Forty Years And Counting!

Forty years ago I was a student at the University of California in Berkeley. I received a letter from Nancy Crewe, PhD at the University of Minnesota asking me if I would be interested in being interviewed for a longitudinal study she was starting on life after spinal cord injury (SCI)?

She asked me to call her with my response and if I was interested, she would come along with one of her students and interview me in my dorm room. I called her and agreed to meet with the two of them in our study room down the hall from my room. As I remember, we talked for several hours and she had many questions regarding my life to that point, expectations, and an inordinate amount of form questions.

Shortly after our discussion, I moved back to Minneapolis to a job I had created selling modified vans for a company that had sold me my first van. I was also supposed to meet people who had recently suffered spinal cord injuries and needed equipment like wheelchairs, shower chairs and various other equipment prescribed by their doctors as they left rehabilitation.

I ran into Dr. Crewe one day in the old Rehab 7 Unit at the University. We chatted for a while when she told me she was happy to know I was now at the University and if I wanted to continue to be a part of her study?

Obviously, I did and did my first few interviews in their offices at the hospital. It was during that time I met Jim Krause who was one of Nancy's PhD candidates. Several years later Nancy moved to Michigan State University but continued to remain an integral part of the program. Jim remained at the U and once he received his PhD moved to Shepherd Center in Atlanta. After spending some time there he moved to the current location at the Medical University of South Carolina. That is where the program is run out of today and Jim is the director working with a fine staff of people who were instrumental in putting on our event this last weekend.

Saturday I took part in a small roundtable discussion group with eighteen people, many of them I have known from being long time Minnesota Gopher basketball fans. It was fun seeing people outside of Williams Arena.

At one point, Jim asked if there were any new topics we would like to address as the study moves on and in to different areas.

I mentioned studying Eastern medicine and how alternative, preventative medicine is working its way into the Western model as East meets West. In the twelve years I have been receiving acupuncture, healing touch, guided imagery, herbal therapy, hypnosis and others the traditional Western medical community has begun to integrate Eastern ideas. I believe it is a good thing as Western philosophy begins to practice a more holistic approach as they do in the East.

The second day was a celebration of forty years since the program has started. Jim told me of the one hundred initial participants, fifty-five are still involved! I believe those are extraordinary numbers when we were all told our life expectancies were extremely short. "9-3-71" is often the answer I give when someone asks me my date of onset. In my case, in the fall of 1971 the doctors asked my family to come down to the waiting room so they could speak with them. One doctor told my family my life expectancy was nine years! I guess I beat those numbers! Others had even more horror stories then I did. 

I'm attaching a photograph of the people at the event at the Nicolet Island Pavilion with the forty-year survivors and the fifty plus behind us: 

As always, click on the image to enlarge it: 

That is Jim and me in the middle of the group. I had to wear my Minnesota shirt since I graduated from there in 1980. It still seems hard to believe it has been thirty-five years since I graduated from college!

The next picture has all of the people who were at the event as more and more people are being added to their studies:

Again, click on the image to enlarge it:

Between an ongoing slide show behind the very accessible stage, slides were shown of statistics from the study, several slides of participants (one of mine included), speeches were given, awards were given, I had a great piece of Minnesota Walleye and much reminiscing, meeting new people, mentioning people who have left us, and I believe everyone would tell you they had an enjoyable afternoon and evening. 

As I understand it, this blog post will be in some way linked on the MUSC website so it will be available to everyone in attendance.

I would like to share one particularly interesting fact I got out of all of the storytelling that took place over the two days. The longest person I knew before this weekend who has survived severe spinal cord injury was fifty-two years. I found out Saturday the longest anyone knows of right now who has survived a spinal cord injury is fifty-eight years! That gives me a new goal to shoot for! Who knows what the next ten years will bring to survivors of spinal cord injury?

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later, and I do mean later,

Mike
 

COLOSSAL Is Tremendous

I did something last night I do not usually do! That's right, I missed game seven of the World Series! Instead, I went to a play with my cousin, Victoria Patrick. The Mixed Blood Theatre started a play entitled COLOSSAL, and guess what it was about?

Football, imagine that? Victoria invited me to see the premier of the play about a young, college senior who breaks his neck playing football! You can start to see the similarities already.

COLOSSAL is the story of a senior defensive back with promise to be a professional football player the following year. As you are waiting in the lobby for the free performance, you hear the team warming up and the adrenaline is flowing like the beginning of every football game as the players are shouting through their drills on a football field complete with green floor, yard markers, working scoreboard and bleachers. They transformed the theater into a football field. That does not happen very often.

As patrons came in, the team dressed out in full football equipment less the jerseys were going through their pregame warm-ups. It was if you are at a college football game sitting next to the field. The stage and audience became one. It was very well done. The closest I had been to a football field was the night I got hurt more than forty-three years ago.

The play was divided into four quarters with the fully functioning scoreboard facing both sides of the field. In fact, as the players, who were all actors, went through their warm-ups one of the players came down right in front of me, looked me in the eye and winked. It was obvious to all the actors I was sitting on the end of the bleachers.

The play has two actors playing the lead role whose name was ironically Mike. One of the actors, Toby Forrest plays Mike after the accident. Torsten Johnson plays Mike before the accident and David Deblieck plays Mike's father. A host of other fine actors and dancers round out the cast.

As the first quarter begins, the team runs several plays and some dialogue starts to take place. Part way through the second quarter (just like in my accident) Mike gets hurt trying to make a tackle. Again, just like my accident!

As the play unfolds Mike interacts with the pre-accident and post-accident character. Several of the characters are portrayed as they go through their lives both before and after Mike's accident.

You watch Mike as he progresses through the grieving process and how it affects not only him but all of those around him. In my opinion, it really is done very well.

Without telling you any more, I suggest seeing it if you know anyone who has had any kind of football experience, be it as a player, coach, spectator or victim of a football accident of any kind.

As theater critics would say I give it a two thumbs up!

You certainly cannot beat the price.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

I Made It 43 Years ... And Counting!

"9-3-71" is my response when someone is filling out a form in a doctor's office or some other person wants to know my injury onset. It is hard to believe it has been forty-three years ago tonight since I had my accident.

If you were one of the people at the game, I am guessing you remember something about that night and the ensuing months when many lives were affected by an instant in time. That is a phrase I use often, "an instant in time" can change anyone's life forever. I am guessing everyone will agree with me they all have their own "instant in time." Some of you have more than one instant in time.

That is not a very difficult prediction to make. Our instants are not always negative like that one was for me. I have had many "instants in time" that have proven to be very positive experiences. I am sure you have too.

I remember that entire day as if it happened yesterday. I cannot tell you where the last forty-three years have gone. I would guess many of you feel the same way. Life goes on. It has always amazed me just how fast our lives fly by. It seems like when we are young, we cannot wait to grow up and time drags on.

Now, as adults, at least for me, time is measured in years and a year goes by incredibly quickly. I remember being a boy and anxious to get old enough so I could finally play varsity football and basketball.

As a freshman, I ran on the track team and missed getting my letter by one point. I lettered my sophomore year in track and proudly wore my letter jacket for just a few minutes one day because I did not get it until the summer before my accident.  Summer in Minnesota is not the time to be wearing a letter jacket! I still have it and it looks brand-new.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times someone will walk up to me and tell me they were at the game, or they remember my accident. They all tell me what kind of an impact it had on them and how it affected the way they looked at football, taking risks, how fortunate they were not to have gotten hurt playing football, or more often their lifelong struggle with an injury they received playing football.

People will tell me how their shoulder hurts or they have a bad knee because of a football injury. One of the things I always tell them when they say they compare their injury with mine is not to do that. I do not believe it is a matter of degree.

If you have an injury or trauma of any sort, that is your issue and you need to address it. I do not believe you should compare it to "What happened to Mike." Too many times people do that and I want them to know they have to address their own issues their own way.

September third is always a bittersweet day for me. I have always felt the bitterness of the day my first life ended and my second life began. I believe very strongly I have had two lives. The life before my accident lasted sixteen years and now I am forty-three in this second life.

It is hard to imagine I am only several months away from turning sixty! I still feel like a young boy much of the time. I just go to bed earlier now!

I feel the sweetness in knowing I have lived another year. I say that because when I was in Sioux Falls for the first ninety-nine days after my accident, the doctors came into my room and asked to talk to my family members. My parents did not remember this, but my sister remembers it vividly. The doctors told my family my life expectancy was nine years.

I guess I beat those expectations. The thing is, those were the statistics on life expectancy for spinal cord injuries in 1971. High-level neck injuries like mine did not live long because of complications due to the injury. Now, they are able to deal with many of those complications and I can expect to die of the same thing most of the rest of us will and that is heart disease.

Doctors keep telling me they do not know what to do with certain problems I come up with because they have not had to deal with those issues and people with spinal cord injuries who have lived that long because we are living longer all the time.

I know a couple men with spinal cord injuries who are alive and they are well over fifty years post injury. I often post about new developments in spinal cord injury and regenerating nerves. I know it will happen, I just do not know when it will!

I want to attach this photograph taken by Jim Brandenburg. He took nine photographs that night as he was beginning is incredible career as a photographer for the Worthington Daily Globe. You may see the rest of his photographs of that night on my website at: www.patcom.com.

I distinctly remember the applause I received as they carried me from one end zone to the other to wait for the ambulance. I never understood that applause because I had just suffered a traumatic injury and people were clapping. I felt like I was a Christian who had just been mauled by a lion in the Coliseum and people were clapping. That did not make any sense to me. I now know why they did it out of respect. The thing is no one knew what had just happened. I write about this in more detail in my book "I Still Believe In Tomorrow."

Click on the image to make it larger:

Now, I am off to acupuncture and I am sure I will feel a complete state of calmness after my treatment.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike

Just Think

Last Sunday the Minneapolis StarTribune published an article in their science+health section entitled "THE POWER OF THOUGHT" and addressed the issue of spinal cord injuries and implanting a computer chip in the skull of a young man enabling him to think and move his paralyzed arm.

I have always said, "I know they will find a way for people with spinal cord injuries to regain the function of their paralyzed limbs." Actually, I believe it was more like, they will find a way for us to walk again!

The article was originally published in the Washington Post and was written by Jim Tankersley. They talked about the first patient trying to use a computer chip implanted in his brain at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. It was invented by scientists at Battelle, a nonprofit, research organization.

From what I gathered from the article, they needed to embed a chip into the brain that "reads" commands from the brain and transfers them to his arm, which is wrapped in a sleeve of electrodes around his arm and they stimulate the muscle fibers in his hand to move.

There are several pictures in the article and it is in the beginning stages, but doctors involved are very encouraged by their initial results. The idea of bypassing the spinal cord by using thought technology is still in its infancy. I am excited to see where it goes from here.

The subject of the article is four years post injury. From this article and other articles I have read, it is getting more and more to the point where the length of time between injury and actual retraining and reusing paralyze limbs is getting longer and longer.

This is just the latest article I have reviewed which discusses alternative ways doctors are attempting to get people with spinal cord injuries to be able to at least function at a somewhat higher level than they are today.

It would be wonderful to get to a point where I could use my hands on my own instead of having to use various assistive devices to help me function with my hands. That would just be the first step. I know processes like these take a long time. I also know there are several people studying various alternatives to getting spinal cord injured persons more function back. It is happening all over the world, and people are doing amazing things. This is just the latest, and who knows, possibly the greatest attempt at getting function to return.

There are always going to be very smart people working from different positions and different techniques trying to get people with spinal cord injuries to function at higher levels. That is the exciting part for me as I close in on forty-three years of living with my injury.

One of the things it frustrates me is when I am constantly told we just have not seen that Mike, because most spinal cord injuries do not live as long as you have! Right now, the record for longevity after a spinal cord injury I know of is fifty-one years. That is not long enough. I want to see more than that. I am sure there are a number of other people out there who feel the same way I do.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Forty-two Years And Counting ...

--> Forty-two years ago tonight my life changed in a heartbeat. An instant in time has affected many people in one way or another. Unaware of what was about to happen, my head football coach, Milt Osterberg, called me into the game to replace an injured teammate. It was about halfway through the second quarter and Owatonna was driving again.
Owatonna had two excellent running backs, and they were chewing up yardage all night long. We were undersized and inexperienced compared to the entire Owatonna team. When I was called into the game, little did I know as I ran out on the field those would be the last steps I would ever run. That is why they call them accidents!

Some of you have read my book entitled "I Still Believe In Tomorrow" and know all the details of what happened those last three minutes of my first life. I have always told people I felt I had two lives. I lived to be sixteen in my first life, and tonight I start the forty-third year of my second life.

It is incomprehensible for me to believe it has been forty-two years already. I cannot tell you where the time has gone. I am sure many of my older readers often feel the same way. Where have our lives gone?

I once heard an analogy about life being like a roll of toilet paper. I will paraphrase, but it went something like this, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes." 

I do not know how you feel about it, but I believe that analogy is spot on. I remember in my first life how time could not move fast enough. When I was a first grader, I wanted to be in junior high. When I was in junior high, I could not wait to be in high school so I could play the varsity sports, football, basketball and track and field. Then, I played baseball all summer long. Those last two summers before I got hurt were idyllic for a young, athletic, wanna be growing up in a small town in southwestern Minnesota. Worthington had everything I wanted or needed.

Sure, the Vietnam War was raging in Southeast Asia, but that had nothing to do with me because I was not going to war when I graduated. I was going to go play basketball on a college scholarship. My mother had three brothers who did four tours of duty in Vietnam. She wrote letters to them and sent them religiously. When they wrote back and told her where they were, she would put a pin on our Vietnam map hanging on the kitchen wall to show us where one of them was at any given time.

We know better now more times than not they were lying to her about where they really were and the kind of danger they were in. But the kind of men they are, they did not want Mom to worry.

As per my regular writing style I have wandered off course again from the point of this post. I believe tonight it may be intentional.

I am writing this about the time I would have left home to go get my ankles taped in preparation of the game. I was so nervous; I left early and was the second person to arrive at our locker room. Ben Horak was one of our co-captains and he was already at the locker room when I got there. I do not know who was more nervous, Ben or me.

As everyone started to arrive, along with coaches, managers and other players tension in the locker room was starting to build, as was the noise. I remember lying down on that cool, concrete floor using my helmet as a pillow and trying to relax. I could not relax as this feeling that had been with me all day was getting more intense. I later learned it was my intuition. 

That is a whole other story! I go into greater detail in my book about intuition and how males are taught not to listen to it. We are taught to suck it up, it is just nerves and you will get over it.

Once we hit the field for warm-ups, the feeling went away a little bit; but it was still there and I was not going to listen to it. I remember everything from that night; and those feelings always come back every year on September third. My anniversary is always a melancholy day, and this year was no different. Writing about it always helps, and this has helped me immensely put up this post. Thanks for reading. 

For those of you that do not know, I am not actually writing this. I have a Mac Mini with voice recognition software called Dragon Dictate. I have actually been speaking this entire post. That explains why I have made it so long! I hope you enjoyed my rambling.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Spinal Cord Injury Study

As many of you know, I spent part of the 1974 and all of the 1974–'75 school year going to school at the University of California, Berkeley. That first year, I lived in a special residence program for students with disabilities at Cowell Memorial Hospital, which was the student health service on campus. The third floor had one wing with twelve students of which ten of us had spinal cord injuries, and four of us had broken our necks playing football.

It was an excellent program and way ahead of its time for students with severe disabilities attending classes, living on campus and a pioneer in helping to get educations for students with disabilities.


When we left for summer vacation, they closed the door and integrated us into the general population of the dormitories. At the time, that was unheard of. But, Berkeley had Ed Roberts! Ed was a pioneer for the disability community, which started with that residence program.


When I came back to Berkeley in the fall of 1974, my dad and uncle came with me. We dropped Terry off at McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, and dad spent a few days before he flew back to Worthington. 


I got settled in to Room 118 Putnam Hall in Unit 1 of the dormitories just off the campus. Sometime during that year, professor Nancy Crewe, PhD, from the University of Minnesota who was beginning a Longitudinal Spinal Cord Injury Study, contacted me and she wanted to know if I wanted to be a part of it.


I was more than anxious to be a part of it, and Nancy and one of her PhD students flew to Berkeley to interview me for the first part of the study. While Nancy was at the University of Minnesota, she interviewed me several times in person, or sent out forms for her study on our successes, failures, frustrations, education, employment, general health and a host of other concerns.


It was always interesting to know I was a part of a study of such importance she would fly halfway across the country to meet me for the first time. Once I moved back to Minneapolis, I worked with her and one of her PhD students, Jim Krause. Jim is also a C5-6 quad, and we have many similarities.


Nancy eventually moved to Michigan State University and left the study in Jim and his associates very capable hands. Once Jim received his PhD, he moved on to Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta where he worked for several years on the study. Eventually, Jim moved to the Medical University of South Carolina where the survey is being worked on today.


That is what brought me to this blog post and the meeting Richard Aust, Program Coordinator II, from the Medical University of South Carolina. Tuesday, we spent three hours with four participants in the study, of which I was the only one who has been with it since the beginning.


We had an interesting conversation, and he had an agenda with questions he wanted to get through. There were periods during our discussion where I made it rather difficult to keep on his agenda!


He did come up to me during our break and thanked me for my input. I believe he got a little more from me than what he was expecting! I told him, "I thought that is why you wanted me here was to give my opinion. Am I correct?" I gave him a polite smile and he agreed with me. The entire three hours was videotaped so Jim will be able to see just what took place.


It just so happened, I had several of my books with me and gave the other three participants and Richard a copy to share with Jim. Jim already has read it in ebook form, but I want them to have paperback versions and see if we can get one version or the other into the hands of the remaining participants.


At one point, I asked Richard how many of the original one hundred participants were still involved in the program. Care to take a guess? I was pleasantly surprised when he said, "Forty-two of the original one hundred are still participating!" After nearly forty years of living with spinal cord injury, 42% of us are still alive and able to fog a mirror!


One of the participants had his personal care attendant with him, and I noticed she was already reading the book before our session was through. I received an email from him the next day, and he said his attendant thought my book was "Wonderful!" He said he was going to read it now. I will take that endorsement any day!


On my way out of the building, I ran into another friend and his wife who were waiting to go into the next session. I am anxious to see what this round of information will tell the researchers about our study. 


I look forward to your comments.


Later,


Mike

Jeff Farnam's Memorial Service

A date and time have been set for Jeff Farnam's Memorial Service. It is:

June 10th, 3:00 p.m. at the First Universalist Church

3400 Dupont Avenue South

Minneapolis, MN 

A catered celebration of Jeff's amazing life will follow at:

5:30 p.m. at the Minneapolis Photo Center

2400 North Second Street, Second Floor of the Northwind Lofts
Minneapolis, MN 55411

The Center is located four blocks north and two blocks east of West Broadway Avenue and Washington Avenue North, in the Hawthorne neighborhood, just north of the Minneapolis Warehouse District and on the western side of the Mississippi River from the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. We have free parking available for our members and guests.

Kevin Kling will be the featured speaker and yours truly has been asked to be one of eight speakers who will give short, three to five minute speeches later in the ceremony.

This picture shows one of the patented set of front wheels Jeff had patented in the United States and Canada. Besides being an excellent photographer and pilot, he was also an inventor.

Check out these wheels. Click on the image to make it larger:

I look forward to seeing you at Jeff's Memorial Service.

As always, feel free to comment.

Later,

Mike

Great Quote I Needed

If you are a regular follower of my blog, you know I wrote about losing a good friend to cancer. If you want to read it, go to my April first post, and read what I wrote about my friend, Jeff Farnam. We lost Jeff on the eleventh about 6:30 that evening when he had been moved to hospice, asked several of his friends to come to his room and had all the life support systems turned off.

It has been a week now and I have had a hard time dealing with the fact we will never again sit in Calhoun Square and watch the scenery! Sit in on one of his photo sessions and watch him work, or meet at Lucia's or the BLB and share a meal and stories.

His service dog, Reggie, has been adopted by a good friend of Jeff's, and will have a loving family with a Standard Poodle as a constant playmate.

I have been asked to be one of eight speakers to eulogize him at his service, which has not been set yet since they are having a hard time coordinating all the pieces Jeff wanted for his memorial. I will let you know when it finally happens in case anyone wants to attend.

Jeff was a micro-manager and is still controlling many things even though his remains are sitting in a safe place until the day comes he will be put in his crypt.

He told a good friend he wanted the speakers to say no more than three hundred words. Well, there is no way he can control me and the length of my eulogy from where he is now; but if you know me, you know I cannot say anything in three hundred words! I plan to read my post from the first, but I will say a few words before that too! I This post is already over three hundred words!

I was inspired to finally write this by going through some old email and culling the files to clean the folders up a bit when I stumbled upon the first part of this quote and it was not credited to the author. 

A quick Google search revealed the first sentence was only part of the quote. The second sentence was the rest of Joel Kogel's quote. I like it: 

The worst thing in your life may contain seeds of the best. When you see crisis as an opportunity, your life becomes not easier, but more satisfying. 

 Joel Kogel

I can certainly relate to this quote to my life, especially the first sentence.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

P.S. Four hundred fifty-seven words including this Post Script! What did I tell you? 

I Could Not Say, "Good Bye."

Yesterday was an extremely difficult one for me! I went to see a longtime friend who is an old quad like me. I knew full well it may be the last time I got to see him as they were transferring him from the hospital to a hospice center sometime this week.

Jeff Farnam broke his neck in 1963 when he fell out of a cherry picker while trimming trees as a part-time, student worker at the age of fourteen. I met him in 1975 or '76 at a National Paraplegic Foundation meeting and have been friends ever since. He had an old Mamiya camera on a small tripod sitting on a lapboard taking pictures of people at the meeting.

That sparked my interest in photography. I learned much of what I know about taking pictures from Jeff. A few years later we both moved to Uptown and lived just a few blocks apart. For many years, we would meet at  Lucia's, The Uptown Bar or Bryant Lake Bowl for brunch on Saturday or Sunday. Once he retired from the City of Minneapolis, we would meet during the week, share a meal and watch the women. We ALWAYS watched the women!

We would run into each other on the sidewalk or in the lobby of Calhoun Square, sit next to each other, facing opposite directions, carry on a perfectly normal conversation, and not look at each other. You guessed it, we were watching the women.

Once he mastered photography, and he was very good! In fact, he took the studio shot I have on my homepage of my website and the profile of this blog. He moved on to remote-controlled airplanes. He belonged to a club out in the southern suburbs and flew his planes every chance he got. He has some big planes with wingspans of five to six feet! Several of them hang from the ceiling in his dining room, living room and office.

Then it was on to the real thing! Here is his plane he flew for several years:

Click on the image to make it larger:

He always wanted to get me up in it, but I had no desire to leave the ground in that thing! I went out there once and got up close to it, saw how small everything was, and politely declined!

Standing on Jeff's right is his other passion, his constant companion, Reggie. Reggie and he were inseparable. He got Reggie for socialization reasons. Yes, that means meeting women. If we would be sitting someplace and Reggie was in his working harness or vest, people were supposed to leave him alone.

However, if you were, female, young and attractive, you could pet him till your arm fell off! Jeff had his standards. I have always contended, Learn the rules, then break some of them. Jeff is a master at that.

We had often spoken about making a movie about the two of us and called it Grumpy Old Gimps. I guess that will not happen now. He and I share that same dark, acerbic sense of humor that has gotten us through these many decades of living with a spinal cord injury.

When it came time to leave, I could not, I would not say, Good Bye. I simply said, Later. Just like I end all my blog posts.

Jeff replied, See ya later.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Joe Paterno Is Amazing!

If you follow college football at all, you know the name Joe Paterno. He's been coaching at Penn State for sixty years! He's been the head coach since 1966. I started getting Sports Illustrated as a bonus gift for selling a certain number of subscriptions to the Des Moines Register when I delivered it in 1968. I have been a subscriber ever since.

In this week's edition, Joe Posnanski wrote a great article on Joe Pa. People have been calling Coach Paterno Joe Pa for many years. They could just as well be calling him Joe Grandpa since he is now 82! He is 82, has his Nittany Lions at 7-1 and still going strong. He is the winningest coach in NCAA Division 1 history and has something in common with my coach, Milt Osterberg.

They both coached players who broke their necks trying to make a tackle. In 2000, Penn State was not having a good year, and in the fifth game, freshman cornerback Adam Taliaferro dove in to tackle an Ohio State player. He was paralyzed and doctors told them the young man would never walk again. Fortunately, for Taliaferro, his spinal cord was only bruised and eventually he walked again, even leading his team onto the field before a game two years later.

Both coaches shared something else. They changed. Paterno's son, Jay, who is also one of Paterno's assistant coaches, was quoted in the article as saying there were only two times he ever saw his father cry. Jay Paterno stated, "The first time I ever saw my father cry was when his mother died. Then there was the time Adam got hurt."

I didn't write this post to talk about this accident. I posted it so you can read this excellent article about a coach who has committed his life to turning his players into college graduates and fine young men. He has one of the best graduation rates in the country. He has been offered other jobs for more money and has always turned them down. Whatever you feel about him, he has done a great deal of good for Penn State.

Everyone might not agree with me as far as respecting Joe Pa and what he has, and is continuing to do at Penn State, but I have a deeper appreciation for Coach Paterno and what he does for his student/athletes and PSU. You can read the article by clicking here.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Blue Food Dye And Spinal Cord Injuries

There is an old joke that asks, "What color does a Smurf turn if it is choking?" Now, what happens to a lab rat whose spinal cord is damaged, when you infuse the same blue food dye they use in M&Ms and Gatorade into that rat's blood system? The answer: it turns Smurf blue!


The rats get some functional return, but they turn blue. However, this is a good news/good news story. The first good news is the rats' spinal cords get healed to varying degrees. The second good news is the blue color eventually goes away.

In a recent interview, lead researcher Maikn Nedergaard, from the University of Rochester Medical Center, told ScienceNews' Rachel Ehrenberg. "It could be [as simple as] you drink blue Gatorade on the way to the hospital."

You can read the entire article from gizmag.com by clicking here.

The article ends with this paragraph which I really like: "Here's hoping that this simple technology shows similar results in humans, and that it makes it through into clinical use around the world as soon as possible. Any treatment that can reduce the severity of spinal cord injuries stands to vastly improve the quality of life for victims, and for such little expense this seems like an enormous breakthrough."

I have always said science is amazing; and eventually they will find a way to cure spinal cord injury. I never would have guessed drinking blue Gatorade in the ambulance on the way to the hospital would be part of the equation!

Any comments?

Later,

Mike

Morton Cure Paralysis Fund

I have been asked to give the closing speech at the Third Annual Research Symposium for the Morton Cure Paralysis Fund this Sunday afternoon. The keynote speaker is Dr. Anthony Windebank of the Mayo Clinic. He is the director of the Neural Regeneration Program where his research group is focusing on restoring function to damaged spinal cords.

I am excited to hear his message. It promises to be very informative. Who knows, it may lead to another post. You can read all about MCPF and their upcoming symposium by clicking here.

I introduced you to MCPF in my May 3, 2008 post when I quoted them regarding asking questions about spinal cord injuries (SCI). The entire MCPF website is full of good information touching on everything from the basic physiological facts of a spinal cord injury to the latest articles on SCI research.

Last year's symposium was very informative when Dr. Wise Young from Rutgers University told us about his spinal cord research in New Jersey and China where he is working with humans in clinical trials. You can watch the entire symposium including Dr. Young's presentation by clicking here.

Check out the links above and feel free to comment.

Later,

Mike

Best Friends

A friend just sent me this video and I think it's worth sharing. It's an extraordinary piece about best friends. The best friends just happen to be a dog and an elephant.

Steve Hartman always does these wonderful stories on the CBS Evening News called Assignment America, and this is no exception. There is one scene that shows how trusting Bella is of Tara I find absolutely amazing!

Check it out and see what you think:


Watch CBS Videos Online

There's a lesson to be learned here. Wouldn't it be wonderful if humans could be as accepting, understanding and tolerant of our differences?

Speaking of tolerant, be forewarned, you have to sit through a commercial before the video plays. It seems there are fewer and fewer places we can go to avoid commercials. I guess they have to get to us somehow.

I welcome your comments.

Later,

Mike

Project Walk

I just learned of an organization that exists to help spinal cord injured people who may have the ability to walk, to help them do just that. It's called Project Walk and it's main location is in Carlsbad, California.

They discuss how important the first first year, and especially, the first six months post injury are in getting SCI's up and walking again. They are seeing some amazing results. I am very encouraged for new injuries by reading their website. You can view their site by clicking here. Their site is full of interesting information.

According to their website, their Mission is: Project Walk® exists to provide an improved quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries through intense exercise-based recovery programs, education, support and encouragement.

If you are, or know someone who has just suffered a spinal cord injury, I encourage you to at least check out Project Walk and see if you might be a candidate for their program.

Please feel free to comment. I look forward to them.

Later,

Mike

Three Things

I just learned of a wonderful resource for the Traumatic Brain and Spinal Cord Injury community. It is called Brain and Spinal Cord Injury.org. You can go to their site by clicking here. It is full of good information.

Their August first blog post has some great advise for someone who has just had a TBI or SCI. Their three points are:

Step 1: Educate Yourself

Step 2: Focus on the Present

Step 3: Prepare for the Future

To learn more about these steps, click here.

I'm curious to see what you think about their recommendations.

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

The Promise of Embryonic Stem Cells

I can't tell you how many times I've watched the 60 Minutes piece I posted a few weeks ago. It has given me renewed hope they will find a cure for spinal cord injury and so many other diseases that will improve and even save lives! That doesn't even mention the idea they may be able to grow replacement tissue and organs for people who need them. It is fascinating!

In doing a little research on human embryonic stem cells, I came across this Position Statement on the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation website. Go to it by clicking here.

The highlight of the article for me is:

The Key Facts About Stem Cells

Stem cells are the building blocks of our bodies. They have the unique ability to turn into and regenerate the specialized cells that make up our tissues, bones and organs.

• Adult type stem cells are found in the body tissues, including tissues in the bodies of adults and in discarded umbilical cords and placentas. Scientists have been conducting research with adult stem cells for over 50 years and have developed a number of medical therapies that use adult stem cells, such as bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia.
• Embryonic stem cells are the new frontier in stem cell research. There are two basic sources of embryonic stem cells: leftover fertility clinic embryos that would otherwise be discarded and a process called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT).
• SCNT is a recent medical breakthrough that can use a patient's own cells and an unfertilized human egg to make embryonic stem cells that match the patient's genetic makeup. Embryonic stem cell research does not use or harm an embryo or fetus in a woman's uterus.

It truly is a fascinating read. Let me know what you think.

Later,

Mike

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

I am a big fan of 60 Minutes, and last night they ran a story on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and what a good story it was. Here is the piece:



The reason it was so exciting for me to see was the fact they are funding research projects which are studying embryonic stem cells and how they may help find a cure for spinal cord injury. They have no restrictions on their research because they receive no federal funding. If you want to learn more about the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, you can visit their website by clicking here.

If you didn't see 60 Minutes last night, I encourage you to watch the video. I am curious to read any comments you might have.

Later,

Mike

It's Prom Time

The annual rite of spring is upon us and it brings loads of fun. Yes, it's Prom Time! Unfortunately, prom night and subsequently, graduation night far too often end sadly with a traffic accident that affect thousands of teenagers, their families and countless friends. Many of these traffic accidents involve drinking and driving. Spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and very often death are the tragic results.

According to Gary Pace, PhD, the clinical director from the May Institute's school for children and adolescents with brain injury, "Statistics reveal that eight young people die every day in alcohol-related crashes. Many of these deaths occur in the spring and summer months following prom night and graduation parties. And many of these fatalities are caused by traumatic brain injuries that, in most cases, are preventable."

Pace states those numbers come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). His entire article may be read by clicking here.

Check out these related statistics and facts from the Centers for Disease Control.

As adults, we all know from personal experience how teens feel invincible. I remember as a 16-year-old telling my mother not to worry about me. "I'm not going to get hurt playing football." Or so, I thought.

Because of that sense of invincibility, many young people don't use their seatbelts. Studies show seatbelt use amongst teens goes down dramatically the later the hour.

If you're a teenager: buckle up, no matter the time of day, who's in the car or how far you're traveling. And please, please don't drink and drive, or get in a vehicle with a driver who has been drinking.

Parents: take the time today to have that talk. If you've already had it, have it again!

I hope both you teens and parents have a wonderful prom and graduation night experience. Make sure you get plenty of pictures. It will give you something to look back on in a decade, or two, or three and laugh about!

Have a wonderful and safe spring and summer.

Later,

Mike

Spinal Cord Injury — any questions?

That's me, number 26, on my back, in the end zone, September 3, 1971. It was the end of my first life and the beginning of my new life as a quadriplegic. The journey I was beginning has been extraordinary, with many ups and downs. It was a traumatic event that affected not only me, but all my family and friends. It also affected the community and many people in the area around Worthington.

Click on the image to enlarge:


Dr. Roger Hallin was a physiatrist who happened to be at the game that night. He was also my rehab doctor when I was in Worthington. One day my physical therapist had me on the mat in the PT gym doing range of motion when Dr. Hallin came in. He gave me the best advise I have ever received. He said, "I want you to learn everything about your body and your injury you possibly can because you will be in situations when people won't know how to handle you, and you will have to tell them what to do."

I have learned a great deal about SCI, it's effects, the hope for a cure, and much more. However, a friend just sent me a website with answers to many other questions I had not even thought about.

The Morton Cure Paralysis Fund has a wonderfully informative website you can peruse and learn from by clicking here.

The following paragraph comes directly from their site:

"Spinal cord injury is devastating, not only for the injured person but for families and friends as well. While much information is available on the Internet, most of the material is scattered and out of date. This article summarizes answers to some of the most frequently asked questions by people who are encountering spinal cord injury for the first time. Spinal cord injury disconnects the brain from the body. This leads not only to loss of sensation and motor control below the injury site but may be associated with abnormal activities of the spinal cord both above and below the injury site, resulting in spasticity, neuropathic pain, and autonomic dysreflexia. Many functions of our body that we take for granted, such as going to the bathroom, sexual function, blood pressure and heart rate, digestion, temperature control and sweating, and other autonomic functions may not only be lost but may be abnormally active. Finally, contrary to popular notions about spinal cord injury, recovery is the rule and not the exception in spinal cord injury. The recovery takes a long time and may be slowed down or blocked by the muscle atrophy and learned non-use. Finally, there is hope. Many therapies have been shown to regenerate and remyelinate the spinal cord. Some of these are now in clinical trials and many more should be in clinical trial soon."

If you are at all interested in learning more about spinal cord injury, I encourage to check out their site.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike