I was
lying in my bed, looking at the
ceiling, and suddenly I stood up - I had finally
decided to do it. I took my
backpack, it had contained this 3 metre piece of
steel cable for about half a year already,
I put on my shoes and left.
When I arrived at the
bridge, it was
rather quiet there, no
wind or anything, so I tied the cable
around the railing, put the other end
around my neck, climbed the edge, and jumped down.
It was a
highway bridge, with about 10 metres of
height, with a few cars
driving by occasionally. So,
I fell, and when the
cable was pulled tight around my
neck, it snapped and I kept falling.
It felt like flying. When I
landed, I broke my
backbone, a piece of bone pressed hard against my
spinal cord, and my legs were
paralyzed.
It takes
a long time, a few
years, for this kind of
fracture to heal completely. Soon I'll be in a
wheelchair, maybe even for the
rest of my life. But right now, after a month from the
injury, it's still too early,
the doctor says, to let me sit aywhere, so
I spend my days lying down,
surfing the Internet with my
laptop.
But I guess it wasn't my time to pass away yet.
Spinal fractures have to heal
by themselves, just like any other
fracture, there really is no
medicine to help with that. Broken arms and legs are
casted, to
restrict movements, but since that is
impossible with a broken
backbone, you just have to lie down, not to
strain your back. Those whose legs aren't that
paralyzed, are allowed to walk, it's a weird
situation, you can
lie down or
stand up, but sitting is
forbidden by the doctors, at least in for the first few
months.