About the Author
Shelley Mountjoy
I have used a wheelchair for the past two decades; I'm paraplegic as a result of a spinal cord injury sustained as a passenger in a motor vehicle collision.
Within two years after my initial injury, I developed chronic osteomylesis from a hospital-acquired infection. Hospitalized for the better part of the next three years, I underwent dozens of surgeries to remove infected bone and treat multiple softball-sized wounds. Lacking the bone structure to sit symmetrically, my spine degenerated - a condition known as functional scoliosis.
My kidneys have struggled from long-term antibiotic use and multiple drug-resistant infections; these bacteria rapidly produce staghorn struvite stone. Despite on-going surgical intervention, I am almost always carrying a heavy stone burden - resulting in thinning, or atrophy. There are a number of consequences to declining kidney function - in my case, one of the more significant had been bilateral swelling, known as lymphedema but more recently complications with my heart and other organs have emerged.
Shelley Mountjoy in the pre-surgical prep room.
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