A friend and I used to play a game, "What would I do for a $1,000,000."
I was thinking about this, and if someone offered me $1,000,000 to relive the past two years, or never have experienced spinal cord injury, and just have gone one with my life as it was, which would I choose?
Of course, the outcome would have to be where I am now with the recovery, which has been pretty remarkable and (in my opinion) an almost complete recovery.
The answer is, $1,000,000 is not enough. How about $5,000,000? No. $10,000,000? To be honest, maybe. But that's only because of how much I have recovered. If I were still using a walker, or even dependent on a quad cane, the answer would be "No." Truthfully, no money is enough to want me to relive this ordeal.
In reality, I don't get compensated for being sick, in fact, I pay out - for extra medical bills, for health aids that insurance doesn't cover, time lost by going to doctors and labs more often than I used to, adjustments I make to live as normal a life as I can (and here I am fortunate because to see me from the outside, you'd think there was nothing physically wrong with me). Although I never carried really good comprehensive medical insurance, I carried one that met my needs, and thank goodness for that because at least I have been able to deal with the medical bills.
When I hear stories about people selling their kidneys for $20,000 because they need the money, I am saddened. If I really needed the money, how much would you have to pay me to go through the last two years? The sponsor would have to pay the medical bills also, and the money would have to be tax-free, but except that I'm sure the amount I would accept would be less than $1,000,000, it is not something I would want to have to think about.
Money can buy many things, including better access to healthcare, but it cannot buy your health. And although objectively, we can all say, "Health is more important than money," this is a statement I understand emotionally as well.
I still have to make the best of it. I still need to work hard to maitain what I have recovered and work hard to recover more. I have to motivate myself to keep trying harder. I need to be grateful for the amount of recovery I have experienced, and I need to be as positive as can be. The reality is that no one is going to give me money just because I got sick and sustained damage to my spinal cord. But these are all things I'm willing to do without any compensation.
I was thinking about this, and if someone offered me $1,000,000 to relive the past two years, or never have experienced spinal cord injury, and just have gone one with my life as it was, which would I choose?
Of course, the outcome would have to be where I am now with the recovery, which has been pretty remarkable and (in my opinion) an almost complete recovery.
The answer is, $1,000,000 is not enough. How about $5,000,000? No. $10,000,000? To be honest, maybe. But that's only because of how much I have recovered. If I were still using a walker, or even dependent on a quad cane, the answer would be "No." Truthfully, no money is enough to want me to relive this ordeal.
In reality, I don't get compensated for being sick, in fact, I pay out - for extra medical bills, for health aids that insurance doesn't cover, time lost by going to doctors and labs more often than I used to, adjustments I make to live as normal a life as I can (and here I am fortunate because to see me from the outside, you'd think there was nothing physically wrong with me). Although I never carried really good comprehensive medical insurance, I carried one that met my needs, and thank goodness for that because at least I have been able to deal with the medical bills.
When I hear stories about people selling their kidneys for $20,000 because they need the money, I am saddened. If I really needed the money, how much would you have to pay me to go through the last two years? The sponsor would have to pay the medical bills also, and the money would have to be tax-free, but except that I'm sure the amount I would accept would be less than $1,000,000, it is not something I would want to have to think about.
Money can buy many things, including better access to healthcare, but it cannot buy your health. And although objectively, we can all say, "Health is more important than money," this is a statement I understand emotionally as well.
I still have to make the best of it. I still need to work hard to maitain what I have recovered and work hard to recover more. I have to motivate myself to keep trying harder. I need to be grateful for the amount of recovery I have experienced, and I need to be as positive as can be. The reality is that no one is going to give me money just because I got sick and sustained damage to my spinal cord. But these are all things I'm willing to do without any compensation.