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Resilience and Perseverance through Disability: Erica's Story


Every lived experience of persons with disability is unique and expresses a sheer amount of bittersweet joy and enduring hardships. Through these stories, we can find solace and inspiration to persevere through our personal challenges. Among them, Erica's journey is a testament to courage and determination. After overcoming numerous life-threatening conditions, Erica successfully navigated the challenges and transcended the negative emotions associated with living with a disability. Her story serves to illuminate the path for others both a part of and outside the disability community. 

 

Her story began in 2015 when Erica experienced a medical emergency from developing Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES). This rare disorder, which affects the bundle of nerves at the lower end of the spinal cord, left her with sensation and movement difficulties and issues with bladder and bowel control. As a landscape designer managing her own company and simultaneously raising a household of children, she found herself consumed with worry about her future. To prevent permanent paralysis and other issues from this disorder, Erica underwent emergency surgery. With the complex challenges she was already facing from the injury, the last thing she expected was a worsening of complications from her surgery. The surgery that was meant to be healing and restorative caused Erica to develop double spinal cord infections and brain fluid leakage. 

 

Following this, Erica had to spend several months in the hospital with IV antibiotics to treat the spinal infections. However, there was no follow-up for her brain fluid leakage, which later contributed to a worsening of the complications from her disability. While continuing to fight through cardiac, digestive, and nervous system complications, the IV antibiotics interfered with Erica's primary contraceptive option, and she found herself five months pregnant.  

 

Erica was grateful that her pregnancy went by without significant complications, however, she experienced challenges giving birth as her cervix was paralyzed and therefore, needed an emergency C-section.   

 

Living with the challenges of her disability and the newly added member to her family, Erica fought through a long recovery. She underwent pain management and had a long list of medications that she eventually wanted to abandon. This was when she went in for an epidural injection, which completely erased her pain overnight. Erica awoke the following day a new person, feeling elated with the newfound freedom from pain.  

 

However, she underestimated the strain on her body and pushed herself to the limits, and one day, Erica experienced a fall that caused her to break her neck. Unbeknownst to her, Erica sustained a brain injury and cervical spine compression. Living with an unknown brain injury caused Erica to endure one of the darkest moments of her life, battling negative emotions and what seemed to be out-of-body experiences. She expresses a glimpse of her experiences in a beautiful piece of writing she was kind enough to share:  



 

 

Night in Gale:  

I had a memory once, so pristine in presence I scant to believe it is not real.  

The sky was black canvas behind the brilliance of light that the stars provided in the space between us. I was younger than I am now and I instinctively knew my hair was a halo of pure white curls. I looked down, my feet bare in the cold earth that warmed me. My skin was chalky, knees boney with a worn pale blue cotton dress dusted over them.   

I looked up, beyond the grass tops butting plumes, I could see the faint silhouettes, familiar as home as I glanced across the vastness of the field. The air was still and I could hear a voice rising in the eastward winds. A Hollar that gripped me from the earth that held me. I knew it was my Father voice, a vibrational force for came in my ear and wrapped clean around my chest, pulling from the depths of my core as I echoed back. We Hollard long into the mornings pink light, our song of songs. I bellowed clean into the atmosphere then stepped back into my night of gale. I was a Slave and in those moments of my memory, I was freer than I had ever been; more loved than I had ever known."

 


 

Throughout the following year, Erica continued to experience frequent falls, leaving her children perplexed and unable to understand the cause of her struggles. Throughout this time, she battled depressive thoughts and dealt with the continuous pressure of pretending everything was all right, to ensure that she does not worry her family. 

 

It was not until a year later that physicians recognized her brain injury, at which point her condition had long deteriorated. Clinicians recommended that she attend the VPAI program at Parkwood. She did not have big hopes for the outcomes of this program; however, she still decided to pursue the opportunity.   

As she began the program, she found hope in witnessing fellow members persevere through their challenges. Despite facing her challenges due to her condition, witnessing peers who had endured even greater difficulties persevere and fight against their circumstances gave her a newfound inspiration. With the help of this program, Erica underwent Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which helped her cope with negative emotions and health conditions. She also began to exercise and slowly regained enough mobility and strength to stand upright and walk.   

 

Erica was slowly achieving milestones that she had not expected to reach, and each achievement gave her the strength to pursue life and take care of her family. In this new chapter, Erica continues to fight the episodic flare-ups of pain, weakness, and complications from her disability while maintaining a strong spirit and celebrating her achievements.   

 

As Erica continues her journey, she imparts invaluable advice to those facing similar struggles; drawing strength from peer support and structured therapy can make all the difference in confronting the myriad challenges of living with a disability. Erica's story serves as a beacon of resilience, reminding us that even in our darkest moments, there is light to be found. With perseverance, victory awaits on the other side.  



 

  

Acknowledgements

A very special thank you to Erica for being kind enough to share her story.


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