Remember Me?

I used to write a blog post about once a week until mid-June. I abruptly stopped when I was stranded in my chair on two different nights by the company called Custom Care who failed to send an attendant by to put me in bed, which resulted in me being bedridden since my pressure sores were opened to a degree I could not sit up in my chair!

I ended up in an emergency room on June 19th and spent the next eight days in the hospital until I was able to find another home healthcare agency who would be more reliable in getting me personal-care attendants (PCA's). My doctor would not allow me to be released from the hospital until I had a care company who could supply my needs.

Little did I know when my social worker arranged for this company to do my cares that she was going to retire as soon as she closed out all of her cases! The new company president showed up making all kinds of promises that I knew he could not keep. My doctor released me that Saturday and I have been in bed ever since! My only trips out of my room were a once a month visit to the wound clinic to have my doctor check on the progress, order new supplies and send me home for another month of R&R in my bed!

On my last visit, the wounds are getting good enough so he allowed me to start sitting up a couple hours a day. The first few days I was experiencing a dramatic loss in strength and stamina. I am still weak and frustrated to not be able to be up in my chair for very long periods of time.

I have good people helping me now who are going the extra mile to take care of my increased needs.

I thoroughly enjoy watching the Minnesota Twins and their run for a playoff position! It has kept me going along with countless hours of watching television. My summer and now early fall is gone and I am hoping to be ready to start going to my Gopher basketball games in a few short weeks.

I am attaching a photograph taken on June 20th with my brothers, Rick and Chad when they came to visit me in the hospital in a break from our niece's wedding that day. I regret not being able to be there very much.

Click on the image to make it larger:

The bottom line is I am back to a degree! I am excited to get back to a degree of ability I had before this latest setback. I have much more to write on this subject of my summer vacation which lasted well into autumn; however, I need to lie down as my time is about up!

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Kennedy Ng’ang’a Inspires People

Kennedy Ng’ang’a is a true treasure. I first learned of him through Facebook when he sent me a request to be his Facebook friend. Before I friended him, I looked at his page a bit and found an extraordinary individual.

He broke his neck in 1992 diving and has been a high level quadriplegic ever since. He has created quite a career for himself and many people around him through his painting and the foundation he started in honor of his dear mum who passed away two years ago. It is called the Mama Kennedy Fund and helps supply much-needed supplies to people in his community of Mombasa, Kenya.

He has an electric smile that tells me he is happy and enjoying life. Lesa Ann Weller wrote a very nice piece on her blog "SHE WRITES" dated May 30, 2012 you may read by clicking here.

Despite having hired an unscrupulous distributor who stole hundreds if not thousands of his prints and tens of thousands of dollars, Kennedy has forgiven this individual and moved on to create even more wonderful pieces of art.

He is very trusting by nature. You may order his prints or even have a piece commissioned by him by going to his Facebook page and perusing his albums. One thing I found particularly refreshing was the fact you do not pay a dime until you receive your painting. To reach his Facebook page, simply click here. He will ship anywhere in the world.

There is one more article I would like to share with you written by Deborah Davis at Pushliving.com. You may reach her excellent article by clicking here. She too, has some amazing stories and paintings to share.

I had fun researching and learning about this young man and his story. In one Facebook message he wrote to me, "I was an inspiration to him."

I would like to take this opportunity to reply to that statement and say, "Kennedy, you are an inspiration to me as well."

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Doug Landis Is An Artist

Once again, my inspiration for my post came from a friend. I learned of an extraordinarily talented artist who found his passion by breaking his neck! This is a wonderful story of how a sibling challenge has helped a young man with a hidden talent, find it and make a career out of his new-found passion. Hmm, does that sound familiar?

Here is Doug Landis plying his trade:

It is the photo on his home page. You can see more of his art, purchase it and read his story by going to his website if you click here:

He broke his neck wrestling while in high school. My injury came in a football game. I know  many guys who broke their necks in that fifteen to twenty-four year age bracket. I tell all my audiences to measure their necks by putting their index fingers and thumbs around their necks. I ask them to touch their fingers, note where they touch, then, bring their hands around in front of them and look at how big their necks are. I tell the adults to look at a picture of their necks when they were teenagers, and I tell the younger students to look at pictures of their parents when they were teenagers. I get some interesting reactions from all age groups!

Eighty percent of all spinal cord injuries happen to young males between fifteen and twenty-four because the neck musculature is the last muscle mass of the body to develop.

When I got hurt, I had maybe a thirteen or fourteen inch neck. Now, it is about twenty inches all the way around. Part of that large neck comes from aging, but some of it comes from a disease I call secondhelpingitis!

You can see Doug has a large neck. I am guessing it is off the strength charts because as he states in the video on his site, he uses his neck to move the pencil. He only uses his teeth to hold the pencil.

His is a fascinating story. Of course, I believe everyone has a fascinating story. You ought to hear some of the stories I get after a speech, or at the end of a school day! I am often the last one to leave.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Jack Rushton Rocks!

I often do a considerable amount of research to find material for a post, and other times, friends simply send me things from which I get ideas to expand upon that I think you will appreciate and hopefully even learn something. This is one from the latter category.

Five years ago, I met a young man at the Virginia Youth Leadership Forum by the name of Matthew Deans. He has an incomplete spinal cord injury and functions at a very high level. I saw him every year when I went to speak at YLF and we have developed a great friendship.

So, as one of my Facebook friends, he sent me this video several days ago with a note that simply read, "Saw this and thought of you." I want to share this video with you, and see if anyone thinks of me while watching it:

I love Jack's self-depricating humor! I appreciate his attitude and his outlook on life. I found this great article on Jack and how twenty years of living as a ventilator-dependant quadriplegic has affected his life and the lives of the people around him. I cannot relate to the ventilator part, but I certainly relate to the rest! You can read it by clicking here.

From what I can find, his health has not been very good recently. If you would like to read some of his interesting and often humorous observations, go to his blog by clicking here.

Jack certainly is correct when he says, "It's good to be alive."

My dad always used to add to that statement by saying, "It beats the alternative."

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

SCI Facts and Figures

In reviewing some of my recent posts, it seems I am focusing on disability issues. I want to continue doing that and give you a great website to learn more about spinal cord injury facts and the incidence and prevalence of SCI in the United States. If you are a spinal cord injured person, have a family member or friend who has a SCI, or just want to learn more about the issue, you should check out this page and the rest of this website.

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Database's website:

The National Spinal Cord Injury Database has been in existence since 1973 and captures data from an estimated 13% of new SCI cases in the U.S. Since its inception, 26 federally funded Model SCI Care Systems have contributed data to the National SCI Database. As of October 2007 the database contained information on 25,415 persons who sustained traumatic spinal cord injuries.

You can get to the rest of this piece by clicking here.

One of the interesting trends I have seen these last several years is the changing terminology. One word in particular is changing — quadriplegia is being replaced by tetraplegia. They mean the same thing, and I am not quite sure why the change. Do you know? This article uses tetraplegia throughout.

In my mind, I will always be a quad. To me, a tertra is a tropical fish. Of course, that's coming from an old quad.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Kevin Everett, Three Months Later

It's only been three months since Kevin Everett broke his neck on the kick-off that started the second half of the first game of the NFL season for the Buffalo Bills, but a lot has happened to him since then.

I just got my new edition of Sports Illustrated and anxiously read Tim Layden's excellent article on Everett's controversial treatment, amazing recovery and prognosis for the future.

The Road Back chronicles his accident, early treatment and recovery in great detail and gave me a tremendous insight into this fantastic story.

It's long, but very informative. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to do so. If you have a spinal cord injury, or know someone who does, I believe it will give you a lift just like it did for me.