About 4 years ago, I got injured while skiing and lost the ability to walk. I continued life with a positive attitude, which in part came from my unwavering confidence that I would recover. I continued university, graduated as an electrical engineer, traveled, and experienced a lot, not letting the wheelchair hold me back from living a full life. After realizing that my spinal cord would not heal naturally, I began to look for treatment options and came across stem cell therapy in Germany. The program is 3 months of physical therapy with an exoskeleton each day, with stem cell injections biweekly. The procedure is rather costly, so here I am asking for your help, either donating or sharing.
When I had first gotten injured, a friend of mine created an Instagram for me, where I documented my days in therapy and life after that. I highly recommend going to the bottom and seeing the progress through the years!
The greater details are below:
My spinal cord injury (SCI) is at T11, it's an incomplete injury, which is why stem cell treatment is feasible. I have above average ability for someone with a T11 SCI - I have full abdominal/core control and lower back control, my temperature feeling stops around the hips as well as muscle control. I can feel light & hard touch on most parts of my legs. For those who are familiar with the ASIA scale, I'm B. When I try to move my legs by thinking about making them move, I get a tingling sensation.
After my injury, I was in the hospital for a few days and then went to Shirley Ryan for in-patient physical therapy. I had a lot of fun while I was there, the people were great and I was happy to make progress. Because I had previously been a bodybuilder, strength helped me a lot and I gained skills very fast! I got to a point where I had progressed fast enough to begin more advanced skills such as getting up a flight of stairs in a wheelchair. A lot of the therapists hadn't even trained someone to do that yet because no one had gotten that far. While I was in rehab, my university was on winter break, which was nice because I continued school right after rehab, starting my classes in rehab actually. My mum drove me from rehab back to school where I was fortunate enough to have my roommates and friends help me with the adjustment. A few months after rehab, I went to Germany for spring break - which I'm proud of for doing so much so soon after rehab.
After my semester ended, I moved to Wisconsin for an engineering internship with Kimberly-Clark, where I found a lot of mentors and support. I was there for about 9 months and grew a lot as a person. While in Wisconsin, I learned about massage therapy, met the founder of Plexus, met the CEO/founder of Disability:IN, went to EAA, started a YouTube channel, re-learned how to swim, and made a lot of great friends.
After my internship ended, I went to Australia to study abroad! A few weeks after arriving in Australia, the COVID lockdown began, and I found myself largely alone except for the few friends I had made. I didn’t come home, I stayed in Australia and enjoyed it a lot. While in Australia, I started my website, read a lot, met a few great friends, and explored as much as I could (I also went skydiving).
When I got home from Australia, I turned 21, and then went back to university to finish my degree. It was actually very hard, there was a lot of snow at my university and the accessibility was not good in general - not to mention that electrical engineering is a difficult study. Luckily I made some really great friends at the gym and from my courses and they all really helped me a lot - mentally and physically.
Once I graduated, I got a job as a software engineer with Oracle in Colorado. I’ve been here in Colorado for about 6 months now and It’s very nice.
Recently, in preparation for stem cell treatment, I've been going to a physical therapy place called NeuAbility, which has a lot of equipment to help me make sure I do the most I can do to make this work!
Although my life has continued to be good while in a wheelchair, I believe that it’s in spite of being in a wheelchair, not because of it. I’ve thought of stem cell a lot and for a long time. My plan is to go to Germany in August of 2023. The fundraiser goal is determined by the price of the stem cell procedure, the price of physical therapy 5 days a week for 3 months, the flights, and the cost of living in a hotel nearby the clinic.
