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Description
Natalie woke up on her 22nd birthday with numbness in her feet. It was unusual, but she didn’t really think anything of it. After all - she was young, healthy... she had probably just slept on them wrong. It was no big deal.

‘No big deal’ turned into ‘neurological degenerative disease’ three months later when Natalie couldn’t even stand unaided. The HKAFO braces and crutches helped her get around OK, even if they were a bit clumsy and slow. She got used to using them though, and they worked pretty well... for a while.

Natalie had slowly been extending the time she needed to use her wheelchair, as using the crutches was tiring her out more and more. A week after her 23rd birthday she sat in her sporty lightweight chair and decided to leave her braces and crutches in the closet. They really couldn’t help her anymore - she had lost all feeling in both legs now and she had lost almost all abdominal muscle function. She was a paraplegic now, an ugly word she hated but had to face. She just worried that she would have to face so much more.

Natalie’s 25th Birthday was bittersweet. She had gotten confirmation that the neurological progression had not changed in six months, meaning she would not get worse. That her condition would not eventually kill her, as the doctors had initially feared. But as she was gently lifted into her custom power chair, her body crippled, her left arm completely useless and right arm not significantly better, numb from her chest down, she wondered if her new lease on life was really the best news she could have gotten? As she clumsily presses forward on her wheelchair control she decided that, quadriplegic or not, she was still going to make the best of things.

I tried a three-panel. Not sure how I like it? Thoughts??

Description
Natalie woke up on her 22nd birthday with numbness in her feet. It was unusual, but she didn’t really think anything of it. After all - she was young, healthy... she had probably just slept on them wrong. It was no big deal.

‘No big deal’ turned into ‘neurological degenerative disease’ three months later when Natalie couldn’t even stand unaided. The HKAFO braces and crutches helped her get around OK, even if they were a bit clumsy and slow. She got used to using them though, and they worked pretty well... for a while.

Natalie had slowly been extending the time she needed to use her wheelchair, as using the crutches was tiring her out more and more. A week after her 23rd birthday she sat in her sporty lightweight chair and decided to leave her braces and crutches in the closet. They really couldn’t help her anymore - she had lost all feeling in both legs now and she had lost almost all abdominal muscle function. She was a paraplegic now, an ugly word she hated but had to face. She just worried that she would have to face so much more.

Natalie’s 25th Birthday was bittersweet. She had gotten confirmation that the neurological progression had not changed in six months, meaning she would not get worse. That her condition would not eventually kill her, as the doctors had initially feared. But as she was gently lifted into her custom power chair, her body crippled, her left arm completely useless and right arm not significantly better, numb from her chest down, she wondered if her new lease on life was really the best news she could have gotten? As she clumsily presses forward on her wheelchair control she decided that, quadriplegic or not, she was still going to make the best of things.

I tried a three-panel. Not sure how I like it? Thoughts??