How i lost part of me at the tender age of 15 & suffered a spinal cord injury
Hi, my name is Mbali (@mballydube) and I'm 19 years old. In 2013 I was in a gunshot accident. I was caught up in a crossfire during a robbery and was shot in my arm. The bullet went inside my body on my left side and damaged my back. The bullet went through my spine and was lodged in between my ribs. It entered from the left side and went through to the right, but never came out. I still have the bullet inside me to this day. I was hit in the T6 vertabrae. When I woke up in the hospital, the doctors told me that I would never be able to use my legs again, so I would need to use a wheelchair. At first I was fine with it because I didn't think much of it. When I was dismissed from the hospital, I started to feel the pain of "losing" my legs. I started having these negative thoughts about my life thinking that I will never be good enough and saw myself different from 'normal' people.
In 2014 I went to a spinal rehab center and that's when I started to briefly understand my situation and accept the person that I was at the time and accept the fact that I wouldn't be able to use my legs because I didn't believe I will never walk again. It was really hard because I even had to change schools. I went from a mainstream school to a special school where they would be able to accomodate me. It was hard to accept the person I was, but knew that as soon as I started accepting myself, the sooner I would move on with my life.
Now, I love myself more than ever. I have this newfound confidence, and I always see myself as the best and most beautiful. One of the people who helped me get my self-esteem back is an instagram beauty @lellamarie who is also in a wheelchair, but you can see that she's happy with who she is and I admire her a lot! I'm proud of the person that I am today and know that I CAN DO ANYTHING!!!
