I have a friend who also is the quadriplegic and was sort of my mentor in the early stages of my injury. He used an analogy of being “Born again” at the time of an injury. Life with the CSI totally upends your life. You have to relearn every aspect of your life, including swallowing Continue reading

My body and nutrition has evolved over the course of my injury. I dropped a significant amount of weight post injury due to a combination of factors. There is an increased metabolic demand related to severe trauma that lasts several months post injury. There are also infections, decreased intake of calories because of a delicious Continue reading

I officially started my volunteer placement this week. It’s an ideal first step to working in the social work field again. I contact parents who have not sent back questionnaires regarding children’s development. It’s nice to be back in the saddle again and to do something different besides therapy during the week. It’s purposeful work Continue reading

I reside at a neuro-rehabilitation residential facility through Hope Network. There are up to 16 residents, the majority having traumatic brain injuries. There are four who have spinal cord injuries, including myself. Hope Network has a handful of other AFC homes, including two others on campus. My weekdays start around 8 AM with a residential Continue reading

It’s been a little while since my last update. Part of that is because life has actually been calm the past few months. The weather has been phenomenal here in Michigan so I’ve been getting outside before mother nature comes to her senses and hits with the cold weather. I have been missing various items Continue reading

It’s not actually my new pet peeve but it’s one of my newer ones nonetheless. And this peeve is any place that is inaccessible or difficult to access with power wheelchairs. Medical facilities are the worst! You would think they would be the most sensitive to this. One example was my ophthalmology appointment on September Continue reading

My experience as a dialectical behavioral therapist mostly helps coping with this traumatic injury and numerous setbacks. Two particular DBT skills that help are mindfulness and distress tolerance. Distress tolerance is trying to navigate through a crisis without making it worse.. You accept the facts of reality as they are without placing judgments on them. Continue reading

Serial casting is a process where you gradually stretch a joint with a series of casts to hopefully prevent contractions. I have braces for both elbows, ankles, wrists and fingers. Our plan is to serial cast my left elbow, left wrist, both hands and fingers. You could practically immobilize my whole upper body. My OT Continue reading

I took an active role with directing my care within months of my injury. I spent 12 of the first 15 months inpatient at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. Everyone from my speech therapist to my OT hammered this in my head. Unfortunately, too many people with SCI’s fall into a passive mode regarding their Continue reading

I am blessed to have technology and people as supports for me beyond family and friends. I’ll rummage through them in no particular order.  I have two phone mounts for my iPhone with different neck lengths. The short one clips to the arm rest of my wheelchair providing me easy visual and touch access to Continue reading