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...

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.