Appreciate Your Limbs!

When the movie Murderball was shown in class, the only person that popped into my head was my uncle. I know I spoke a little about this in class, but this movie really reveal so much about how paraplegic and quadriplegic aren’t any different from those with functional limbs. During my uncles early 20s, he was involved in a car accident that injured his spleen that led to the removal of his spleen. For those that do not know the functions of a spleen, “it is located in the left upper quadrant of the abdomen. It removes old red blood cells and holds a reserve of blood while also recycling iron. It metabolizes hemoglobin removed from senescent erythrocytes. It synthesizes antibodies and removes antibody-coated bacteria along with antibody-coated blood cells by way of blood and lymph node circulation” (Wikipedia). In other words, by removing his spleen, he was exposed to a “modest increase in circulating white blood cells and platelets, diminished responsiveness to some vaccines, and increased susceptibility to infection by bacteria and protozoa”(Wikipedia). Later in his early 30s, he was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for about 2 month with the doctors not knowing why his limbs were losing circulation and turning a dark purple color. Once they realized that his limbs were not viable, my uncle had to make a decision to remove all four of his limbs. It was not easy for him to make that decision; my grandmother had to beg him to proceed with the procedure because if he didn’t, he would have died. In his perspective, he did not want to live life being cared for by others. He was depressed for about 4 years until he realized that there was not anything that can be done to change what had happened. My family and I would try to do things for him such as feed him, dress him, etc. He did not like that because it killed his pride as a man. He then was determined to do things for himself and finally committed to physical therapy. About a year later, he was fully capable of taking care of himself. Now when I visit, it sometimes catches me off guard on how he is able to do everything that I can do if not more. For instance, I am terrible and swimming; whereas my uncle, he is awesome at swimming. The movie really explained everything that was reality for my uncle as well as my family. I am glad that this movie was shown because seeing the surprised reactions in others in my class was a good eye opener. If only a movie like this is released in theatres, then the whole world can be exposed to things we as fully functional limbs take for granted.

S.Antonio Kin 332I Section 3