Getting hand controls for a car are not expensive at all. You can buy temporary ones online for a couple hundred bucks. If you buy a car brand new the manufacturer will give you up to $1,000 in most cases toward the good ones which wont cost more than that. Staying in isnt good for your health or life expectancy. Unfortunately I stay in a great deal as well without any family and its not good for your health at all. I had a nice nest egg and investments I started in 2005 right after I got hurt, they would total over 10 million dollars now after I started with just 55k but my jealous hateful dad forced me to sell them all while they were down during the recession. So Ive been a homeless paraplegic for 16 months. He thinks its funny. He stumbles around in his two million dollar homes in different states Tennessee and Florida all alone and is happy now I assume that he knows Im broke. I just got caught in Hurricane Harvey and he wont even answer his phone. Class act. So dont feel bad that you are alone. But please get out and socialize even if its just at the gym or a support group. Mental health weighs on your life expectancy as well.
Yes thank you so much that has been very informative and helpful. I guess i always had this idea that being paralyzed without a family to help meant that you would end up in a nursing home thankfully this is not the case.
Thanks again
Paraplegics live alone all the time. If this is a brand new situation, physical therapy is a MUST to bring a handicapped person to the level that they can do many things for themselves at home without help, even driving a vehicle specially outfitted for a paraplegic. Also, if this is a new situation, a visit maybe twice a week from a home nurse may be helpful for the first few weeks of living independently. Another thing that is helpful is to look into getting a service dog who acts as companion and protector, is taught how to pick things up that are dropped, can help a paraplegic get in and out of wheelchair by offering support to push on, all sorts of things depending on the paraplegic's needs. Sometimes whilst a paraplegic is in the midst of physical therapy, a nursing home might make some sense as a temporary living arrangement, until the disability is under full control.
But in general, there is no reason why a paraplegic cannot live in their own home or apartment, after a good physical therapy program, and fix food, take showers, get dressed, use the bathroom, get in and out of bed, watch TV from a couch or recliner, answer the phone, answer the door, and go out to parks, shopping, almost all things that normal people do. Physical therapy groups for paraplegics normally will work in concert with special groups who help them function in normal life. I have had several friends over the years who were wheelchair-bound and they had their own place to live, they lived alone, and yet they went around just fine, all things considered. Now, neither of them operated a motor vehicle, a special one can be costly, but they lived in and near downtown and so could acess everything they needed via wheelchair.
If for some reason a paraplegic is discharged from a hospital without a physical therapy and social living program going, then they can contact any number of foundations and organizations devoted to helping people who are paralyzed and want to live independently, or they can just as easily ask their treating doctor to arrange all this for them or get them in touch with the right people. Hope this helps.