Ribbon cutting for VWI

On May 5 Victory Walk Inc. had their ribbon cutting ceremony.  It was supposed to take place at 4:30 and we got there in plenty of time.  Unfortunately, I was the only client there at the time so they volunteered me to do the cutting (with the real scissors, not the prop ones).  For those of you who know me, you know how much I do not like being in the spot light plus I don't take good pictures and they were going to be doing that too.  I did argue with Lynda a little bit, she's the co-founder of VWI.  She told me I had hands so I could do it, I argued that Austin also has hands and she quickly came back with the fact that Austin wasn't there yet.  I reluctantly agreed to do it.  I try not to be too difficult.  Life is short...who cares if I don't take good pictures (I DO!!!) and at least I didn't have to do any talking.

Kinda funny...

There's a cemetery in Rogers that I drive by often.  It's at an intersection so on occasion I've found myself stopped at a red light, right in front of this particular gravestone.  As I read the name on it aloud in my head and it always makes me laugh.  It only reads "Dye"...I chuckle as I type it.  A few weeks ago we happened to be stopped right next to the headstone on our way to church.  I quickly grabbed my phone and stumbled with the buttons as I tried to take a picture.  The light turned green and we had to go...just as I snapped the picture, which also distorted the image.  Awesome!

I can drive!!

On April 7th I finally had my driving evaluation.  We drove down to Baptist Health and Rehab in Little Rock where in no time, I was sitting behind the steering wheel of a big (to me) car that I wasn't familiar with, in a city I didn't know, driving on busy streets in the middle of a thunder storm.  Just one of those factors would have made me a little nervous driving as an able bodied person, so all of them together made me very nervous driving using hand controls for the first time.  But thankfully, all went well, and after about an hour of driving, we were heading back home. 

Trip to Dallas

I had an appointment with my doctor at Baylor on April 2nd, so, since we hadn't had a vacation in a little while, we thought we'd make a weekend out of our trip to Dallas.  We got to Dallas late Thursday night and I went to my appointment Friday morning.  That afternoon we decided to go to a museum and picked the Museum of Nature and Science.  Here are a few pictures that I took with my phone.  I brought my good camera, then proceeded to leave it in the hotel room.  

Abby, in one of the buildings with the fossil of some prehistoric creature...real good with details, aren't I?  And below is the outside of the same building.  I love the art nouveau style of the fixture.

Above is a sculpture of a woolly mammoth...I think.  This picture was taken about 15 seconds before Chris kicked a baby turtle across the sidewalk (accidentally) that Abby proceeded to "save".  She was really proud of the fact that she saved the turtle.  She and Chris walked out onto the concrete walkways that were built over the pond and returned the turtle to its family...pictured below.  Remember, I took these pictures with my phone...so please go easy on me with the blurry picture of the turtle.

That evening we decided to go hang out at the Gaylord Texan.  It's a neat place and if you can afford to stay there, I highly recommend it.  We ate next to a little indoor river, were entertained by a magician, did a little bit of shopping, lassoed by a cowboy, lots of walking and rolling around, and Neal McCoy sang to us in the elevator.  OK, so I didn't really know who Neal McCoy was, but Chris did, and I also can't guarantee that Neal McCoy with sing to you in the elevator if you ever go stay there.

Here's Abby, sitting on an old cow in the atrium at the Gaylord.

Hm...

I had therapy today.  Only the right side of my body decided to sweat.

 

I finally stole this picture from Chris's phone so now I can write about our wonderful Christmas present from our church.  It's a 1995 Ford Windstar that is wheelchair accessible!  This is such a blessing.  We really didn't know what we were going to do about a vehicle that I could drive.  I absolutely love my KIA Spectra 5 but it was our only vehicle and once Chris, Abby and I are in it, along with my wheelchair, there isn't room for anything else.  The van is not set up for me to drive yet but once I get my training done (and I'll admit I'm a little apprehensive about that, especially since it sounds like I may be doing some driving in downtown Dallas for practice), we will be able to have hand controls installed.  I just can't wait to regain some of my independence. 

Also, yesterday I practiced walking for the first time!!  Ok, I wasn't the one actually picking my feet up and putting one foot in front of the other, someone did that for me, but it's a start...my legs went through the motions.  Unfortunately, my little photographer was not in the room at the time and missed it all.  She was a little upset about it and I have no pictures to share, but I promise that the monumental moment will be when I actually walk on my own, and I will be sharing video of that!

A couple of exciting things have happened in the last few weeks.

#1 - I can now flex some of my upper abs!!  This is super exciting to me because it's the first thing I've been able to control beneath my level of injury since the fall.

#2 - We have an elevator for the house!!  This is also super exciting to me because I have been sleeping in our guest room upstairs, alone, ever since I got back from rehab.  I also haven't seen the downstairs in almost nine months.

 

This is our friend, Sam.  He's helping Chris tear out part of our guest room closet for the elevator.

#3 - I've been practicing standing at therapy.  Don't get too excited...I can't actually control my leg muscles (at least not yet) and I most certainly didn't get myself in the standing position on my own.

And for the few of you that may have noticed, I'm very much aware of the pantie line.  But frankly, I don't care.  I probably should be, but I'm not embarrassed to say that.  I'm just so happy I'm not wearing diapers anymore :).  And yes, I'm not embarrassed to say that either.  Nobody reads this thing anyway, right?

Valentines day was nice.  I spent it with Chris and Abby, my  mom and my in-laws.  We met Chris's parents at Olive Garden for lunch.

This is a rare picture of me and my sweetie.  He is severely camera shy and will probably have me remove this picture as soon as he realizes it's on here, so, if you're one of the few who have never seen him and are fortunate enough for a brief sighting before the photo vanishes...consider yourself lucky. 

On a sad note, I did have to have my cat of 17 years put to sleep.  Kitten had been with me through a lot and she was a great friend.  Yes, I know...what kind of a name is Kitten?  Well, I'm not very good at coming up with names and it's all I could think of at the time.  I may have stunted her growth by calling her that.  She sure was a small cat.

 

A few pictures from therapy

I haven't posted too many pictures from therapy so I'll do my best to share my progress (and hopefully there will be progress) with all of you. Most of the pictures have been taken by either Chris or Abby. Sorry about the quality...they were all taken with our iPhones.

This is Greg, my therapist at Victory Walk Inc. These three pictures were taken a couple weeks ago. In the picture above we were trying something new. It's called stacking. Hips over the knees, shoulders over the hips. I had some trouble getting my shoulders over my hips. When I can't feel the lower portion of my body, I can't tell when things are lined up. Also, it was really hard to breathe in this position, even though I look surprisingly relaxed in this picture...hm. I have the same breathing problem when I'm doing lifts in my wheelchair.

I had a death grip on my thighs. I was in a new position and a little afraid of falling over...falling over and breaking my rods, to be more specific, or damaging my spine above or below the stabilization rods. I met a woman at Baylor who was in rehab for a second time. She had fallen again and one of her rods broke so her surgeon decided to replace both her rods with better quality ones. I always say if you're going to do it, do it right the first time.

When he let go, I didn't fall over...AND...I could breathe. This is, by far, the most comfortable position I've been in since the accident.

It finally happened

I have been dreading the day I would fall out of my chair. Fall backwards, to be more specific. I figured it would happen sooner or later but I honestly didn't think it would happen this soon. On Tuesday I went to Victory Walk for my therapy. Al (co-founder of VWI) was in his office, my mom was doing the dishes and Greg (therapist) was in the gym with another client. Abby was playing around with me so I grabbed her and said "You wanna mess with me? Remember, I'm bigger and stronger than you...I will take you down!" I wrapped my right arm around her and started tickling. She lost her balance and started falling and I could not unhook my arm from around her. It all happened so quickly. Before I knew it, we were both on the floor. I was on my back and Abby was crying. I didn't get hurt, however, Abby somehow hurt her pinkie finger. She's quite the drama queen so my main concern was getting her calmed down. Greg had me back in my wheelchair in no time and he stopped Abby's crying with a band-aid. No, there was no bleeding, but band-aids are a miracle product when it comes to kids and their booboo's. One of my biggest fears came true and it wasn't that bad after all. Though I was incredibly embarrassed, I'm so thankful that it happened where capable help was nearby.

The fuzzy picture above was taken just moments before the fall.

Looking back

I do a lot of thinking and today I can't help but think of the fall I had eight months ago. If the accident would have happened to me ten years ago, I know it would have been a lot more devastating to me. I was in a different place in my life and honestly, I don't think I would have been able to handle it very well at all. The last seven years have been the best years of my life and those years include the past eight months. Those months have been filled with many challenges, tough challenges, but I wouldn't trade them for anything in this world. That's right! If I could go back and do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing. God has shown me His love in so many ways. Through prayers, cards and emails from friends and strangers, to monetary donations as well as a wheelchair accessible van given to us by our church and the precious time of friends and people I don't even know spent at our house, helping to make it more accessible for me. For those of you who know me, I am not the most outgoing person. I have a small circle of friends...good friends. People I love and who love me. It was a most humbling experience when I felt the outpouring of support from people I had never even met and the dedication of my friends and family who were there for me. I remember lying in the hospital bed and thinking these people care about me? Really?? Me??? It was very odd to be given so much attention. I felt as if I had been thrust into the spotlight and I'm a person who will avoid attention at all cost. But then, it provided comfort (and still does). I saw people in rehab that were alone in their struggle and I never saw them with a single visitor. I felt as though I didn't deserve the support I had but I was so THANKFUL for it. I knew it was God carrying me at a time when I needed it most and it has most definitely strengthened my faith. I'm thankful for a loving God and the peace and comfort He provides. I'm thankful for the wonderful people I have met along this journey who have touched my life and it thrills me to know I will meet up with them again some day.

Abby has figured out how to use the camera on my iPhone and she likes to snap pictures whenever she can. These were taken while I was waiting to see my neurosurgeon. For some reason, I really like the one with just my feet. I know, I look spaced out in the first picture but I was in deep thought...I really was! No, there were no crickets chirping...really!

Victory Walk Inc.

I do regret being a reluctant blogger. For the last eight months, there have been many moments in my life that are worth remembering. But my memory is mediocre at best so I will make a conscious effort to blog more often, mainly for my own benefit. Yup, this blog is going to have to be my memory.

Last December I started going to Victory Walk Inc. in Springdale, AR. Last year, in Northwest Arkansas, there were a total of 244 people who were living with spinal cord injuries (Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison and Crawford counties). Benton county had 5 new cases in 2009 and I made up 20% of those new cases...how's that for a statistic! So, as devastating as this kind of an injury can be in someone's life, we also make up a very small portion of the population and it would be easy for many people to ignore the issue. That's why I'm so thankful for the Lemke's, the founders of Victory Walk Inc. Sure, there are rehab centers in the area but only one of them is a spinal cord injury recovery center, solely dedicated to people like me. Al and Lynda turned a tragedy in their own lives into a blessing for Northwest Arkansas.

Trish, if you are reading this...you put me to shame!! You are better at blogging about me than I am...ha ha! Now I have to try to stay ahead of you...darn it all!


Here I am riding the FES bike. It uses electronic muscle stimulation so that my legs are what moves the pedals.

More later...

BUMC

I thought it'd be fun to share some of my pictures of the basement of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. For any newcomers, I spent a total 9 weeks at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation after I broke my back this last spring. The hospital and rehab institute are across the street from each other and are connected by a subterranean tunnel. The cafeteria is in the hospital so at least once a weekend, Chris and I would take the tunnel from BIR to BUMC and walk through the old and somewhat creepy halls of the hospitals basement to grab a tasty bite to eat.

Ouch!

So, here's the deal. I fall off scaffolding, brake my back and now I'm paralyzed from mid ribcage down. I'm not supposed to feel anything from my point of injury down...well, that's not entirely true. Many people with spinal cord injuries suffer from neuropathic pain. So, technically I do have sensation below my point of injury. Why can't I have the sensation of soaking in a warm bubble bath or being wrapped in a soft blanket, fuzzy slippers on my feet or a relaxing massage. Instead, I have the sensation of someone pulling my toe back by the toenail, a burning sensation throughout my legs, a constant wedgie, a bra strap rubbing over sunburned skin or the feeling of having been dragged across a frozen lake, on my tush, with no pants on. I suppose that's why it's called neuropathic pain.

Milestone #1

Well, it's not actually my first milestone. I've had at least a dozen by now (chuckle chuckle) but this is the first one I'm blogging about. When I took my shower this morning, I washed my own feet for the first time since the accident! I had two things that were hindering me from being able to do that. The first thing is the HO (Heterotopic Ossification) in my right hip that wasn't allowing me to bend very far at the hip, and the other was the fear of bending forward and falling off my shower bench (since all the things I have to hold on to are wet and slippery). I have conquered that fear and the daily stretching of my legs has put some much needed range of motion back in my hip. Yay!

Makeover time!

Last Sunday my friend Trish was so nice to come over and color my hair. I have been slowly getting gray since high school. I haven't wanted to be bothered with coloring for the last few years because I just didn't want to deal with the hassle but, let's face it, I'm looking much older than I really am these days. If the color of my hair is something I can change...let's do it! Funny thing is, it's a much bigger hassle now that I'm in a wheelchair. I also have a new friend from my church who is a hairdresser and is willing to come out to our house whenever I need a haircut. Needless to say, I'm very thankful for these wonderful people!

Before

During

After

OK, I must admit that I didn't realize how gray my hair was.  I guess ones' eyes get used to it, just like ones' nose gets used to bad odors...you know what I mean,

In a nutshell...

Now, a good blogger would have kept his or her readers up to date on all the latest happenings, developments, musings, even posted pictures from the hospital bed and wouldn't have used that as an excuse not to. Well, I'm not a good blogger, and I will use that as my excuse :P.

To get you up to date, this is the basic timeline of what has happened:

June 15 - Fell off scaffolding and broke my back.

OUCH!!

June 18 - Had surgery to realign my spine.

June 23 - Took a long, and at times, bumpy ride in an ambulance to Dallas, TX for rehab at Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation.
July 31 - Returned home from Baylor, at which time, I was also injured by my brace that was a little too long and digging in to my groin without me knowing (due to the fact that I have no feeling below my point of injury).
August 2 - Went to emergency room and was admitted for what appeared to be a blood clot and so was treated as that.
August 4 - The blood clot turned out to be a hematoma.
August 7 - Came home from the hospital.
September 29 - Returned to Baylor to address issues that had developed while back at home. It's been hard to get the care I need as a person with spinal cord injury here in Northwest Arkansas.
October 17 - Returned home once again from Baylor.

That should get you up to speed. Needless to say, much has happen since June 15th, but I don't have the stamina, or memory, to fill in all the details at this time. So I shall say "good bye" for now. Thanks for stopping buy and see you again soon.

Life can change in an instant

This post is a little overdue but I'll admit that I've been a little busy lately...at times I may have been busy resting, but busy none the less.

On June 15th of this year (2009) I climbed up the scaffolding that was set up at the back of our house, ready to work on painting the new siding we had installed with the help of our friends, Sam and Chrissie. We only had one more weekend left with the rented scaffolding so I was feeling the pressure to get the work done. It was a Monday and only Abby and I were home. So I worked on painting while Abby played in the back yard. Next thing I know I opened my eyes and was laying on the concrete looking at the sky. I thought I was waking up from an odd dream at first, but as soon as I could feel the warm sun on my face and could hear Abby running up the hill calling for me, I realized it was not a dream. I touched my legs but couldn't feel them and knew I would probably never walk again. I realize now that that may not have been the case (and still may not be). Thankfully, I have absolutely no recollection of the fall. Abby ran up to me and asked me if I was Okay. In a whisper I told her "No...go get Sheena". It was hard to breathe. Sheena is my friend who lives across the street from us. I could hear Abby yelling for Sheena all the way up the stairs, through the front door, across our yard, across the street and all the way to sheena's front door. I could hear the squishy sound of blood in my hair. I felt the back of my head and got blood all over my hand. For some reason I ended up wiping blood on my face, then I tried to wipe it off with the same bloody hand (stop Cris! You're making it worse). I felt no pain at all. It wasn't long before Sheena was there, calling for help. To make a long story short, in no time (although it seemed like forever) I was in an ambulance taking a slow ride to the hospital in Bentonville. They didn't keep me there long and I had my first helicopter ride to the hospital in Springdale. The flight wasn't as fun and exciting as I hoped...it was very short (although massivly expensive) and I only got to see the ceiling of the helicopter. So many things happened when I got to Northwest Medical Center in Springdale that I really don't remember many details. To say the least, much has happened since June 15th. It's going to take me some time to get the blog up to date so the best thing now is to post some pictures of the event early on.

This was at Northwest Medical Center one day after the accident. They still had me wearing that uncomfortable neck brace, but I did get to take it off that day since there was no evidence of a neck injury.

My bunny boots, designed to prevent foot drop.

This is my "sister", Trish. We were roommates a couple of years while we attended Black Forest Academy. It's great that we both live in Northwest Arkansas now. I think she spent every evening at the hospital with me from the day I got hurt, 'til the day I left for rehab. If she couldn't make it in the evening, she was there in the morning.

Trish said I reminded her of Mother Teresa...I think I'm watching television in this picture.

In my hospital room with Trish and Abby.

Me, with no glasses, just before surgery. I really need to consider contact lenses again.

Starting to get organized

Our good friends, Sam and Chrissie, have been so gracious in helping us with the siding on the back of our house. As you can see by the picture below, we've been doing some painting as the biggest part of the job is done.

On the first weekend here (we've been at it two weekends now) Chrissie looked in one of my studio closets and thought it would be easy to compartmentalize it for easy organization. AWESOME!! When they showed up last weekend, she had spent the previous week cutting up wood that would make up the shelves in the closet. As much as she wanted to get the shelves up that weekend, we got a little busy with working on the siding, not leaving much time left over for that. So today, I walked into my studio and thought it would be a great idea to try installing the shelves myself. I'll keep this short.

It's hard to believe that this is my first time installing shelving, isn't it?

OK, so by no means is it perfect and I'll spare you the details...many stripped screws, a bruise on my arm, the soap, the sheer amount of time it took me to install the first crooked shelf, etc., but its' functionality will be priceless. Thank you Chrissie!

My new Etsy shop!

I finally did it! I've never liked my original Etsy shop's name...mybusyfingers. I'm just not known for coming up with clever names. I originally was just going to have one shop and I needed a name that encompassed everything I did...I like to try my hand at anything (I think it's a disorder for me), hence the name and yes, I realize I could have come up with something better but...ugh! No. Let's face it, I couldn't have come up with anything better. So, after months of agonizing over the idea of opening a second shop, I did. And I'm glad I did. I needed to separate my artwork from the rest of the stuff I make. Etsy doesn't recommend opening multiple shops but they also recommend continuity...so I had to do it. My new shop's name is artbycrixie. It's going to take me four months to move everything over, but I figured this is a good time to make the move since I don't have a whole lot of traffic coming through my doors.

Art on hold

The warm weather has put a stop to my artwork lately. It's been set aside as we're working to re-side the back of our house...something that has needed to be done for a couple of years.

Before.

Part way to after.

The warmer weather has also brought out some nature (besides the plant life) in our back yard.

This is a black rat snake that is apparently living in the rocks of our retaining wall.

A wolf spider with babies on its back. I found this one one morning when I let the dogs out. It was haging out on the side of the house next to the door to my studio.