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Ryan Shazier Foundation
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By Tommy Spinal Cord Injury

19 Jul: NFL Steeler’s Ryan Shazier’s Spinal Rehabilitation Foundation writes story on Tommy Walks Again

I want to thank NFL Steeler’s Pro Bowler Ryan Shazier and the Ryan Shazier Fund for Spinal Rehabilitation for inviting…

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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury
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By Tommy Articles & Studies

16 Feb: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Improves Recovery Outcomes After Spinal Cord Injury

This study was published this month talking about the benefits of oxygenating the body with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) after…

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Today Marks My 13th Year Being a Paraplegic
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By Tommy Daily Updates

10 Aug: Daily Update # 132: Today marks my 13th year of being a Paraplegic

Today marks my 13th year being a paraplegic. August 10th, 2008, 8 days after my 21st birthday, I was hit…

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vlog-11-22-19
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By Tommy Spinal Cord Injury

22 Nov: November 21st 6am Bike Ride vLog #001

  This is my first vLog video #001. Join me as I kind of document things I do and as…

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Swim Therapy
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By Tommy Daily Updates Swimming

06 Sep: Daily Update #13

I was super tired tonight but still got in the pool. I tried adding a swim cap tonight and it…

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Swimming as a Paraplegic
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By Tommy Spinal Cord Injury

02 Sep: Daily Update #10 – Swimming and Reflection

I was super lucky as an L1 incomplete to get movement below my waist back. I can’t stand very long,…

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spasticity-in-calf-muscles-today
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By Tommy Daily Updates

01 Sep: Daily Update #9 – Having some spasticity in my calf muscles today

Just a little bit of spasticity, muscle spasms, nerve damage and fibromyalgia stuff happening here after a swim workout.

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Terry Wahls Cures Multiple Sclerosis Giving Hope to Spinal Cord Injury Recovery
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By Tommy Healing Organics Spinal Cord Injury

10 Jul: Dr. Terry Wahls, M.D. Cures Multiple Sclerosis with Paleo Diet

  I first learned who Dr. Terry Wahls, M.D., author of “The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat…

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tom_gibson
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By Tommy Healing My Story Organics

03 Jan: How I Healed An Abscessed Tooth

This Summer I was visiting Dr. Gibson and we talked Homeopathic Medicine as he was reviewing the status of my…

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Kid saves up to buy friend electric wheelchair
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By Tommy Good News

07 Mar: Highschool Senior Saves To Buy His Buddy Electric Wheelchair

A senior, Tanner Wilson, from Caddo High School (Caddo, Oklahoma) saved for two years to buy his best buddy Brandon…

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Staying grateful. πŸ™ŒπŸ™ I had a big breakthroug Staying grateful. πŸ™ŒπŸ™ I had a big breakthrough with this muscle in my back and the spasticity around it. It catches my neck and creates a lot of tension and that will travel into my brows and contort my facial expressions, like eyebrows go mega down if they're just meant to seem slightly down, contemplative or in a pondering state, or super duper up and seem too concerned or even judgemental if I'm just in a slightly concerned or unsure state.

All cause that back muscle grabs on and squeezes it super hard. I learned that the only thing that stops our muscles from snapping our bones is the signal being limited by our brains. So imagine if that signal gets messed up (like with a damaged Spinal Cord) and it attempts to clamp down much harder than it should. That is spasticity post neurological trauma. It's powerful and painful. 😯

Anywho wow am I glad. I got this super weird hard to get muscle around my lat area (just below it) to get larger and fill this little pocket that was just not gaining muscle for whatever reason. Now it's putting a halt on those neck strains and facial tensions. I can feel the spasms just clamping down on those back shoulder blade muscles instead and not hitting my neck/face. Thank friggin God cause that was annoying.

So...if you're feeling like that yourself, maybe it's from a weak pocket in the back/shoulder blades area and all that tension is following the path of least resistance to the neck/face. I bet a lot of people have strained necks from this very reason (my neck also hurt from it, big time.)

Sending love to my PT, disability and chronic illness fam. Lets keep pushing forward! πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒβ€οΈ
Back to it. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒβ€οΈ Back to it. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒβ€οΈ
How far we've all come. Looking to the past after How far we've all come. Looking to the past after a disability, injury or chronic illness usually looks worse than our current state. Sometimes, though, we can actually be doing better! We don't think about that too often but it's the reality of sliding up and down a scale of constant & consistent effort to combat some negatively effecting element in our lives after injury. 

It's interesting because my upper body muscle health was good here, I am struggling to maintain balance, but you'd sort of think besides my step/gate struggling a little bit, that I was pretty much good. Little do most know how bad my legs would sting every night with fibromyalgia pain. Or how heavy the spasms were clenching down on my muscles. There were a lot of wet pillows at night during this time I remember in 2018.

I finally learned how to limit hormone-producing foods & excess sodium to help my legs stay thinner and calm that pain.  It seemed the bigger my legs got, the more surface area it gave the nerve endings to malfunction and cause outrageously mind numbing debilitating pain. I still eat those foods, but if I feel the buzzing go past the slightly uncomfortable state (that's always there) to the "whoa!" stage, is when I dial back all salt and avoid hormone producing foods like Mushrooms (Except Reishi, those lowers hormones), Cinnamon, Ashwaganda, Tumeric, Maca, Sage, etc. Super high fat foods pump hormones too so I reduce that until things normalize.

Salt holds onto water, bloating our bodies. Hormones create more Red Blood Cells creating higher blood volume.. Both of these things make our bodies expand and put extra pressure on our skin, which is problematic for Fibro. For me, pain-wise, it's like a light switch. ON/OFF. I used to cry into my pillow a lot of nights because of it for a few years.

Foods that helped me lower hormones were Peppermint, Tomatoes, Nettle, Parsley, Onions, Carrots, Apples, Cilantro, and Rosmary. I have yet to find a great recipe for a perfect balance like a Tumeric+Rosemary or something. It seems hormones will go up easier than they will come down so the ratio is still something I'm experimenting with.

I hope this is helpful for someone. πŸ™ŒπŸ™β€οΈ
Lake Travis is looking amazing today πŸ™ŒπŸ™ Lake Travis is looking amazing today πŸ™ŒπŸ™
Happy 35th bday to meee! πŸŽ‚πŸŽ‰ Just swimming, d Happy 35th bday to meee! πŸŽ‚πŸŽ‰ Just swimming, doing what I do. Sending love out to all the PT warriors out there. Let's get this! πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€οΈ

PS - the audio was removed from this clip and it took my voice track with it!
I want to thank NFL Steeler's Pro Bowler Ryan @sha I want to thank NFL Steeler's Pro Bowler Ryan @shazier and the @ryanshazierfund for inviting me to be a part of the Shazier Foundation family and to share my Shalieve Story. I'm hoping that in some way my story may resonate with someone else going through a difficult time, and may bridge the gap to a more peaceful and happier time after Spinal Cord Injury.

This process is so difficult but with people like Ryan putting awareness to these types of injuries, we can help one another to rise above the ashes and improve much faster than without that help. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€οΈ

Ryan Shazier was drafted in the 1st round in the 2014 NFL Draft, a two time Pro Bowler. In 2017 he sustained a SCI in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals tackling wide reciever Michael Thomas. Since then he started his 501(c)(3) Nonprofit organization to help others with SCI to get back to their lives as quickly as possible, to provide emotional support and financial support with physical therapy for those who need it.

I was watching that game in 2017 on ESPN's Monday Night Football. I had just started Tommy Walks Again a few months before (then, Tommy Paralyzed). I remember being glued to the screen as he was carted off, hoping for a quick update that he was back up in the locker room and ok. That didn't happen that night. Not until we learned the next day that he had sustained a Spinal Cord Injury. It wasn't until April of 2018 was he up on his feet again, but like most of us, he had neurological side effects and weakness.

My heart went out to Ryan as I had just begun to truly emotionally process my injury after years of stuffing it under the rug. I know I'm destined to do some great things in this arena of Spinal Cord Injury and this recognition is inspiring me more. Thank you Ryan, the Fund, as well as to the Fund's writer whom I've come to know very well, @cuffcoffman. I appreciate you all so much. If you guys ever need a volunteer in the Austin, TX area, I'm just a phone call, text or DM away. ❀️

One love. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€οΈ

https://ryanshazierfund.org/losing-yourself-to-find-yourself-tommy-swarts/
It felt beyond good to swim under the sun today vs It felt beyond good to swim under the sun today vs swimming in the gym pool. I forgot how this feels! πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈπŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ

In 2019 before the world changed, I was swimming a lot with my 74yr old neighbor out in the sun. We always had great conversations and it was a good time.

The world really has been on pause for 2 years and it's like the tracking on the VCR is just starting to work properly again.

I have to remember that when I want to be hard on myself for losing some progress here and there. I was thisssss close to being where I am now with my diet, stretching, everything in late 2019 and then this whole thing came crashing down on us.

So perhaps I lost two years, but you know, that's ok if I did or I didn't. None of us have time machines, so the only thing we can truly do is be grateful for the moment and embrace forgiveness where we need to and continue moving forward.

One love. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€οΈ
I made it to the outdoor pool today. πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ I made it to the outdoor pool today. πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ It felt really good, muuch better than the indoor gym pool. Definitely gonna be back here πŸ™ŒπŸ™
I made it back to the pool! πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ When I s I made it back to the pool! πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ When I slipped on the ice a few months back, every time I swam, my hands would sting down into my forearm where I hurt the tendons. It's interesting how sometimes we get torn away from things that we love or need to do because of things happening and then we forget or create new routines and lose the previous one. It is sooo frustrating when this happens!

I saw a post in one of my surfing groups on Facebook. Someone had posted a picture of a note they wrote their Mom. It was a chore list and they had crossed it out and wrote:

"Mom, I'm not doing these chores today. I love surfing but I realized I hate it lately. I hate it because I suck at it. I suck at it because I never get to go surfing anymore. So today, Mom, I'm not doing these chores. I'm going surfing. I know you'll understand because this is my passion. I love you."

It made me think, just like physical therapy when things happen and we feel like we lose progress due to things happening, it can really set us back. There's this concept with ADD/ADHD brains called "Object Permenance" where it states that if things are hidden away from our vision (like things put in a drawer,) they cease to exist to us. In a very similar way, if our routines get put on pause for XYZ reason that we cannot control, it feels like that routine ceased to ever exist to begin with. It takes so much effort just to maintain it in the present, let alone manage it during a period where we cannot access it due to it being "drawered."

Thankfully my brother asked me to go to the gym so he could sit in the hottub. I've been working that new job for a couple months now and my body is aching during this acclimation period. I hope it passes soon. Needless to say I was exhausted but I made myself get up since my brother wanted to go so bad. Luckily I feel like I just opened up that drawer again. I'm excited to get back! πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈπŸŠβ€β™‚οΈπŸ™πŸ™Œ

Does this resonate with anyone with physical therapy and goals? We go up and up yet it only takes one setback for us to lose our traction, it feels. We gotta stay strong and maintain that perspective. We can do it!

One love. πŸ™πŸ™ŒπŸŒβ€οΈ
At 23 days gluten-free, the veggies/fruits that re At 23 days gluten-free, the veggies/fruits that replaced it gave me enough relief in my hamstrings to commit to taking a job again. It's been a long time! This is BIG news! ❀️ 

I've been Vegan for a while now and I take my herbs and supplementation very seriously. This is a huge change and it's been a few years of dedicated work to get here. I would have never thought removing gluten to force me to consume more whole foods could have this effect. But it's pretty suprising, what is has done! πŸ™ŒπŸ™

After Spinal Cord Injury my hamstrings have spasms so tight it can pop my knee joints, it is very powerful and painful. Did you know the only thing that stops our muscles from snapping our bones is our brain regulating our movements? Now imagine the spinal cord is damaged and the brain's messages are being interrupted and altered in not so great ways. Welcome to spasticity and nerve damage! Not so fun, but I thought that would give a good image for people who may not understand fully what it's like.

Software/IT is my home field for work, but I'm finding it mentally difficult to endure the spasticity pain without being distracted by other things happening in front of me. So I figure as this new diet is making such a great change, I'd take some new jobs aside from computers for a bit so I can coax my way back into the mix of things. When I'm loosened up enough, I can head back to computers. Or maybe something else is on the horizon that I am unaware of at this time, who knows! We will see! I am open to many things currently. πŸ™ŒπŸ™

If you have a chronic issue going on, really consider what I'm mentioning here. This is a crazy good result. Food absolutely matters! 🌱 DM me any time. ❀️

This video was taken 2 months ago. Things are going well! Difficult and filled with anxiety, but it's forcing me to work exponentially hard to keep things rocking and rolling. Cheers to the future. 🍻 Updates soon! πŸ™ŒπŸ™

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DISCLAIMER: Not medical advice. Always seek your physician before changing your diet.
I was having spasms so bad I couldn't tell if I wa I was having spasms so bad I couldn't tell if I was having heart palpitations or if it was just the muscle clenching down hard in my chest. So, here we are getting an EKG to make sure things are OK.

It has always made me curious how I could have muscle problems all over. I felt like as an L1 paraplegic I could only have issues down from that lumbar point like how they usually say. But that definitely doesn't seem to be the case. It appears we can definitely have issues above our point of injury as well.

I can get an itchy or unbearable sensation of needing to move my muscles in my upper body (as well as the legs, too.) Unfortunately this usually happens at night and for the longest time I would just drink coffee and do pushups to get it to go away. The alternative was to stay up all night dealing with the sensations, squirming around, but not having the energy or strength to do the pushups or movements to get the muscle to stop feeling that pain or "itchy" feeling.

I really hate that sensation stuff. It drives me crazy. But also in combination with that I get the muscles clamping down really hard randomly in my body. So when my left chest muscle clamped down I kinda got worried. It's happened before but I've never checked to see what was really happening since I just really had no idea.

Luckily the EKG came back perfect and from what I described the doctor said I'm likely having chest wall and muscle complications from the spasticity. To confirm everything is OK and the valves are OK, the doctor scheduled an Ecocardiogram.

I've had the feeling before it's just the muscle having spasms, but damn does it hurt and it makes it so when I breathe it stings, so, it's definitely a wild chest wall thing. I know you have had that happen before, right? Like those random stingy breaths? Apparently that is normal-ish and just a chest wall thing. I guess we'll see with the Ecocardiogram, but yeah, better to finally check it out and see definitively what's up on this one so my anxiety can chill a bit.

I hope me sharing my little bits and pieces of my story here on the socials are helpful for some out there. This is definitely a wild ride. πŸ™ŒπŸ™
I learned from @drmarkhyman that there are 100 Tri I learned from @drmarkhyman that there are 100 Trillion cells in the body. 90 Trillion (90%) of those cells are the make up of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms. Only 10 Trillion (10%) of those cells are the makeup of skin, bones, teeth, hair, organs, etc. Digest that for a second. That's nuts right?? 🀯

One day it clicked after realizing that plants contain prebiotics and probiotics that benefit our bodies in a huge way. After all, we are 90% biologic and only 10% the makeup of our physical bodies.

Plants are very biologic and complimentary to our human system. Interestingly if you take an Electrition's Multimeter and plug it into a Potato for instance, it will produce 0.8 watts. What would happen if we plugged it into a peice of bread? Nothing.

It's interesting because not only can foods from the garden compliment our healthy bacterias, but they can compliment our body's electrical system, or our energy as well.

A lot of people might say, what energy? I'd say, well, if we have our routine doctor's visit and have an Electrocardiogram or an EKG done, we'd see the electrical system powering our heart via the chart that gets printed out after, right? The very thing that we believe is a little woo-woo in some instances, is very clear to see. Or how about an Electromyography or an EMG like I got a few months back that measures the electrical activity of our muscles and nerves. All the suddon it becomes a little clearer. πŸ™ŒπŸ™

At the end of the day, plants are super important. Not only are they healing but they provide us something to look forward to as they grow. It has personally helped my depression and anxiety in a huge way. I wake up every morning in the spring and summer excited to go outside and check on my babies.

There may not always be growth in my personal life, but there's always growth in the garden. When depression is a lack of something to look forward to, this can be paramount.

Just thought I'd share this. Was this cool to read? Helpful? Comment below and tell me! Thx. 😊

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DISCLAIMER: As always, I have to write, I am not a doctor. Always check with your physician on matters related to your health.
It is day 21 of no Gluten! Last year I did 45 days It is day 21 of no Gluten! Last year I did 45 days and fell back to Gluten. I've learned so much since then. It's now time to really do this. πŸ™ŒπŸ™

Why you might ask? Because breads with added synthetic nutrients take away opportunities to fill the body up with whole plant chemistry compounds from real whole foods. πŸ™ŒπŸ™ I've been eating potatoes, sweet potatoes, bananas, dates, and brown rice for my carbs lately and I've had to get fairly creative with meals.

Last year I learned a lot. I don't think a lot of people will get this on their first try, it's absolutely a learning process. πŸ™ŒπŸ™ I'm super hopeful I can keep it this time with new recipes in the bag, as well as the foundation I built last year on how to do this and how not to get into that stubborn mode of "No, I won't eat that!" yet not have the foundation built to be able to properly sustain the diet and then fall into crazy fatigue and depression and give up after stuffing a nice soft ooy gooey pastery in my mouth out of sheer desperation. Lol πŸ˜‚

I've realized ruits are fantastically healthy and amazing alternative source of carbohydrates and I've been loving Guavas. I decided to extract some seeds out and begin the germination process so I can get some growing in the garden this summer! Aww yeeahh, cant wait. πŸ‘¨β€πŸŒΎπŸŒ±πŸ˜Š

Some Guava factoids:

1.) Boosts Immune System

Loaded with vitamin C, nutrients, and minerals, guava is an easy way to lend a helping hand to your immune system. Guava contains four times the amount of vitamin C of oranges, making this fruit an amazing source of vitamin C.

2.) Cardiovascular Health

Guavas help to keep heart disease at bay by decreasing the levels of bad LDL cholesterol and triglycerides while boosting the levels of good HDL cholesterol. 

3.) Improves Cognition

The potassium content of guava helps to improve memory and cognition while the rich antioxidant content of this super fruit helps to nourish the brain.

So much more that won't fit! Love ya. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€

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DISCLAIMER: Not medical advice. Always seek your physician before making changes to your diet.
My 5am SCI modified swim routine, a week before I My 5am SCI modified swim routine, a week before I hurt my hands slipping on the ice. Learning to rock the speedo as I swim like back in my swim team days. Finally feeling normal with it. Wearing swim trunks is like having a parachute dragging behind you. Huge difference.

In the end of the video I talk about hurting my neck, the ice closing things up, our car getting hit and not being able to get to the gym, and a few other things that all happened that dampened my motivation.

Of course I would slip on the ice and get sidelined for another month after that, right? Oy veyy. πŸ€·β€β™‚οΈ

I can feel and tell clearly that swimming is tying up the loose ends I have with my body, strengthening my glutes, helping to alleviate my hamstrings that cause me pain and create the inability for me to sit for 8 hrs, sidelining me from working my computer programming / IT job full time. 

That is all a huge bummer, but I'm trying to see the message in this. Interestingly when I feel really really back to normal on some days, my ego turns on. It's associative to the brain I believe, just like the seasons bring us associative memories and feelings, the states of our body can do the same.

I feel like the Universe is reminding me to stay humble. And also to not believe I can attain this goal so easily as to take it foregranted. 

Grateful I will be when I can sit without pain, I got the message, Universe. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€

Until then I'm not losing hope here. Both my hands still sting a lot but they stopped throbbing with the swelling pressure & 10/10 pain so that's good at least.

Be back soon! πŸ™ŒπŸ™

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DISCLAIMER: Not medical advice. Always seek your doctor.
Slipped on the Austin ice during this last freeze. Slipped on the Austin ice during this last freeze. Almost broke my hand, but turns out it's just really badly sprained and swollen. This will put my workouts on hold for a second. But that's okay in a way...it's teaching me to be more patient.

I've had a lot of things interrupt my schedule and routine this last month or two with the snow, car doors being frozen shut, places being fully shut down, hurting my neck and being sidelined and a few other things.

It seems like I made this commitment to swim every day and workout hard and everything isn't going as smoothly as I would have hoped. I thought all I needed was my motivation and determination, but low and behold there's other unexpected circumstances that before would have made me just hop in bed for a week. This time I said no, I have to keep at it.

To me when I want to do well for myself, keep a schedule, hit PT hard, and I get stopped, it feels like running out to the living room on Christmas morning to see there's no presents under the tree. It's devastating. The amount of inner strength I already had to build to get there is tough, let alone having to wait longer to begin to feel better. 

Ultimately I think it's patience that is the lesson that the Universe is delivering to me on this one. I have to remain calm while maintaining motivation and confidence versus becoming sad and reclucing to my bed. It's very hard when things on the daily are already hard as it is, but I can get through the next barrier if I remain patient through these moments and remember my goal. Thinking forwardly to allow me to remain steady and confident in the present.

Patience.

Love you guys. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€
Had a temperature, likely it was you know what, fe Had a temperature, likely it was you know what, feel better now. Lost a week of gains, but luckily I had taken a ton of Oregano oil and ate organic and it never hit my GI Tract thank God, didn't lose my appetite. Just had a headache and felt sore. Even though I felt gross I hit up pushups the best I could. Time to blend the upper body with the glute training. I'm gonna get a little thick for a while. I like to be lean, but to get these gains I'mgonna be a thick boi for a bit πŸ˜‚

Love this sound by the way. Like @jimkwik says, we are Limitless. We put these boundaries on ourselves. I do it to myself for sure. When I'm stuck in the ego I can't really see it. But when step back for a second and think from the third person perspective, I can recognize what I'm doing to myself. These needless reasons for not pushing forward, because X, Y or Z has to be done first, or I'm not good enough, or won't be accepted maybe. Whatever the reason...it seems to find a way to be there, ya know? What if we could recognize that silliness and sidestep it? Perhaps that is manipulating energy. πŸ™ŒπŸ™

The Buddhists say we get what we feel we deserve. So if we have a low self esteem, then we are likely to believe we deserve less. Working out absolutely helps my confidence and I can see how I will become a different person with a strong upper body again. For me, I've been super strong before and I did it for vanity and I felt like and didn't pay attention to my legs. That made me feel guilty for not doing what I should have been doing with legs.

As I look back, I did it in part in vanity but also because I wanted to feel confident and accepted. I lost that perspective for a moment and really felt I was being vain and should have been focusing on my legs instead. So for a while, I've been doing bare minimum upper body workouts cause I felt that shame & guilt pattern for neglecting what I should really be focussing on, the legs. They are just so difficult to make gains with, it's hard. I will get there, though. I can achieve anything I want if I believe it. Lots of things are coming together in this new year. I feel like we are all going to grow so much.

Love ya have a great night. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€
I had a nerve conduction study a while back as I w I had a nerve conduction study a while back as I was having an epiphany to start working on glutes. I failed to get good headway going then but I'm glad I kind of foreshadowed what I needed to do and that I'm working on it now.

What the doctor's assistant told me that day is that I have a of damage in my nerves at S1, that's right in the pelvis and where a strong glutes would really help alleviate pressure there. So it's on! I've been neglecting my upper body for 2-3 months just to focus on glutes, quads and calves (I left out hamstrings because those spasm so hard they maintain tone on their own.) They were so atrophied it took a long time to grow. Cause you know, you gotta wait 48-72 hours after each workout/EMS stimulator session for the muscle to heal and gain size. I hate that part. I wish it could happen faster.

My glutes finally feel good in size, even though they're still small to medium, they're all muscle and when I grab 'em, they feel meaty. This is basically a first for me in my life. When I flex 'em my feet go crazy as well so I can only imagine good things will come from that. Anyway since that's going well I had my first upper body workout, like a serious one, today and it felt really nice. 

I spent years focussing on upper body because of vanity/confidence reasons. I would try for lower body, but get lost in the embarassment of working out my glutes and the losing battles I used to experience trying. All I have to say, is, it's ALL about a good EMS/TENS unit. It's a must.

So I'm going to get back to glutes in the morning after this upper body workout. I cannot wait to sit and feel my body resting on full glutes versus super tight painful hamstrings. πŸ™ŒπŸ™ 

When the main doctor came in she said I don't have degenerating nerves, like they're getting worse due to a disease, she just said I have no signals in a fair amount of the nerves in my feet from the spinal cord cutting off the signal and that the nerve damage and spasms are a result of the cord damage but not anything actively happening that can be fixed or stopped. Seems as though, I'm falling into the mysterious "we just don't know enough about SCI" category on this one.
Stayed up all night having spasms. Such is life on Stayed up all night having spasms. Such is life on occasion for those of us with SCI, disabilities & chronic illnesses. 

These are the real moments that a lot of us have with SCI. My bananas are finally doing their job and I can sense the spasms are going to stop shortly and I can fall asleep. Doing pushups and a few yoga moves definitely has helped as well. Maybe I can wake up by noon and not take to big of a hit schedule-wise.

When things are difficult, a good movie can really make things a lot better. This one I watched tonight called "10 Years" about a bunch of old HS buddies hanging out after a bunch of years apart and it was pretty good. Everyone hanging out again is definitely a good vibe. I even hit rewind and watched the ending again as I filmed this clip. πŸ™Œ

RIP my morning swims for a couple days though I guess. I enjoy my morning swims more than I do night time swims. There's something invigorating about the early AM workouts for me. It's like...I feel a part of the world's heart beat when I'm up with the flow. Ya know?

If you're going through trauma right now, don't worry, you're not alone. We're all having nights like these in different forms periodically. I think it's important to keep focussing on PT and goals and not letting the hiccups get to us even though they can feel devastating at times. Forward movement, always.

One love. πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€
A quick PT update! Glutes are doing well, working A quick PT update! Glutes are doing well, working on my back a bit today to help my traps from being tight and pulling on my neck. Once I get that sorted out I can stop double thinking whether or not to get on the bench press because I don't want to pull my neck. That will be nice! I'll gain muscle pretty quickly after that.

I've been waiting to get my upper body really fit because I've been focussing on my legs. Part of getting the glutes, quads and calves big (notice I leave hamstrings out because they spasm all the time and maintain their own tone) is eating tons of carbs to fill the muscles out and make them easier to work out, and thennn I can cut carbo-loading once there is good muscle there and begin on upper body.

If I worked out my upper body and carbo-loaded I would be as big as a tank and have a weird shape. It takes perfect planning doing both lower body and upper body... I used to only care about upper body because I never made the connection of the power the glutes could have in healing my sciatica and calming down the spasticity.

I always walked a lot in my walker and with my cane and lifted my knees up in bed and wiggled my toes and pressed and lifted my feet up to get my movement back, but I never focused on getting big big muscles in the legs is what I mean there. I really do believe now that the glutes are the gateway to healing. I will continue to share what I discover along this line of thinking. πŸ™Œ

Well, here we are and I'm getting after it. It only takes a bunch of years to figure things out and that's ok. πŸ™ŒπŸ™

Alright thats the update have a great dayyyy! πŸ™ŒπŸ™πŸŒŽβ€
This is the most detail I've ever shared. I have C This is the most detail I've ever shared. I have Caudia Equina Syndrom. Those are the nerves that begin in the lumbar region and flow into base of the spine at the pelvis. The Latin translation of Caudia Equina amounts to "Horse Hairs." That definitely describes the mess of nerves that accumulated at the base of the spine really well.

When my L1 bursted it punctured the fascia, the outer protective layer of the spine. The surgeon said it was possible there was a puncture deeper in the spine but it was so swollen he didn't want to investigate further. He sowed up the fascia so it was closed and safe. Then he decompressed my L1 and drilled the bars and screws in to fuse and stabalize my spine.

After I woke up he said my Caudia Equina region was dangerously swollen. He said the pressure from the swelling was going to continue to damage my spine and to put ice packs on my back as much as I could tolerate.

I ended up with Caudia Equina Syndrom which is nerve pain, burning, stinging, pins and needles and involuntary muscle spasms, involuntary erections, spasms in the sphincter, complicated blatter and bowel function and overall hyper-sensitivity in the pelvis, hips, legs, knees and feet. It's a jumbled mess of cords all triggering one another to malfunction and cause pain. My hospital said they had never seen a patient with hyper sensitivity to the level I had and said it was in the top 3% range of how bad it can get (Santa Clara Valley Medical -- the regional spinal specialists for all of the West coast.) It stings real good, I'll tell you that.

When I got home I had to raise the blanket up with pillows so they wouldn't touch my legs as I slept or I'd be jarred awake with pain. The air passing over my skin as someone walked by made me cry. Any movement at night would wake me up. Content involuntary erections and sphincter & leg spasms all day. Contstant lightning strike shocks would catch me off guard constantly and put me in a place of fear as to when it would happen next.

A lot of this stuff is highly uncomfortable as well as difficult and awkward to explain properly due to the nature of the pelvis and all of its

(The rest is in the comments...)
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This website is intended as an informational guide. The described approaches and suggested therapies are meant to complement, not replace, professional medical advice and treatment. You are encouraged to seek advice from your doctor on matters related to Spinal Cord Injury.