Aisling Kennedy currently works as the Communications Manager at Spinal Injuries Ireland.
Aisling explains below about her introduction to the world of spinal cord injury and how she subsequently became an advocate for people living with spinal cord injuries in Ireland.
Aisling’s story:
In July 2016, I woke one morning with a strange sensation in my legs. This quickly progressed to numbness and within an hour and a half I was paralysed from the waist down. I was rushed to hospital where I was diagnosed with a rare neurological illness called Transverse Myelitis.
Transverse Myelitis basically means an inflammation on the myelin sheath across a transverse section of the spinal cord. In my case, three legions appeared on my spinal cord overnight from T7-T10 and these legions damaged my spinal cord irrevocably.
I was a patient in Tallaght Hospital for seven weeks where I received amazing care and underwent intensive physiotherapy to regain mobility. I was then transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire for six weeks where I underwent additional physiotherapy, occupational therapy.
Losing the ability to walk, along with the many other aspects of a spinal cord injury was one of the hardest things I have ever been through in my life. It tested my mental and physical strength in a way I never thought possible.
To this day, it is still hard for me to describe the overwhelming sense of fear and confusion I felt in those first few weeks as it slowly dawned on me that I could not move or feel my legs. I regularly heard doctors referring to me as a paraplegic; I was completely dependent on a wheelchair to go anywhere, and I could not comprehend that this was my life.
However, I was one of the lucky ones.
Following two days of reflex tests, a lumbar puncture, an MRI, X-rays, countless questions and examinations, numerous doctors, and intravenous needles, I was put on an intensive course of intravenous steroids.
The steroids slowly began to reduce the inflammation on my spinal cord and within weeks, my right leg began to regain mobility quite quickly.
My left leg, however, did not seem to want to work. The turning point finally came for me though after six weeks when one day, while sitting on my hospital bed, I tried to move my left leg up, and it moved. I could hold it up off the bed ever so slightly and hold it for about one second.
It was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget my doctors faces when they came in for their daily rounds to see I could move it for the first time. Things continued to improve from there on.
Over the course of the last year, I went from walking with the aid of a walking stick to now finally walking independently. I still live with many residual effects of having a spinal cord injury such as a loss of sensation in my left leg, back pain, and fatigue but I have come a long way and I am thankful everyday for my rapid recovery and my amazing legs that now work.
In February 2017, I began working as the Communications Manager at Spinal Injuries Ireland on a part time basis while I was transitioning back into employment. Prior to falling ill, I was a journalist for over a decade but, on my return to work, I decided to begin a new career in communications.
In my role at Spinal Injuries Ireland, I manage all the social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the SII website. I also liaise with media, compile press releases, organise photocalls, and interview our service users to tell their stories across our social media platforms and through the media. I also compile the monthly SII Ezine, compile the bi-annual Spinal News magazine and promote awareness of the SII brand in other different forms of multi-media. More recently, I have begun working full time and I now also work on the fundraising team and help to organise events, conferences, and liaise with community fundraising teams.
The work that Spinal Injuries Ireland carry out on a yearly basis is so important as it provides all types of services for clients as they adjust to life post-hospital discharge. I am in a unique position as I am both a service user of the organisation and an employee.
As a service user, I would have struggled immensely after I was discharged from hospital were it not for SII. They linked me in with a peer support mentor who also had Transverse Myelitis and she guided me hugely in the beginning as I adapted to my new body. SII were also immensely helpful when it came to navigating and returning to employment, the social welfare system, the medical card, physiotherapy sessions, and I had a Community Outreach Officer allocated to me who would link in with me regularly to see how I was getting on post-hospital discharge. To know that someone was there any time to call if I needed any advice or help was vital to me in the early days.
I am now happily employed at Spinal Injuries Ireland and I advocate on behalf of anyone living with a spinal cord injury in Ireland.
Spinal Injuries Ireland is a great place to work with an amazing team who provide an incredible service. As anyone with a spinal cord injury will tell you, a lot more needs to be done in this country to help people when they leave hospital as they adjust to their ‘new normal’, but having SII here to help definitely makes a huge difference in the lives of people around the country.
Aisling.
Aisling explains below about her introduction to the world of spinal cord injury and how she subsequently became an advocate for people living with spinal cord injuries in Ireland.
Aisling’s story:
In July 2016, I woke one morning with a strange sensation in my legs. This quickly progressed to numbness and within an hour and a half I was paralysed from the waist down. I was rushed to hospital where I was diagnosed with a rare neurological illness called Transverse Myelitis.
Transverse Myelitis basically means an inflammation on the myelin sheath across a transverse section of the spinal cord. In my case, three legions appeared on my spinal cord overnight from T7-T10 and these legions damaged my spinal cord irrevocably.
I was a patient in Tallaght Hospital for seven weeks where I received amazing care and underwent intensive physiotherapy to regain mobility. I was then transferred to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire for six weeks where I underwent additional physiotherapy, occupational therapy.
Losing the ability to walk, along with the many other aspects of a spinal cord injury was one of the hardest things I have ever been through in my life. It tested my mental and physical strength in a way I never thought possible.
To this day, it is still hard for me to describe the overwhelming sense of fear and confusion I felt in those first few weeks as it slowly dawned on me that I could not move or feel my legs. I regularly heard doctors referring to me as a paraplegic; I was completely dependent on a wheelchair to go anywhere, and I could not comprehend that this was my life.
However, I was one of the lucky ones.
Following two days of reflex tests, a lumbar puncture, an MRI, X-rays, countless questions and examinations, numerous doctors, and intravenous needles, I was put on an intensive course of intravenous steroids.
The steroids slowly began to reduce the inflammation on my spinal cord and within weeks, my right leg began to regain mobility quite quickly.
My left leg, however, did not seem to want to work. The turning point finally came for me though after six weeks when one day, while sitting on my hospital bed, I tried to move my left leg up, and it moved. I could hold it up off the bed ever so slightly and hold it for about one second.
It was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget my doctors faces when they came in for their daily rounds to see I could move it for the first time. Things continued to improve from there on.
Over the course of the last year, I went from walking with the aid of a walking stick to now finally walking independently. I still live with many residual effects of having a spinal cord injury such as a loss of sensation in my left leg, back pain, and fatigue but I have come a long way and I am thankful everyday for my rapid recovery and my amazing legs that now work.
In February 2017, I began working as the Communications Manager at Spinal Injuries Ireland on a part time basis while I was transitioning back into employment. Prior to falling ill, I was a journalist for over a decade but, on my return to work, I decided to begin a new career in communications.
In my role at Spinal Injuries Ireland, I manage all the social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the SII website. I also liaise with media, compile press releases, organise photocalls, and interview our service users to tell their stories across our social media platforms and through the media. I also compile the monthly SII Ezine, compile the bi-annual Spinal News magazine and promote awareness of the SII brand in other different forms of multi-media. More recently, I have begun working full time and I now also work on the fundraising team and help to organise events, conferences, and liaise with community fundraising teams.
The work that Spinal Injuries Ireland carry out on a yearly basis is so important as it provides all types of services for clients as they adjust to life post-hospital discharge. I am in a unique position as I am both a service user of the organisation and an employee.
As a service user, I would have struggled immensely after I was discharged from hospital were it not for SII. They linked me in with a peer support mentor who also had Transverse Myelitis and she guided me hugely in the beginning as I adapted to my new body. SII were also immensely helpful when it came to navigating and returning to employment, the social welfare system, the medical card, physiotherapy sessions, and I had a Community Outreach Officer allocated to me who would link in with me regularly to see how I was getting on post-hospital discharge. To know that someone was there any time to call if I needed any advice or help was vital to me in the early days.
I am now happily employed at Spinal Injuries Ireland and I advocate on behalf of anyone living with a spinal cord injury in Ireland.
Spinal Injuries Ireland is a great place to work with an amazing team who provide an incredible service. As anyone with a spinal cord injury will tell you, a lot more needs to be done in this country to help people when they leave hospital as they adjust to their ‘new normal’, but having SII here to help definitely makes a huge difference in the lives of people around the country.
Aisling.