Judy: Introduction

These pages were not written with the intention of being a "How-to-do-it" for the handicapped, but merely to share with others the results of our endeavors. Professional aid and much family co-operation have made it possible for us to cope with the many problems of a quadriplegic living at home.
While I do not presume to tell the nurse how to do her work, I feel this is an area where a nurse's role as a teacher should be emphasized. She is needed to guide the patient and family through the awesome transition from hospital care, where all services are provided (diet kitchen, laundry, housekeeping , physical and occupational therapy, counseling and of course, nursing), to home care, where imagination and ingenuity are required to perform all these duties which now fall upon the untrained family.
Things that may seem logical and second nature in the areas of hygiene, skin care, organization and routine to someone with medical training, are a frightening mystery to the family newly accepting these responsibilities. It is my hope that you nurses might draw from our ideas, hopefully enlarge upon them and pass all or parts of them on to others who share problems similar to mine.