A Hero 4 All

I was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in October of 1995, then spent over a month in the St. Anthony Hospital and about five months in the Craig Rehabilitation Clinic.

When I was discharged, I was diagnosed an incomplete paraplegic and told by the doctor that I would never walk again. I was sent out into the world in a wheelchair and forced to face a life I knew very little about. To say the least I was scared to death and I was on my own. I moved into a wheelchair accessible apartment and my life as a handicapped person began. I will skip the horrific details that followed and  focus on how I regained my mobility.

Approximately a year and a half had passed living in the wheelchair. I could no longer bear the pain and discomfort of sitting confined in it. At that time, I was able to move my legs from the knees down, so I purchased a set of leg braces and arm crutches and began pulling myself up to a standing position and moving my legs through the arms crutches like a pendulum — basically dragging myself around. This process went on for a few months and I was about to give up, then one day while walking like a pendulum I kicked my right leg out, then my left. My hip flexors or some muscle group had come back and was able to move my legs independently. I remember thinking I was going to walk again!

After a few more months I was so excited that I discontinued with the cumbersome braces. This was a serious mistake or was it? In the accident, I had severely broken my right femur and had a Stanley intramedullary rod placed inside where my bone marrow is. During the original surgery, the neurosurgeons made the decision to just stabilize my broken femur as there was little hope of my ever walking again and I had been under anaesthesia for a lengthy time. I was living with a non-union, which meant my femur was not growing together properly. So one rainy night, while going up the ramp to my door, my crutch slipped, I fell backward and I could not move my leg and it broke, bending the rod.

As I fell toward the ground, I heard my leg snap and I knew it had broken. That night I was so devastated I dragged myself into the house and instead of calling 911 I grabbed a bottle of bourbon and my pain pills. I woke the next morning and drove to the Dr.′s office. I remember the nurse coming back after taking the X-ray and saying…Oh my GOD you have a broken leg… they wanted to call the ambulance, however I had driven a car there that I had just purchased, a 5-speed twin turbo 300 ZX, and wanted to get it into the hands of friends… I will never forget a few of the nurses following me out in astonishment that I was going to drive myself to the hospital… I drove to my place of employment and asked a co-worker to take me to the hospital and return my car to the dealer and let the dealer know I was not going to be able to buy the car… note to self… never give a used car salesman a twin turbo car…that is another story in itself!

For the next two days they had my leg in traction then on the third I went in for surgery… I distinctly remember coming out of the anesthesia on my way out of the operating room… i thought to my myself… oh no… then band like having my leg blown off the pain hit me like a brick wall… the anesthesia had worn off too soon and I was in for the most painful night of my life… in the surgery they had removed the bent Stanley rod, cut off a clean half-inch of my femur, removed bone from my front hip to fuse into my leg and installed a new rod… now with no pain medication I had to endure pain that was truly beyond belief… after a few days I was released and went back home alone with no support or help… truly one of the toughest times in my life.

I was forced back into the wheelchair for about 3 months until my leg healed, then it was back to leg braces and crutches. Now my leg was properly fixed and nothing was going to come between me and regaining my full mobility.

Since then I have steadily grown stronger and worked hard every day to walk free of crutches. Finally in late 1998 I was able to leave my crutches behind and walk under my own power. Each day, each month and each year I walked better and better. I have weight trained on and off since 1998 and in 2002 I made the decision to get back into bicycling. In 2003 I moved to Clearwater, Florida so I could focus on cycling full time. In less than 4 years I cycled a total of 3800 miles..

My most recent approach to a a totally body over haul started in 2010 after returning from free diving and spear gun fishing in Hawaii…although I was able to free dive down to 60ft and hold my breath for over two minutes I was suffering from severe lower back pain, my legs were dreadfully weak, I was out of shape and suffering on many levels…Quite honestly I was on my last leg and totally down and discouraged from suffering in pain non-stop. I was about to turn the big 40 and wanted to make that life transition getting stronger and better so I began neural therapy with Dr. Harvey Biglesen and seeing acupuncturist Turiya Hill who is an incredibly talented healer and  started weight training again five days a week. This is when my recovery started to take on a life all it’s own. I have made more gains in strength and performance over the past two years than I have in almost all my years of recovery combined.

Dr. Bigelsen neural therapy has unequivocally improved the quality of my life ten-fold and well beyond my greatest hopes or expectations.

When I began Dr. B’s neural therapy I also started weight training. At that time I could barely leg press 250 lbs. I distinctly remember my legs going into shock one night after trying. I maintained Dr. B’s therapy and my legs and body became stronger and stronger. Two years after maintainance treatments I can leg press over 600 lbs. — ten times!

My memory has improved more than I can accurately describe. My ability to retain information is stronger than ever.

Since the accident I have suffered severe shooting pains in my right femur which has gone through two traumatic surgeries. Since starting neural therapy, I am super happy to say I no longer experience those hideous and debilitating pains.

In 1994 I contracted herpes or HSV-1 which means I have breaks out on my lips not my genitals. I would have 1 to 3 break outs a year. Since I started neural therapy in 2010, I have not had a serious break out. When I feel one come on, I start immediately taking L-lysine and within days, it is gone.

Acupuncture with Turiya Hill

I was suffering severe lower back pain in my sacrum area and a good friend highly recommended Turiya Hill. My hope was he could fix that specific pain in that specific spot. After a few treatments the pain was still there, not as bad, but I began to notice I felt much better on other levels that I had not anticipated.

A huge positive shift in my mental and emotional stability were the first effects I felt. In my opinion, this healing effect put my mind and my body in a softer place to heal. One could say I felt a true sense of Zen for the first time!