Paralyzed Texas Cheerleader Makayla Noble Shares 'Day in My Life as a Quadriplegic' Video
Makayla Noble, the Texas high school cheerleader who was paralyzed in a freak accident, has shared a video showing a "day in the life" as a quadriplegic.
The 17-year-old Prosper resident suffered a severe spinal cord injury while practicing tumbling—an acrobatic form of gymnastics—on September 20 and was left paralyzed from the chest down and unable to move her hands.
The teenager spent several weeks between hospital and a rehabilitation facility before being allowed to return home.
In the video, the first published on her YouTube channel since the accident, Noble said: "I'm going to do a day in the life. I'm super excited to show you guys everything that goes into it. It's kind of an appreciation video for my mom and my sister for all that they do, because the clock never ends. And we do stuff 24/7."
The first thing Noble says is that she has to sleep on her side, supported by special wedge-shaped cushions that keep her in place. But every two to four hours during the night, her mom and sister take turns at flipping Noble from side to side so that she doesn't get bed sores.
"Because I can feel my body but I can't feel pain," Noble said.
The cheerleader also has to wear special hand splints during the night that she has dubbed "Mr. Crabs" that keep her fingers from curling up into a little ball.
In addition, the teenager sleeps in specially made boots that prevent her feet from dropping.
After waking up, Noble takes her first batch of medicines. This is is also repeated at lunchtime and dinnertime when she gets fed.
Then comes what her mom and sister describe in the video as their "least favorite part of the morning"—putting on the teen's compressions socks.
"They are the tightest things ever and they take us like 10 minutes each," her sister, Myriah Noble, said in the video.
The socks, which extend all the way from the cheerleader's knees to her toes, keep her blood pressure up.
"People with spinal cord injuries... their blood pressures all over the place," the sister said.
She also wears an abdominal binder that goes under her clothes and also helps to keep her blood pressure up.
To get out of bed, Noble's mom and sister put her in a sling that is attached to a device that lifts her out of bed and into her wheelchair.
In the video, Noble said her body had problems regulating heat and temperature due to the nature of her injury, so she was dressed up warm even though the weather was not too cold.
"So if it's a little bit chilly out, it feels really cool to me," Noble said. "And then I can go from really cool to a really high, like when you have a fever, but I'm not sick, and I don't have a fever."
Intriguingly, Noble said she can't sweat anymore, making it hard for her to regulate heat.
While getting ready (which she said usually takes a couple of hours) Noble said the plan for the day was to go with her family to the grocery store where she could practice getting things off the shelves and becoming comfortable being in public again.
"I haven't been in public for two months," Noble said. "And now I'm in a wheelchair so it's a little bit different, as you can imagine. And so getting back into society, thankfully for me, it's been pretty easy, and I've been eager to do it. But people typically wait a few months before even going out for the first time. And I went out all the way home from rehab. But I'm excited to go into public because it's fun. I like getting outside the house."
At one point the video shows Noble eating. While she can't move her fingers, she is now able to use her hands to pick up the food and feed herself.
Similarly, the teenager can be seen using her phone, which has been fitted with a special strap so she can hold it. She uses the knuckle of her little finger to control the screen.
"So if I don't respond to you, I'm really sorry, my fingers do not work and it takes so much energy and effort, effort and patience to just try and get on my phone," she said. "So when I do, I'm not able to do a lot."
