I love the Netherlands. They have really good pancakes, awesome art and if you use a wheelchair, they give you a sports chair and an entire year of coaching free of charge (ah-hem, moving there now).
No wonder this is the awesome place where the effervescently positive Esther Vergeer hails, the reigning queen of wheelchair tennis – winner of 7 Paralympic gold medals and 22 championship titles – unbeaten since 1999. Read this entry
Founder and President of Clark’s Botanicals, an award-winning skincare company with products that have been featured in Allure, In-Style, and The New York Times (just to name a few publications) and the author of Walking Papers: The Accident that Changed My Life, and the Business that Got Me Back on My Feet.
Francesco is making the world beautiful and helping to heal it, all in one fell swoop. Read this entry on SPINALpedia
Claustrophobic in your own body, that’s how being paralyzed can feel (at least from my experience) AND going real fast is one of the best ways to show this feeling the door.
But you don’t have to bother telling Michael Johnson and Matt Speakman, two men with paraplegia and the only two in the world with a spinal cord injury
racing at a professional level. Yep, they’re definitely the ‘big-timers.’
Michael is a 20 year old T6 paraplegic racing in the USF2000 series (with dreams of making it to the Indy 500) in an open cockpit formula car, meanwhile Matt Speakman is a 46 year old from Australia, also a paralegic, who’s become the first person with a SCI to be on the pro Porche racing circuit. Read the rest of this entry
Long before Christopher Reeve became injured, Joni Eareckson Tada was the well-known quadriplegic everyone knew about (especially in the Christian world). Injured in 1967 in a diving accident at the age of 17, Joni (the last of four girls, they wanted a boy so she was named after her Dad) well, let’s just say she’s has managed to like a remarkable life.
From starring in a movie about her life, serving under two US presidents on the Disability Advisory Commitee (GW Bush and Obama), to founding the Joni & Friends International Network (they do so much good), read my post on this very awesome lady on another site I blog for (SPINALpedia; a disability video archive). Read this entry
Being in a wheelchair, you just can’t get away from the inevitable question – “What happened to you?” Out to eat, at school, even in the parking lot, no matter where you are, there will always be someone who will want to know ‘why’ (oh you pesky human curiosity gene). It won’t happen every time you’re out, but it sure happens a lot. How do you feel when it happens? For me, it’s all about context and where I’m at specifically.
In podcast 94, Tiffiny is joined by Jessica Cox, an amazing woman born without arms who’s done stunning things in life, including becoming the world’s first licensed pilot without arms and the only person with no arms to receive a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. And her film needs your support.
A really cool documentry has been made to support a new bill in Minnesota (aiming to get $8 million for paralysis research), made by the father of a newly injured young man. It features NFL punter Chris Kluwe – who spent a day in a wheelchair – to bring awareness to the real life behind spinal cord injuries. I’m included in this film too, munching on chips and salsa with Chris, and talking about the hardness of paralysis for as long as I’ve been in the game – 19 years, 6 monthss. oof).
So much positive energy flowing from this extreme athlete (injured in 2010 while doing a snowmobile jump).
Grant Korgan was the first person w/ a SCI to trek to the South Pole, which he did last year (and it was made into a film) and he just published a book, Two Feet Back.
AND he recently made his TEDx speaking debut. Meet this amaaazing pro-snowmobiler from Reno, NV (my guest post on SPINALpedia). Read this entry
I look forward to my shower almost as much as my first cup of coffee, but when I was first paralyzed this was so not the case. I could never warm up afterwards, and it never felt like it used to feel.
But now, just feeling just the hot water on my neck and shoulders is enough to make showering one of my favorite things to do now. I finally saw the light.
How do you use of the shower if you can’t walk? That’s one of the first things kids always ask me. And well, it’s not just a matter of just jumping in the shower now. Things are a bit more complicated. And the answer? By either using a shower chair, a shower bench or maybe taking a bath.
But getting into these contraptions (transfers and the like) is the hard part. Here’s a look at some of the best how to videos what it comes to getting into the shower safely and securely, and some tricks of the trade too. Read this entry
Featured photo via Flickr member miriamwilcox // Creative Commons
A savvy business lady before AND after her injury (at age 45, a tree fell on her while bike riding), here’s how Rosemarie Rossetti Phd has soared post-injury.
She has created the “Universal Living Design Laboratory,” a seriously gorgeous show home in Ohio that uses universal design & green building principals. Read this entry
