Our Baby Girl Has Arrived!!!

My Husband Scott & I three weeks before she was born

Hi Everyone,

Well a lot has changed since my last posting. My family and I are happy to announce the arrival of our sweet little girl Savannah. I delivered her naturally on October 19th. Everything went great with my pregnancy and her delivery. I was even able to push her out like I did with my other two kids before I was hurt. It was a glorious experience! My doctor told me since my ab. muscles were strong now that it shouldn’t be a problem and it wasn’t. We are so happy that she is here and we are both very happy and healthy.

Right After She Was Born

Here is Savannah her first day of life

I worked out in physical therapy up until two weeks before she was born. I had to stop my walking as I got big because I got dizzy some because of all of the extra blood I had in my body because of the pregnancy. I also never wanted to risk falling while pregnant. I did continue to stand and do hip hikes the whole time though. I also continued to do the total gym to keep my arms and core strong. I also worked out with the weighted balls lifting them in many different positions preparing me for when I will carry the baby all around.

Our Family. The boys are so excited too!

I Love Her Sooooo Much!

She was three days old in this picture.

Savannah is now 3 weeks old and I look forward to being able to go back to working out in a couple of weeks. I want to get my abs back to being as strong as they were. I am also very excited to be able to start walking and standing with my half braces again. I don’t have much patience in waiting for my body to recuperate but I will have to be patient as it rebuilds it self up again. I know I will get there. Then I can try and push myself even further and see what happens.

My husband Scott and I adapted her crib so it opens up like french doors and I can place her in and get her out easily that way. I also had a friend of mine that had kids after she was injured give me her roll under changing table and it works great. Scott also built me a roll under table that I can attach her bouncy chair or baby swing to and so I can easily get her in and out. I know I will have to do some things different this time around, but I have no doubt that I will be able to do it all fine. :)

I feel so blessed to be able to be a new Mom again. We love her so much!!!

Still Going Strong!

It’s been awhile since my last post. I wanted to share about my experience when I was asked to speak at the Stem Cell Convention in San Diego. I was one of the patients that got to share my story at the convention. It was a great experience. It was wonderful again to hear from the doctors all that is going on with their experiences with the treatment of patients with stem cells. It was very informative and I loved sharing my story with all the people there. They also posted my talk on their website so I am posting it also on here for you to see. If you want go to their website follow the link on my page and click on spinal cord injuries. Here is a picture of me before it started.

Here is my talk. I was nervous at first because I was expecting to be the 3rd patient to give their talk but they called me first so it threw me off guard at first as I was getting started. My talk went well though and I’m so glad I did it.

As I said before, I take it as my calling now to be a mentor to many other Spinal Cord Injury patients around the world. I used to talk to about 3 different people a week, but now after my talk in San Diego I get to talk with as many as 10 a day. They find me through my blog or from my You-tube video. I take a lot of time e-mailing and talking with all the people that contact me because I truly enjoy all the people I get to talk with. I love sharing our experiences and helping them out in any way I can. Most are interested in the stem cell information. I tell them about my experience with it and leave it to them to make their own choice about getting it or not. Many are so hopeful that they too will have as much success with it. Every patient and their injury is so different and the outcomes can be very different, but they have had many successes with SCI patients who did get the stem cells.

Things are still going good with my physical therapy. I’m still working out hard about 3 times a week. My core is still very strong and I do many exercises to keep my core, arms, and my hip

flexors strong. I also continue to stand and walk a lot in my half braces that go below my knees in therapy and sometimes at home. I continue to get stronger with how far I can walk with out having to rest. My theory is still that I don’t want to walk out in public on a day to day basis until I can at least walk as fast as I can wheel (Which is really fast.) I see no point in it yet when I’m running from place to place, which is constant, with being as active as I am & having two busy sons that I’m always running everywhere with. I do hope in my heart someday that I will be able to walk fast enough so that It will be worth while, while I’m out, but until then I’m fine because I am very confident with who I am in my chair and I will keep working on walking in therapy while I work out. But again, I am always thankful for the gains I have had since the stem cell. Having my core back makes everyday things easy again.

It’s nice that I can stand or walk around with the walker when I want to though. Scott & I had fun this weekend taking pictures standing and dancing some together. We were goofing around and it was fun. I posted some of the pictures below. I love seeing myself standing with my cute hubby. :)

Hi Everyone,

It feels so good to be able to stand with very little pressure on the walker. I can do it without any hands also but I didn't want to yet without anyone near me.

Well, just three days after my last blog update I did something awesome! As I shared in my last entry I had begun to take just a few steps back and forth while practicing locking my own knees and shifting my weight from leg to leg. Well on Jan 21st after having my half braces a little over two weeks I told my therapist that I wanted to try walking. My very first try I walked about 30 feet. It was so exciting because I was actually taking normal steps where I would take a step then transfer my weight forward on that leg and put my weight on it while locking out my own knee. Then I would bend my other knee and step and do the same thing. It felt awesome! My therapist is helping me push the walker forward right now because he wants me to focus on all I need to do to walk and not have to worry about moving the walker yet. I will try it soon though. He is there in front of me and has his hands near by in case I was to buckle but he isn't helping me at all. This is much different than walking in those long bulky braces that I tried a few times last year. With those you feel excited because your up and moving on your own but it definitely wasn't the kind of walking that I wanted to do. With the half braces even though it's still slow going after my first few tries, I feel so excited to be walking bending my knees and then stepping and locking them out. The next time I tried 2 days later I doubled my first record of 30 feet and walked 60 feet. Now, I just hope that the stem cells continue to heal my injury on my spinal cord and I get faster and faster at walking. I will attach the video of my second try walking. I wanted to delete the sound but couldn't. Just ignore the sound of another patient and her therapist talking in the background. You can't hear me or Mark (My therapist).






The same day before I walked in the half braces for the first time, I more than doubled my sit up record too. It must have been a strong day. First I did at least 100 sit ups with the weighted ball (which actually makes coming up a little easier). Then I did 83 sit ups in a row on my own with out anything in my hands. After the 83, I did a few more to reach 100 with out the ball but I got the 83 in a row without stopping or my muscles fatiguing. I was very proud. I have come so far because before the stem cell I could only lean back on the mat a few inches before falling back and having to catch my self with my arms.


Scott and I also were excited to stand up together to take this photo. If felt great because we haven't been able to do that in over 3 1/2 years. I love standing like this with him again!

Exciting Progress

Now I'm standing with my half braces that don't block my knees.

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. I've just been very busy with working out, volunteering at the schools and enjoying life with my family. :)

I finally got my half braces below my knees a couple of weeks ago. I can stand in them for as long as I want usually an hour at a time without anyone blocking my knees or touching me at all. At times I put very light touch on the walker or parallel bars, but I can also do it with no hands touching the walker at all. When I do this my therapist is still close by just in case my knees buckle. This doesn't happen often but locking out my own knees it is a new sensation for me to think about doing on my own while I'm standing.

The other day in therapy I had both hands up not touching and I got to play catch with a tennis ball against a little trampoline that was in the vertical position against the wall.My therapist was behind me just in case. Since both of my hands were up not touching, he was there to provide extra stability if needed. I played softball all through school so this was fun for me. Those of you that know me well know that I'm very competitive so this was a fun new challenge for me . I would work on throwing it hard against the trampoline then catch it with the opposite hand then switch to the same hand in all sorts of different angles to challenge myself. Sometimes I would forget that I needed to balance and just go for it when it was really low or high not even thinking. I of course never wanted it to drop. This was fun and I pushed myself hard with out even thinking about it.

In my half braces I can also take a few steps forward and backwards locking my own knees. Remember long ago I could walk pretty far around the gym in my long braces that locked my knees. But they were so bulky and it was still slow going and tiring. Well, this is exciting in my new super light half braces because I am learning how to lock my own knees as I step. It's a conscious effort to do so right now but we're hoping the more I do it and the more the stem cells continue to heal my injured spinal cord, the easier it will be. My knees aren't completely locking on their own all the time yet. The half braces lock out my ankle and this in turn helps my knees to lock a little in some positions.

I am still good at sit ups using the 4 inch wedge behind me. I can do up to 40 in a row all on my own with out the use of a weighted ball. Then I try each time to do as many like that until my abs are fatigued. I can do as many as I want with the weighted 5 pound or 3 pound ball. I usually do 100 of those before I try to do it with nothing in my hands which is much harder. I will continue to try and beat my record of 40 in a row.

In the next few months I'm going to San Diego to speak at a presentation about adult stem cell. Some of the Dr.s from Panama will be there and some of the other patients that had success with stem cell for many different reasons. I will write more about the details of it as it gets closer and we have the set date.

Well, that is it for now. I'll write more as things change. Please always keep me in your thoughts and prayers.


Take Care,

Trish