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And while she may have defied medical odds by regaining her ability to walk, Emma Carey is still dealing with the scars of a freak accident that nearly cost her her life.
The 25-year-old, from Queensland in Australia, took to Instagram to share a candid picture of her in a drenched denim shorts.
Emma’s parachuting accident left her with a spinal cord injury that’s resulted in bowel and bladder incontinence, reports The Metro. She can only hold 100ml of liquid before she involuntarily wets herself.
“This is what I look like every single day. Multiple times a day,” she wrote in the caption of her bathroom selfie.
“Because I can walk, people tend to think I’ve completely recovered from my injury but the truth is I still have many lasting effects, one of them being that I’m completely incontinent.
“My bladder can only hold 100ml before it leaks. That’s less than half a cup of liquid, so as you can probably imagine this means I’m peeing myself literally nonstop.
“I don’t think I have a single friend that hasn’t seen me pee. I tell people about my incontinence generally within 10 minutes of meeting them. And now I’m posting a picture of my pee-covered pants to over 100 000 people without a second thought.”
The leggy blonde had set off on a European adventure in the Swiss Alps when the accident occurred on 9 June 2013, writes ABC.
It was her first time skydiving and Emma, who was strapped to an instructor as she jumped from the plane, described it as the “best feeling I’ve ever felt”.
“I just remember thinking this is exactly where I'm meant to be. This is pure bliss.”
But Emma’s instructor had pulled the first parachute too late, causing the emergency one to deploy too. Eventually both were released but it caused more chaos than it helped with lifesaving.
“They came out together, got tangled, wrapped around the instructor’s neck and strangled him,” Emma remembers.
“He was unconscious for the whole fall. He couldn’t cut the cords or help.”
The parachutes helped ease the fall but couldn’t ensure the landing was safe.
"I remember everything. I landed on my stomach, face in the dirt.
"I never got knocked unconscious, which I kind of always wish that I did, because I didn't like the memory.”
Emma spent four months in hospital, undergoing multiple surgeries and extensive rehabilitation.
“They told me that I had an L1 spinal cord injury, had broken my back and was now a paraplegic.”
Doctors said she’d never walk again but 18 months after her accident Emma had regained the use of her legs, making her one of a few “walking paraplegics” in the world.
Even though she made a miraculous recovery, Emma’s incontinence has robbed her of her confidence, reports Daily Mail.
“I was so embarrassed by this and tried to keep it a secret. I didn’t leave the house because I was so worried that people would find out.
“I wouldn’t tell anyone why I had to be near a toilet at all times. I wouldn’t let anyone see my catheters or pads.
“I would run away and hide every time I had an accident. It was exhausting trying to keep it a secret, so instead I just didn’t let anyone close to me.”
But she’s now learnt to accept and love herself despite her condition – and she couldn’t care less what people think of her.
“Just because people think you should feel embarrassed about something, doesn’t mean you need to. Just because people might judge you on a certain thing, doesn’t mean you need to care. How you feel about certain situations is entirely up to you.
“If you own your life and all your ‘flaws’, they’ll never be able to own you. It’s the most freeing thing in the world.”
SOURCES: DAILY MAIL, THE METRO, ABC
