I really, really enjoyed talking with the uber cool Ernie Johnson from Myrtle Beach, South (not North sorry Ernie) Carolina last month. Injured for a mighty long while, he has the paralysis thing figured out beautifully, and adaptive surfing is now his jam.
And I’m always forgetting to post here, which is going to stop starting now.
In Episode #7 of Life After Paralysis, Tiffiny Carlson interviews two quadriplegics about the travails of online dating after their injuries. She interviews Rob Cella from Thunder Bay, Ontario and Brook McCall from Portland, Oregon.
Listen here
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Service dogs make the lives of thousands of people with spinal cord injuries safer, happier and healthier everyday. The joy a service animal can bring to your life is priceless, but for quadriplegics, even moreso. The amazing tasks and companionship they provide cannot be beat. In Episode 6, Tiffiny has on three guests, all with quadriplegia, who share their lives with their service dogs. Show run-time is 1 hour, 21 minutes.
Listen here:
Guests Descriptions and Time Stamps Can be Found Below:
Guest #1) Erin Thompson (1:45 mins): A new college graduate from Minnesota, Erin is a C5-6 quadriplegic and her service dog is Mia. Follow them @miatheservicedoggo and @mizhoneybadger
Guest #2) Allie Leath (25 mins): A brand new service dog mama to Taylor, who she received this Summer, Allie is 32 years old and a C7 quadriplegic.
Guest #3) Dan Guillou (50:45 mins): Paralyzed for over 30 years, Dan is a C5-6 quadriplegic from Oceanside, California originally from Wisconsin and Narha is his service dog.
In Episode #3 of Tiffiny’s podcast for SPINALpedia Life After Paralysis, we chat about the in’s and out’s of adaptive camping, with all-terrain chairs, cots vs. transferring to the ground, tents and accessible lean-to’s and more discussed. Three avid campers on wheels also join in – Greg Niedzielski, Jason Thurston and Ty Hockett. Run-time is 43 minutes.
It’s not very often I get a chance to talk about anything with another quad for so long. It was fun! Bob is in his 50’s, from Chicago, and has been paralyzed even longer than me. He is the host of the Quad Podcast (you should definitely check it out). Listen in as we talk about, well, everything. Link
Episode #9, Quadriplegic Technology, of my podcast True Wheelchair Life: SCI Life Uncovered is live! Listen in as my three awesome guests Eric Anderson, Mark E Felling and Ian Mackay share the technology they use in their day-to-day lives, including how Siri saved one of their lives. Listen here
It’s been way too long since I’ve had a regular podcast, which is why I’m extra excited about my new SCI podcast series with SpinalCord.com! We’re calling it – True Wheelchair Life: SCI Life Uncovered. In the first episode we’re talking about stem cell tourism. Is it worth it? World you do it again? We talked to three people with paralysis – Allie Leath, Gabriel Rodreick and Caleb Bartlett – all who’ve undergone experimental stem cell procedures in various locales worldwide. We get every angle from these fine folks who decided to be the much needed guinea pigs for the rest of the SCI population. Listen now
In podcast #107, Tiffiny is joined by Paul Brailer, founder of Criptaedo, and they discuss the beginnings of his new organization dedicated to helping people disabilities get healthy again.
Seven years ago when he was 35, he made a dedicated effort to finally get healthy after two close friends, who also had spina bifida, passed away from poor health. He is now a black belt in Taekwondo, and is passing on everything he’s learned.
Hear some great tips, like a $200 accessible gym you can buy at a mainstream store (Tower 200 Body by Jake) to the mighty secrets on protein, from helping you build muscle to healing pressure wounds like magic.
Paul also shares how he met his wife, who’s a paraplegic, and tells a really funny story about a teen who tried (keyword: tried) stealing his hip pack after he the became a black belt. And don’t forget to help Criptaedo apply for 501-c3 status; what’s needed to become an official organization. You can do so here: GoFundMe Criptaedo
In podcast #106, Tiffiny is joined by the gorgeous Chanda Hinton Leichtle, a C5-6 quad from Denver and the famous namesake of the Chanda Plan Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to bringing free non-Western integrative therapies – acupuncture, massage and adaptive yoga – to people with disabilities all over the country.
During the show, Tiffiny has Chanda open up on her early years post-injury (after being accidentally shot in the neck at age 9), and shares how she found the strength to leave her small rural town in Nebraska after high school to attend college in Denver, where entire life changed. At age 21, she hit a rocky patch – increased chronic pain that dropped her weight to dangerous levels.
But this hard experience gave birth to an amazing organization – the Chanda Plan Foundation. What saved Chanda were non-Western therapies, and she and the foundation have dedicated their lives to spreading the excitement of these therapies to as many people with disabilities as possible.
Tune in for a great conversation, and to to hear two quadriplegic women gush about yoga. You can’t go wrong with this episode.
In podcast #105, Tiffiny is joined by Josh Winkler, a C6 quad, engineer and accidental advocate. A resident of Colorado since being discharged from Craig Hospital, Josh has been determined since Day One to be as independent as possible, but this isn’t easy when the system is broken, which Josh contends.
They discuss Josh’s injury story in his teens to his days working for NASCAR as an engineer. They also discuss the various opinions PWD have regarding the word “cripple,” whether they think it’s offensive or just plain practical. But more than anything, tune in to hear one of the most passionate disability advocates in the US right now.