Justine Chichester
Spinal Cord Injury, Hydrocephalus, Breast Cancer Survivor
Some of my fondest memories are on the stage. From Shakespeare soliloquies while getting my BFA from FIU to dancing in the musical Chicago, I always felt at home playing various roles onstage.
In September 2014, however, I discovered the role I believe I was born to play. Survivor. I suffered a spinal cord injury and hydrocephalus after a fall in the rain. I lost the ability to stand and to walk. I faced paralysis and was labeled a paraplegic by my neurosurgeons. I was told to get used to “my new life in a wheelchair.”
Gaining strength from places I never knew I had, I fought back. Years of intensive physical therapy followed, along with a ton of hard work and determination. I began to stand again. Walking with a walker soon followed. During this time, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I vowed that, despite this latest obstacle, I wouldn’t stop my physical therapy, and I continued PT during my radiation treatments. Now, a decade since my fall, I am cancer-free and walk with a cane. I have defied the odds.
My monthly article, “The View From Here,” for Disability Independence Group (DIG), documents my life living with a disability. I’m also now working with DIG to expand opportunities for other people living with disabilities.
This was not the life I chose. But I feel that it is the life I was born to live, the “role” I was born to play. However, I know now that I am not merely a survivor. I am a fighter. And I can say, happily, that I am a thriver.
