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. :)