran

It’s all about high repetition of therapeutic exercises

FitMi works by encouraging you to practice rehab exercises with high repetition. On average, survivors complete hundreds of repetitions per half hour session.

“Massed practice” like this helps stimulate and rewire the nervous system. While you can achieve massed practice with a written sheet of exercises, it can be tough to stick with it consistently — and consistency is key to recovery.

FitMi helps transform rehab exercises into an engaging, interactive experience. The yellow and blue “pucks” track your movement and provide feedback. All of this comes together for a motivating home therapy program.

A survivor named Tom put it perfectly:

“I believe this device will help me concentrate on making the repetitive actions needed to obtain further movement range in my wrist and hand and arm and therefore rating it with five stars. My occupational therapist recommended to give this a try. I have been using FitMi for just a few weeks. I feel more at ease in flexing.”

If you’d like to learn more about FitMi, click the button below:

ebook with fanned out pages, titled "Rehab Exercises for Spinal Cord Injury Patients"

Do you have this 15 pages PDF of SCI rehab exercises?

Get a free copy of our ebook Rehab Exercises for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery. Click here to get instant access.