Celebrate The Paralympics!

August 24, 2021 Jessica Kluetz

Be inspired. Be challenged by the paralympic athletes.

As a physiatrist, I see a broad range of patient ages, illnesses, and injuries. As a consultant to families trying to navigate the healthcare system, I spend a majority of my time talking with families who are working to help their aging loved ones through a health crisis that often involves big changes to a living situation.

In addition to this, however, in being a physiatrist and healthcare consultant, I also frequently watch first-hand, patients and loved ones work through the process of adjusting an entire life to accommodate for a newly acquired disability.

Because a bulk of my experience is in the acute rehabilitation world, I usually see the initial part of this process. This includes the psychological portion in which both the patient and the family member are working through the realization that life as they knew it was going to be different.

That is really hard, especially in the beginning. It is hard emotionally because there is a grieving process that must occur. It is hard physically because the patient must go through rehabilitation in order to learn how to be more independent both with mobility and ADLs with this new normal. It is also hard financially due to potential changes in ability to work, paying for the changes to the home that might need to happen, and the potential need to pay for in-home assistance.

One thing that drew me to the field of physiatry, however, was the experience of seeing the patients and their family members as they not just adjusted to their new way of life but excelled in this new way of life.

August 24 marks the opening ceremonies for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. They will be competing through September 5. Can I encourage you to watch these games?

The paralympic values: courage, determination, inspiration and equality.

The Paralympic Games are the ultimate example of one excelling in their new way of life. Each athlete in the paralympics has a story. Some of the athletes were born with their specific disabilities, and some acquired these disabilities at some point in their lives. Obviously, not every person with a disability will achieve the level of sport that the paralympic athletes have achieved, but I think watching these athletes and learning more about their stories of how they got to where they are can serve as an inspiration to all of us.

This can be especially good for those who are currently or have recently gone through a life-changing illness or accident. These athletes overcame a life-changing diagnosis, complicated illnesses or traumatic accident to excel on the world stage in athletics.

There are six different disability groups in which paralympians compete, and these are amputee, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, visual impairments, intellectual disability and “les autres” (an athlete whose disability does not fit in with any of the other listed categories.

(Related blog post: What Happens After A Spinal Cord Injury?)

I have had patients in each of these categories, some who were born with these disabilities and some who acquired these disabilities later in life. Regardless of when the person first began to live a life with his or her particular disability, it was a long and challenging road to be able to become independent with their mobility and ADLs. From there, each of these athletes then moved on to challenge themselves to a new athletic endeavor, and from there, pushed themselves to compete at the paralympic level.

I am going to keep this blog post short so that you will spend time watching these amazing athletes. You or your loved one might be going through a very difficult time of transitioning to a new way of life. Let the paralympic athletes you watch serve as an inspiration to overcoming the hardships in which you or your loved one are having.