Time does heal wounds, maybe not ALL of them, but often enough so we may move on. I own two wheel chairs [not always used, because I want to ambulate/walk] four canes, one of which I keep mounted to my new mountain bike.

My work comp case was pending and not fully resolved until more than seven years....... just as an fyi. We finally did make that transition to life beyond argument, then I began to push harder and harder and harder. God made me with a hard head for sure. So, anyway, my family now owns a home once again. I am fully employed and about to come OFF of social security disability. Am I still disabled? Yep, I reckon so. I have to use SCS to control pain, my trusty cushion on which to sit, and my can by which to ambulate since my lower legs are very much like living prosthetics. Alive, but no feeling.

The only dance step I can still sort of do with my wife is the Foxtrot, well, and a slow dance. I had to give up on the waltz, one of our favorites and the jitterbug, swing, and some others, because the lower legs will not cooperate.

We are still able to ride bikes, but not as radically as I used to on mountains. Alpine skiing, I have thought I might try the recumbent ski program at Winterpark this coming season, as my days of parallel schussing are gone by by.

But guess what..... my mind works pretty well. I have leaped and I mean leaped into pro bono practice and have helped many many people saving homes from foreclosure, with employment problems and the like. My paying practice I have expanded, adding New York to Colorado as licenses. Now I am working on adding Texas. We are limited in some ways but NOT all, and through the help of SCS, we are able to leap into life and take it by the tail. I am having fun. You can do this as well. God gives us the means to be of help one to another, and it was just that manner of living which brought me from the pit where death will claim the willing depressed individual.

I encourage you to do your best once you have the implant to see whether it will aid in reclaiming your life, THEN embark on providing not only for yourself, but also for others. I did this while unemployed by starting a focus group in our community for people who needed work. Everyone who was in the group has graduated!! Life is love and love is life! It is so cool to see the smiles on teh faces of the graduates who were in our focus group!!

Prayin for you Ashley,
Yup,
Mark56