Neuro Note 4-Spinal Cord Injury

 After watching The Jordan Hand Challenge on YouTube I was curious to learn more about Jordan and her spinal cord injury. I also wanted to accept her challenge and experience a barrier she faces every day so I chose to look further into her YouTube channel as a part of my assignment.  Before doing the challenge I watched two of her videos on YouTube.  First I watched The Jordan Hand Challenge which explained how to do the challenge.  Then I went and learned more about Jordan Bone by watching another one of her videos titled Find out about my injury I Quadriplegia.

I watched the second video because I wanted to learn more about spinal cord injuries from a person who has a spinal cord injury.  The second video was very interesting and informative.  I learned that Jordan has quadriplegia after being in a car accident at the age of 15.  She has a complete spinal cord injury at the C6 level that has left all 4 of her limbs paralyzed.  She cannot move her fingers but she can move her wrists which is what allows her to do her makeup.  In her second video about her injury she also talks about complications with SCI’s including Autonomic Dysreflexia and how serious it is.  She explains how easily it can happen but how unknown it seems to be to the general public.  In her case, she does not sweat even on very hot, sunny days so when she starts to sweat she knows that she is experiencing Autonomic Dysreflexia and needs to do something soon to stop the symptoms from getting worse.  She also touches on pressure sores and the importance of her being turned every two hours while sleeping because if she is not turned that is something else that can cause Autonomic Dysreflexia.  

In the second video I watched, Jordan challenges people to attempt to do their makeup without using their fingers, just like she has to do every day.  I don’t usually do my makeup every day so instead I did the Hand Challenge while getting ready in the morning.  I washed my face and then put on moisturizer and sunscreen.  Then I put on some concealer and did my eyebrows.  The challenge was difficult because I had to have all of my items opened before starting.  Jordan has assistants who have to open all of her products for her.  I had not thought about her dependence on others in doing activities like putting on her makeup before I tried to open items I had forgotten to open at the beginning and could not.  I also ran into the struggle of holding items.  Jordan does not have any control of her hands but she uses tenodesis of her wrist to tighten and loosen her grip.  I tried this but sometimes I found myself flexing or extending my thumb unknowingly.   When I realized I would try and stop using my thumb but it made the Challenge that much more difficult and I would subconsciously use my thumb again.  I found it hard to splash water in my face when I was washing it and difficult to turn my eyebrow pencil in the direction I wanted it to go.  I learned how difficult it can be to do an everyday activity and how important advocacy is for every person with a disability.  

I enjoyed learning more about Jordan and accepting her Challenge.  I would definitely recommend participating in this Challenge to others.  It was fun to do something hands on and also compelling to overcome obstacles that she and so many others with a SCI face.  I also liked watching her videos and looking at her Instagram because in the future we will not just be reading about diagnoses we will be interacting with people with diagnoses and this felt more interactive.

 

 

References

Bone, J. [Jordan Bone]. (2017, January 26). Find out about by injury I Quadriplegia [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZbaFfsRBo

 

Bone, J. [Jordan Bone]. (2016, January 25). The Jordan hand challenge [Video]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsqzvON69cg