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This is me trying to flex my left hamstring.  Since my left leg is far weaker than the right, Tiffany is having me experiment with a product called Bioness.  It basically causes my shin and hamstring to flex by electrical stimulation.  The difference from the e-stim devices I’ve used before is that this is wireless and works in a manner that is in sync with my walking.  Here, though, Tiffany is just making it work and I am doing my best to assist it.  

Progress

My blogs have departed from being strictly about my SCI recovery.  It seems I’ll write about pretty much anything that happened to me.  Lately several people have been asking me if I’m still recovering or what’s going on with all that.  I was starting to doubt things but the answer is “yes”.

Yesterday I had therapy in the morning with Tiffany.  It was just a 45 minute session but she graciously let me go to a little over an hour since she had some free time.  We warmed up by walking around a couple hundred feet on crutches - something that used to be a huge feat for me.  Then we proceeded with something called a Berg Balance Test.  I stood in the parallel bars and she asked me to do a number of balance drills.  The first time I tried this I scored a 24.  About six weeks ago I scored 30.  This time I scored a 34.  

First I had to stand without touching anything for 2 minutes.  Check.  Then while standing hands-free, I had to try and kick a box in front of me and then stand for 30 seconds.  No such luck.  Next I tried turning 360 degrees hands-free, with tiny little steps.  I made it an awkward 90 degrees and then fell against the rail.  But I think the progress was the stepping.  I had to take a step forward with my right foot and then stand for 30 seconds, all hands-free.  The step was only inches but I still managed to do it, which was cool.  The surprising one was doing it with my left foot.  It was probably millimeters but it still apparently counted.  

The better progress was my 6-minute test, where I walk as far as possible on land (not treadmill) in 6 minutes.  I used the crutches.  I’ve done this test several times.  In August or so I did it for the first time and made it 380 feet.  Then a month later I made it 520 or so feet.  The next two times I barely increased.  So it seemed that I had plateaued.  My record was 557 feet.  I told her I thought I could beat it today pretty easily so we tried it.  Tiffany immediately pointed out that my strides had gotten longer.  Long story short, I made it 715 feet!  She called today’s results a “substantial improvement,” which is actually a term they use in submitting things to insurance and whatnot.  

So I believe I’m getting better at balance, endurance while on my feet (standing longer and longer, walker farther, etc.) and both legs are still getting stronger.  Ralph is still way ahead of Louie, but both are making progress.  So I guess I can’t complain.  

What else?… at one therapy session last week Rebecca stopped by with Henry, a 2-year-old she babysits a couple times a week.  He’s pretty awesome and it’s always cool when they come stop by.  ”Go see Chip!” is what he says haha… It’s funny because at first he and his sister were a little cautious when they saw me in the wheelchair.  But now they are used to it.  I realized how much so when after therapy Henry came over to hold my hand.  I said, “See if you can pull me!” and he tried but the angle was wrong, so he went around the back and smartly started pushing me… to the elevator on the 12th floor, out of the elevator, and still going out of the parking lot!  It cracked me up.  The best part was seeing confused faces of people seeing me slowly moving without doing anything and then they’d smile when we’d go by, revealing the previously-hidden little Henry.  

Other news:

Wheelchair basketball is getting more and more fun as I suck less and less.  I’m somewhat understand the plays and am getting flexible enough to bend over quicker which means pushing faster and also getting the ball off the ground.  It’s an awesome sport and I’d encourage anyone to go check out a game.  My friends that have seen it end up liking it way more than they expected.  

I got an email recently of something called an FTP testing session for handcycling.  I haven’t tried handcycling other than when they visited us for a day when I was an inpatient, however I’ve always been interested.  I just hadn’t because it seems focusing on leg movement was more important.  But now I have more time so I figured I’d try it out.  That was yesterday and OH MY GOSH it was so hard!  The coach told me it’s as hard as you make it so I guess I did that to myself, but holy cow.  We did 2 x 15 minutes as fast/hard as we could go.  I tried to pace myself the first time around, but noticed that the simulator had us “racing” each other.  As soon as I noticed that I started to do better and better.  Realizing about 10 minutes into the first session that I was exhausted and still needed to do another 15 minute session, I saved some energy but still managed to get 2nd in our group and average 123 watts or so, whatever that means.  The next session was 5 minutes later and I was in the lead the entire time and averaged 133 watts.  I had to close my eyes at the end to not think about how hard it was.  A couple of the more experienced guys said, “Yeah that’s how you do it, Chip!” and the coach, Stacee, said in reply, “His eyes are closed so he doesn’t even know how good he’s doing,” and laughed.  It definitely gave me an ego boost and it was nice to get support like that since I had no clue if I was doing well or not - eyes open or closed.  Stacee explained afterwards that my upper body strength is well-suited for this sport.  I’ve always been strong - it’s just what I was born with so nothing to brag about - but it’s nice to see that it will prove useful in handcycling since it’s not all that important in the other wheelchair sports.  At least not as much.  

The angle’s not the best in this photo but here’s the handcycling simulation which they use in the winter here.  They put about 8 handcycles next to each other and advanced equipment measure the outputs and then inputs THOSE into a simulation which is projected in front of us, to compete.  Really cool and really expensive so I’m thankful that RIC has the resources.  

You can see on the right there where they already took a handcycle off the training equipment.  The indoor training piece which allows the wheel to spin freely and measures data is at least $500-700, from what I know.  The handcycles are more like $5000 each.  Yikes.  Good thing they will let me borrow one for now for stuff like this!

Stacee is also connected with other useful organizations like Dare 2 Tri, which helps disabled folks do triathlons.  Really cool organization and she asked if I was interested.  YES!  Definitely.  How else am I gonna do a marathon with Rebecca unless I really go after this thing?  Or meet my pre-injury goal of doing an Ironman?  Can you imagine swimming 2.4 miles and then using those arms to handcycle 112 miles, and then using those same arms to push a wheelchair 26.2 miles?  I can’t.  But 6 months ago I couldn’t imagine spending 5 hours climbing stairs in the Sears Tower, either, or walking a mile.  So yeah, I’m psyched.

She is also going to hook me up with a disabled yoga class called Yin Yoga where some of the handcyclists go.  It’s supposed to help with tightness, which I have in spades.  Yep, sign me up.

What else????…. are you bored, yet??? I don’t care - I’m going to continue, anyway.  

Stephen and Leah, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law-in-law, are staying with us right now, preparing for their move to central Asia.  Pretty nuts but they’re gonna grow a ton from the experience.  I’m sure of it.  Anyway they pointed out that I left ice-skating out of my last blog.  So here it is.

No, I didn’t ice-skate.  I’m not that good, yet!  Leah’s family in Iowa has a man-made pond behind their house.  It was frozen over well enough that Kent was daringly able to take the 4-wheeler out on it and do donuts.  The day before Thanksgiving I watched a gorgeous sunset from the house while Stephen, Leah, and Rebecca skated around on the ice.  They wanted to pull me around on the ice but I didn’t feel like the risk and was pretty exhausted.  But when I saw the beautiful Iowa sunset and watched them out there, I was definitely wishing I could join.  So Friday, when they went out again after we were finished hunting, I decided to make my way down to the pond.  I walked down the hill - first grass, then dirt.  When I approached a lawn chair they had set up on the edge of the ice, I thought, “This is not a good idea.” haha!  But I sat down in that thing, anyway.  I had just watched as Stephen had pushed Rebecca around the ice in it as a test.  She said she liked it better than skating!  So I had to try it.  Stephen, who is pretty good on ice skates, started pushing me around the pond at a pretty good clip.  In no time he was sliding me sideways and I was flying on the ice… and then I was flying in the air.  The leg of the chair had caught on probably the only divot in the ice in the whole pond, launching me sideways into the air.  It was weird in that it didn’t rattle me at all.  I’m pretty sure I was smiling while I was airborne.  I landed on my right side and it didn’t hurt a bit.  And I should point out that I have enough feeling to know if something is wrong.  I climbed back into the chair and headed back to the house.  Pretty funny!  Leah pointed out, “We skate for hours, Kent is on the 4-wheeler, people get pushed around in that chair for hours, and Chip is out there for 5 minutes and gets hurt!”  Haha… typical.  I wish I had a pic of that sunset.  I’ll find one later and add it, I guess.

The last bit of news is not that great.  I’ve mentioned before that I stop by the 7th floor at RIC sometimes to see the current spinal cord inpatients.  After therapy yesterday, I went down to the LIFE center to officially sign up as a peer mentor for that same purpose.  I just wanted to make it official.  I was told that peer mentors are required to be at least 2 years post-injury.  When I explained that I already went to the 7th floor when I had the chance to visit with inpatients, the reaction was not a good one.  Basically it was one of those times where the person doesn’t know what to say: “Oh… no, no that’s…. no you can’t… um…. no.”  Whatever I’m still going to the 7th floor and this blog is my public announcement of such so they can’t say I was being sneaky about it or something.  Those patients need more people to talk with so DEAL WITH IT, RIC! 

That’s all I got. Time for a prayer.

Dear God, thank you for my life.  Thank You for everything You have given me in both ability and opportunity.  Please give me the wisdom and guidance to accomplish great things in Your name as best I can, realizing that great is a relative term to circumstance and that we can all do great things.  Dear Lord, keep me humble.  Please be with all my friends and family and really, everyone.  Fill us all with the Holy Spirit so that we can all stop being selfish and focus on what really matters in life, which is You, and nothing else.  Please guide Stephen and Leah in their pursuits and plans to move abroad.  Please let everyone not get swept up in all the OTHER stuff surrounding Christmas and remember why we are celebrating the season.  In baby Jesus’s name, amen.

Have a good weekend.

Chip

Turkey, Pheasants, and Goals -

I just got back from Paullina, Iowa, where we spent Thanksgiving with the Lundquists.  Leah’s (my now sister-in-law-in-law, if that’s a thing) parents have a farm and home there.  We had an awesome time.  It was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago for a few days.  Laura - Leah’s mom - seemed to always be handing me something different to eat.  I was stuffed before Thanksgiving arrived at which time I continued to stuff myself with still more delicious food.  During the day there were hunting, farm tours, ATV rides, and ice-skating.  At night we’d gather around and play chinese checkers, Catch Phrase, or Settlers of Catan.  It was non-stop and it was great.

Starting Wednesday night when Rebecca spontaneously began doing pushups, I decided to attempt a goal.  50 push-ups was surprisingly easy this time for some reason.  I may have to come up with a more difficult goal there.  I think Rebecca did 50, as well, by breaking for a few minutes in between sets.  Stephen cranked out 24.  At least he can run…

Thursday morning we headed to Orange City bright and early for a 5k race.  I had planned on just cheering on the speedsters but Leah knew about my goal of a mile and suggested I do the last mile of the race.  Why not?  It was a very small 5k - about 170 people - and it felt strange when Stephen dropped me off with my crutches at the 2 mile marker.  It was something like 18 degrees, I was in the middle of a deserted subdivision, alone, at 7:20 in the morning.  The race started at 7:30 and I knew I was going to take quite a while so I started going… up the hill??!?  Okay so it was kind of on a whim but I hadn’t really planned on hills in my first mile attempt.  By “not sitting” I had meant that I planned on leaning against walls as needed, too.  So much for that!  I turned on the iPod Shuffle and proceeded up the hill, singing along to any songs I knew.  Good times.  

After quite a few songs, I had left the subdivision and continued up yet another long hill.  Well, it was probably a quarter mile but that’s a long way for me to go uphill.  I kept wondering when I’d see some of the runners and suddenly one flew by me.  Then another.  Then Stephen and Rebecca.  Not long after that I saw Leah.  They were all encouraging and I realized I wasn’t responding to them at all in kind.  Whoops.  Sorry guys!

In what seemed like 2 minutes, Rebecca was walking towards me, clearly having finished already and now with a jacket and other warm clothes on. She hates the cold so I told her to go inside.  She wouldn’t.  She said her knee hurt a little and she didn’t feel that great.  Stephen showed up shortly afterwards and said he felt like puking and that he was out of shape.  Then Leah showed up.  I turned off my music to enjoy my awesome support group and kept huffing it up the hill.  Step… step…(don’t fall)… step… step… (don’t fall)… I made it down an awkward hill in and out of a ditch before crossing the road.  The church was well within my sites but it seemed a mile away.  Then we suddenly realized we were coming up on the 3 mile marker.  1 mile!  

I went on for another tenth of a mile or so to the church parking lot where Leah ran to steal the finish line string of flags and held it along with Stephen so that I could “bust” through it.  I almost fell down when I hit it! haha… I think if it had been an actual finishing ribbon I would have just bounced off of it and fallen down.  I achingly got into the car after that.  But it was time for the awards, so I begrudgingly got back out of the car and walked in to check out who won, along with the rest of the crew.  They thought they did so bad… Rebecca was 1st in women, Stephen was 3rd in men, and Leah was 3rd in her age group!  Awesome day and a great excuse to chow down on tons of Thanksgiving food.

This is the 3 mile marker where I completed a full mile without sitting.  It took me about an hour.

Friday we shot clay pigeons that were slung out of the back of a truck.  It was awesome!  Rebecca shot a gun for the very first time.  She liked the shotgun and proceeded on to the pistol, which she said she liked better since it was so light.  

Saturday morning the guys headed out early to go pheasant hunting.  I was able to join along by riding on an ATV.  It was automatic, so no footwork needed.  And it was a great stretch for my groin and quads.  I’m not used to straddling anything with the way my legs lock together all the time.  

Kent had grown Sorghum in a couple patches, which the pheasants apparently loved to eat.  I clipped one bird before Kent shot it down, then later shot all the feathers off another which still somehow flew away.  Scott bagged one, as well.  I had never been pheasant hunting before.  Pretty fun - especially the use of Molly, Scott’s dog.  She would rustle out the birds and then when one was shot down she’d retrieve it.  Very cool!

All in all, goals were accomplished and a few firsts were experienced.  And most importantly, we had a ton of fun.  

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving, too.

Chip 

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A couple people pointed out that I hadn’t put up a video in a while.  Well, sorry, but my videographer (my dad) no longer resides in Chicago!  Haha… this one is of me at therapy today.  Tiffany took the video.  This is after already walking about half a mile.  I haven’t sat down in about 30-40 minutes.  Total distance walked was about 2/3 a mile!  Goal is a mile without sitting and I think I can do it soon.

New Goals - Why Wait for the New Year?

Rebecca and I keep reliving the wedding and thinking about all the cool things that happened, how great it was to have most of our friends and family there, and in general how it all came together to create amazing memories.  She keeps saying, “I want to get married again!” and I have to remind myself that she means to ME.  Ha!  We haven’t even seen the professional photos from the photographer we actually paid, yet thanks to Facebook and having tons of friends with smartphones, we have about 1000 photos already and they look awesome.  If you are one of those contributors: thanks!

That, the stair climb being over, Rebecca’s marathon over, and now my therapy is only 2 days a week instead of 3 (insurance limitations).  It will likely drop to 1 day a week in the new year.  I only get 60 sessions a year. All that means I found myself with more time on my hands and lacking in big goals.  Rebecca, too.  

Right away I went to my goal/dream book and checked out what I could try and tackle soon.  I write down all my goals in a book and then when I complete them I go in and write the date and details.  As far as therapy goes, I am shooting for meeting the goal of walking a mile without sitting down.  I’m also going to attempt a full week without the wheelchair.  

I also just finished another SCI-specific book by Grant Morgan called Two Feet Back.  He was about my age when he was hurt snowmobiling. Similar injury and progress, too.  

So with those things in mind, I started trying to challenge myself more outside of therapy.  Something had to replace those stair workouts.  Friday, Rebecca and I caught a cab to a BYOB painting class, then went to an awesome Italian dinner.  

I clearly have no idea what I’m doing.  

Saturday we met a bunch of friends out for dinner at Uncle Julio’s.  We took the bus for that and then a friend drove us home.  

Sunday I took the bus and went to church (Rebecca was working), then jumped in CJK’s car and was finally able to hang out with a bunch of people at Ben’s place.  I haven’t been able to before since there are a bunch of stairs.  So that was cool.  

Last night I took the bus, met a work acquaintance for a couple bourbons, and took the bus home.  The Montrose bus, unfortunately, takes a 17 minute driver break about 0.3 miles from my apartment.  

Why am I telling you all this?  Because I did all those things without the wheelchair!  I just put a few things in my pockets and then took the crutches.  The colder weather is actually great for me because I usually get all sweaty from walking around.  30-50 degrees feels awesome outside to me (when I’m working out).  The only part of it that made me nervous was the 0.3 mile walk home from where the bus dropped me off last night.  It was dark but that wasn’t a big deal.  I do worry when I don’t make it across an intersection fast enough to beat the light changing.  But so far no issues there.  

The wind, though, was terrible.  First, everyone left the bus and the driver said, “Are you going to stay on?  I’m going for a 17 minute break before I start again.”  I said I’d get off, and then she just left me there - alone.  I have a bit of a hard time getting up from the bus seat so that was interesting.  But it went alright under the surprise pressure of realizing I HAD to do it, or flounder on the floor for 17 minutes.

When I got out of the bus, it felt good to be walking alone, plus I was proud of standing and stepping off the bus unassisted.  I figured it was gonna be a while for me to get home so I started singing songs while I walked.  Then it got windy.  I kept singing songs but the wind picked up to the point that it was trying to knock me over.  The street had created a wind tunnel at what had to be 30 mph, minimum.  You know how you have to lean into wind like that when you walk?  Well I was leaning with crutches, taking tiny steps hoping it would die down.  It didn’t. Then I crossed the street and a gust of wind about knocked me down.  Stepping up a curb with strong wind is also no fun.  My singing turned into silence which turned into occasional cursing.  I think one quick prayer I said was, “Dear Lord, please give me the strength to walk in this wind… that You created.  Thanks for the challenge!”  So that tedious/precarious trip got me a little down last night.  But I suppose it was just another therapy session, really, preparing me for more unforeseen obstacles.  

I’m pretty happy with the decreased wheelchair usage.  In fact, it has made it even more annoying when I DO need the wheelchair.  I’ve mentioned before that I hate how, on the bus, the wheelchair spot takes up 4 normal seats.  So it’s nice to just get on there with crutches.

Other than that, wheelchair basketball is going awesome.  The coaches use tons of strategy, we run all kinds of drills, and it just feels like much more of a team sport than softball did.  On top of that, there are now 3 other folks that were inpatients with me at RIC playing!  Tony, Jayme, and Kip are all there.  We make up half of the division 3 team and we have a tournament this weekend that should be fun.  It’s a really good time.  Jayme has already flipped his wheelchair over twice being overly aggressive on offense.  Lots of ramming into each other out there - really fun!  And it’s good for endurance.  You basically push up and down the court, constantly, until the whistle blows.  

Oh and I also discovered that I can do pushups.  Rebecca decided to do some the other night and I figured I’d see if I could do it.  Before when I tried, I just didn’t have the core strength to hold my body in that plank position.  But I got down there this time and cranked out 20 pushups.  It was extremely difficult, and kind of bittersweet.  I’m glad I can do them now but I’ve never been so weak that I did less than 50.  I guess that’s another goal for me.  50 legit push-ups, post-injury.  Where’s that goal book?….

Okay that’s it for now.  Back to work!  

Chip

7 months - and Sears (sorry, Willis) Tower

Update after writing: This is lengthy.  

I was officially hurt over 7 months ago, now.  My peak recovery time is supposedly over, which I think is a load of baloney.  The more I talk with people and the more I read about neuroplasticity, the more I believe that recovery can occur indefinitely.  

I’m now married, which is still bizarre to me.  Sunday after the stair climb I was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times as saying, “My therapist and wife pushed me to continue.  I’m glad they did.”  It was really weird seeing “wife” mentioned by me in the newspaper.  Very odd haha…  I’m very happy that we’re married, though.  For me, it adds focus to the whole thing.  Like, “Okay, so we’re married, now.  So what gigantic goals are we gonna go tackle together???”  We start with world peace and curing the world of hunger and dial it back accordingly.  Anyway here are a few photos from our “mini”-moon, since apparently our actual honeymoon will involve going to an island when it is crazy cold in Chicago.

Us at Cumberland Falls, Kentucky. 

Hopped out of the wheelchair for these.

Me driving.  Explanation to follow.  

Smoky Mountains, Tennessee

Awesome tree in the Smoky Mountains. 

So yeah I drove a lot.  Like hundreds of miles.  I got some hand controls off eBay to match some that my friend Colin has.  This is what they look like: 

They clamp on to the gas and brake pedals.  It’s like playing a video game or something to drive now.  With cruise control I can go forever.  I can’t really eat a sandwich and use my knee to drive like before, but I suppose this is safer than that, anyway :)  I drove all the way from Gatlinburg to Louisville, so feeling fairly confident with the controls, now.  

The event that my buddy Tom told me to write about is the SkyRise Chicago event that happened this past Sunday.  I mentioned a while back that I had signed up to climb the Sears (Willis) Tower to raise money for RIC.  Tons of people were there - it was really very cool.  Rebecca ran up, as well, then came back down and basically did most of it all over again, albeit extremely slowly, to support me.  She grabbed my crutches when needed, waters when I earned them (her method), and squirts of some strange, organic, honey and molasses mixture for endurance.  Here’s the story:

At minutes til 7am, we arrived and put our bibs on.  It felt amazing to put on a bib again.  It felt like I was competing again and doing something truly athletic.  I didn’t even realize I was missing it that much.  Walter - one of my therapists - was waiting on us.  Little did I know he had actually trained at home in order to help me up the stairs.  He has terrible knees and this was going to be a stretch for him.  Awesome guy.  He asked if I wanted to start on 33 and I told him let’s go for the whole thing!  Why not?!?!

Well, my first mistake was conserving my energy all the way until the start. That’s when I got out of the wheelchair.  My legs were stiff from the travel and little sleep.  I usually walk up and down the hall before climbing stairs at home to loosen them up.  I didn’t realize it was only about 30 feet until the stairs started.  Whoops.  On top of that, my left knee was still hyperextended thanks to me being overzealous about standing at a bar a few weeks ago.  So the very first few steps, my left knee tried to buckle and my right knee wouldn’t bend.  Terrible start!  On top of that I had worked out the math of how many minutes I could spend on each floor in order to climb in the allotted 5 hours.  The first few floors were huge - the base of the Sears Tower - and it messed with my head.  After 2 floors I realized we had been going for 15 minutes.  Dr. Smith, the RIC CEO, cheers me on as she runs by.  I was WAY, WAY behind schedule and got extremely discouraged.  Walter was very encouraging but I started taking long breaks between each floor.  It took tons of effort and an hour to get to the 11th floor.  I had walked more, stretched… everything I could think of to loosen up.  But my right leg was still very tight and my left leg kept wanting to give out.  So I used more of my arms.  I pushed off the left crutch and pulled on the handrail with my right arm.  Some of the stairs were basically dips for me (it’s an arm exercise - look it up).  Especially the last stair before the landings.  Walter showed me a video of Rebecca and I dancing at the wedding, which was awesome, but didn’t solve the problem.  Rebecca had run the whole thing, come down, grabbed some stuff, and met us on the 11th floor.  I knew I was doing bad by how surprised she was that I wasn’t up higher.  I should have been at the 30th floor by then.  We made it to the 13th floor and I started talking about stopping.  I couldn’t see the point of continuing if I wasn’t going to be able to get to the top.  They said, “Come on!  Do it for YOU!  Beat your record at least!”  So I said fine let’s go to the 31st floor, since that would be a new record for me in steps.  They didn’t like that, especially Rebecca - “Chip, come on!  Let’s get to the water station on 24, then go 5 floors at a time.  Let’s get to 52.  There’s 103 floors so then you’ll be able to say you climbed half of the Sears Tower!”  I was on board for getting to where there was water, but not so much floor 52.  It seems insurmountable, and frankly, pointless.  I got to the 24th floor and complained again.  My leg was killing me, my shoulders and triceps were already fatigued from compensating for my stupid left leg, and I just didn’t see the point.  They reminded me of at least beating my previous record so I kept going.  

Floor 25, 26, 27… so hard!!! I wanted to seriously just go do the handcycle equivalent, which they were doing on the first floor for medals.  28, 29, 30… 32?  What happened to 31?  Whatever, new record!  I’m done!  Wait, here’s Tiffany!  She is managing floors 30 to 40, the volunteers, the water, etc.  There is a big break area at 33, where I COULD have started.  So I go there for a nice sitting break.  Tiffany is clearly concerned about my knee and my slow pace.  Walter is all sweaty but doing great.  Rebecca is a little down, I can tell, from my attitude.  They talked more about getting to 52 so I could say I made it halfway.  Then something occurred to me… “Tiffany, since I was supposed to start on 33, any chance I can skip up to 66?  I know that’s the other big station and it would be the same as if I started on 33, anyway, right?  If I could start there, I think I can push through.”  I knew that shooting for the top instead of an arbitrary floor would really get me rolling.  She went and asked, and it was alright!  So we all jumped into a giant freight elevator and made our way to 66.  

It felt really wrong, at first, getting to 66.  At 33 I was the only one drenched with sweat.  And maybe Walter.  At 66 EVERYONE was looking more fatigued, tired, and sweaty.  People were going far slower, which was actually nice for me.  I hated people sprinting past me at the start. That drove me nuts, since I knew I’D be that guy if I hadn’t gotten hurt.  I felt a little bad about skipping the middle 33 floors, but I also knew if I didn’t I had zero chance of getting to the top.  Now I had a chance!  So I turned on the music and started up the stairs… fast.  Way too fast!  I went up probably 3 floors in 3 minutes and then died.  I was toast.  I realized I was overheated and that this was a poor strategy.  I took a short break and then started going up the stairs with as little brute force as possible.  I slowed WAY down.  It let me take on a few floors at a time that way.  Rebecca and Walter continued to be very encouraging throughout all this.  83 was my next goal.  Not only was it a water break station - the last - but also it marked 50 floors for me, or about 1000 stairs.  That was one of the goals in my goal book.  And it also left only 20 floors until the top.  Around 77 I was (yet again) really struggling.  It felt like 10 minutes between when Rebecca would say, “Chip!  Only 26 floors to go!” until she said 25.  Actually it felt like an eternity.  I kept trucking.  My left knee was hanging in there and my arms would be okay if I occasionally took a short standing break.  My right leg was actually the true champ.  It had to take every single step since my left leg couldn’t.  Then it would push up to drag up my left leg.  It never got tired - not really.  It was my arms that slowed me down.  I started thinking about next year and climbing the whole thing - and doing THAT faster than I was doing the 70 floors this year.  But that was getting ahead of myself.  

I saw Mark Stephan pass and he was so psyched he started telling me how awesome I was and cursing in a good way.  That definitely psyched me up.  We got to floor 83 and I plopped down… hard.  Stuff started spinning and I had a strong desire to take a nap.  I realized I was passing out and I think Rebecca noticed.  She grabbed a couple waters and forced some of that gross honey/molasses stuff down my throat.  It was so thick it barely came out of the bottle.  I saw Shannon go by and he was doing great!  I felt stupid for having to sit so long.  Minutes.  I had a ton more water and then Rebecca and Walter kept telling me to GO! GO! LET’S GO!, but I could literally feel the energy returning to me.  I wasn’t done, yet, but I needed a minute.  Finally, I headed out and back to the stairs.  

The next section got really narrow.  Then there was the nice surprise of there being 28 steps per floor instead of 20.  Then it was suddenly just 21. I wanted to just head to the top and get it over with, but thanks to my crutch technique I kept taking up the entire width of the stairwell.  Every 7 or 14 stairs I climbed, I would notice there were about 10-15 people waiting to get by.  So I’d stand to the side, rest, and let them pass.  Senator Mark Kirk passed at one point with camera crew in tow.  My favorites were the firefighters - all in full gear.  One guy even had a tank on his back.  Respect!  A few of them were waiting for me to get to the next landing so they could pass.  When I did another couple dips to get to the top, I heard one say to another, “Dude, that was ALL arms!”  It made me proud and at the same time pissed me off that my stupid left leg was creating so much work for my arms.  Dangit!  

84, 85, 86… So stinking tired!  I started doing the math of how many steps I had left.  At 21 per floor, that was 357… right?  Then just subtract 21 for every floor… okay… so now just 296… I can do that, right?  Now just something like 210… yeah 10 floors = 210, right?  I can do this!  I kept taking a break every 7-14 steps which was driving Rebecca nuts.  But I knew I’d make it.  My arms were about to fall off but I was gonna make it.  With 2 floors to go, some guy ran down from the top, saw me, and ran back up saying, “I just saw Chip - start the music!”  I found out later that the whole thing was over but that they waiting on me to cheer me on for a good, memorable finish.  I roared up the last 2 flights as fast as I could muster and yelled out “AHHHHH!!!!! YEAHHH!!!!!”  When I could see the volunteers at the top clapping.  I lost it!  I kept yelling and even lifted my crutches to show everyone I didn’t need them (I almost collapsed haha… pretty dumb).  Rebecca said, “Don’t you want your chair?” and heck yes I did.  

I sat down and it felt amazing.  Dr. Smith leaned down and said, “When I passed you on the 2nd or 3rd floor, I have to be honest… I didn’t think you were gonna make it.  We waited for you when someone said you were just a few floors away.  Great job and thank you!”  

We took some pics…

Rebecca and I up top on the glass floor - you can see straight down from there.  I tried hopping the chair on it to freak her out. 

I honestly don’t remember which floor this was on.  I’m sure my arms were dead, regardless.  Rebecca is so tan!  Walter is not.

View after climbing 70 tortuous floors.  It felt like a mountain.

One of the volunteers almost cried about it and then gave me her sign.  

Rebecca and I were exhausted.  We went for a great brunch at Melrose Diner (I had a giant omelette, 2 buckwheat pancakes, a bowl of fruit, coffee, and a piece of pie) and then headed home to relax.  We were asleep around 9 or 10 I think.  That’s early for us.

The next day I had texts and emails about being in the newspaper and on TV.  The newspaper quoted me as saying I was glad “my wife” and my therapist pushed me so hard.  The TV clip, thankfully, even had me saying, “Thanks to God, really, and the RIC, I will hopefully climb the Sears Tower today.”  I had forgotten about the interview before the climb with WGN.  Really cool that they left the part about God in there!  I was psyched about that.  

Dear God, thank You for my life.  Thank You for giving me appreciation of all that You have given us.  Thank You for surrounding me with people that won’t let me quit.  Thank You for giving me insight into what really matters in life.  Thank You for Rebecca.  Thank You for Walter and Tiffany.  Thank You for my amazing family.  Dear Lord, please continue to heal me.  Please heal all those who are suffering, both physically and mentally.  Please instill Your Holy Spirit in those where it is lacking.  Show them how great this world can be if they see it with Your will in mind.  Please be with my friend, Pat, who had a bad fall and cracked his skull.  Dear Lord, give me wisdom, give me patience, give me vision so I can see your path.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.  

G’night!
Chip

Crazy times -

It’s been over a couple weeks since I’ve posted.  I realize the inconsistency of my posts makes it hard to stay up-to-date.  Thanks to all of you who are so extremely supportive of me.  

By far the biggest thing that’s happened lately is that I got married yesterday to the love of my life, Rebecca.  

It was tons of stress beforehand leading into tons of fun for the wedding.  It went better than I could have hoped.  We are really happy and thank everyone that attended and the many well wishes from those that couldn’t. 

As far as my progress is concerned, I was able to really push the envelope yesterday.  I stood for the entire wedding, leaning against a post my dad and Paul had installed a day before.  It worked great so I only needed one crutch to stand.  

Then at the reception, which was awesome (if I may say so), I walked around, got on the dance floor “danced” (read: swayed) with Rebecca, then danced as much as I could with crutches.  Walter, one of my RIC PTs, was there and was extremely helpful.  I definitely felt more confident with him there.  At the end of the night, I climbed probably 40 steps, exhausted, and walked to bed.  All in all an awesome night - not because of my progress… plenty of other stuff trumped that.

Also, about a week before the wedding, I climbed more stairs than ever before at 616.  It took me less than 2 hours to do that.  I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to make it up the entire Sears Tower next Sunday, but whatever I do I’m going to give it all I got!

I’m extremely excited about how things are going right now on all fronts of my life.  It feels like lots of opportunities are opening up and I hope that continues.  

Thank you, Lord, for all you have given me.

Gnight,

Chip

[wpvideo a6iAEIUg]

First video in a while!  I think I’ll start uploading a bunch of these to YouTube since not many know of my blog.  But this is me walking at a typical pace with the crutches, which I can now stand up with pretty consistently.  Today my knees were bending more than usual (i.e. at all), so Tiffany took a video.  

More firsts... soon to be a big first!

Lots to talk about… I’ll try not to write a novel. 

Many first for me this past week.  In therapy, I’ve been working on standing with crutches.  I even successfully attempted it at home a few times.  Crutches are harder to walk with from a physical effort aspect, but it promotes better form and also allows you to move over more types of terrain.  We also practiced stepping up and down from a curb.  So one first was standing up with crutches unassisted.  

Another first was stepping up onto the treadmill unassisted.  I think that was over a foot from the ground, so that was cool.  Usually they have to have a couple people lift my wheelchair up there for me to stand up.  After I did that fairly easily, Tiffany said, “How about from now on when you get to therapy we leave your wheelchair at the door?”  I was all about that.  Can’t wait until tomorrow to implement it.  

To date, I haven’t walked very far with the crutches.  I’ve been doing lots of stairs but the long walks haven’t been part of my routine lately.  Yesterday that changed.  I stood up with the crutches from bed, and got so excited about it that I decided to try to take them a ways outside.  We wanted to go to brunch so I killed two birds with one stone.  I walked a little less than a quarter mile to get to the bus stop.  That alone exhausted me.  I got up on the bus by stepping up.  Then I got to enjoy sitting in a normal seat.  Usually I have to lock in my wheelchair in a spot that takes up 3-4 seats, depending on the model of bus.  So this was pretty nice and it felt pretty normal again.  We had a great brunch at Tweet, I walked to the bus stop, took the bus back south, and walked home.  No wheelchair.  It totally exhausted me but it felt great.  Two new firsts there with the distance with crutches and the bus.  

My friend at RIC seems to be doing better.  He got outside today.  It’s hard to start doing that, realizing there are slanted sidewalks and realizing how different you are to others.  But it’s a healthy transition.  Please keep praying for him and his wife.  

I’m about 6 months post-injury.  The primary recovery period is supposedly over, and yet I just had a great week.  Perhaps I’m adapting more than recovering, but regardless, Tiffany thinks I’m still making gains, so I’m gonna keep pushing.  It’s about 3 weeks until the wedding and 4 weeks until the SkyRise Chicago stair climb.  Plenty to look forward to!  

G’night,
Chip

Exhausted

There simply isn’t enough time in the day!  How many people say that?  

We had a nice trip home to Kentucky for a couple days this weekend to get some of the wedding stuff done.  I think it’s going to work out alright.  Part of the trip including revisiting Hermitage Farm to pick out where exactly we wanted to get married.  I missed out on the house last time so made sure I was all geared up for some stairs.  Upstairs, downstairs… the house is absolutely amazing.  Really incredible.  Built in 1840 or something nuts like that.  Now it’s owned by the Brown family - or rather the wife is a Brown - that is one of Louisville’s wealthiest families.  Pretty cool stuff.  There was even a chair made from a saddle, which I thought was pretty cool.  

After getting to the basement the gang encouraged me to just walk out the side door and up the two measly stairs to get back to the main lawn.  The only thing was that they had no railing and I wasn’t really practiced in doing that with the crutches.  I fell for the first time while walking (I’ve fallen trying to stand up a couple times).  It was pretty humbling.  They were also brick steps and thanks to my lack of movement in the legs, they kind of just banged into the bricks.  I felt that!  No loss of sensation there!  Haha… oh well I guess it had to happen eventually.  Frankly, I was wondering if I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough since I hadn’t really fallen.  

I haven’t done a stair marathon since I did the whole building over a week ago.  I’ve just been so worn out from work, therapy, wedding planning, etc., that it didn’t seem like a good idea.  But I WILL be climbing as much as I can of the Sears (Willis) Tower on Nov. 3!  If you feel like throwing a few bones to the cause (all proceeds go to RIC), you can read about it here:

http://ric.convio.net/site/TR/SkyRise/General?px=1198622&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

It’s 2,109 stairs and I think they are giving me a 5 hour time limit.  I’m just going to keep on trucking up those stairs until something gives out.  It might very well be my shoulders before the legs.  We shall see.  It would be helpful if my left leg could step up as well so please pray for that!

Speaking of prayer, I met a guy recently at RIC that really needs a helping of it.  I won’t give a name since he doesn’t know I’m doing it, but he’s been at RIC for about 6 weeks and is really having a hard time emotionally/mentally with the change, much as I did and continue to do.  I am going to keep visiting him on the 7th floor sometimes after I finish my therapy.  He is a C6 injury, which means a fair amount further up than me, affecting his arms and hands a bit, his trunk, and of course, his legs.  Please pray for him and his wife.

Work is certainly keeping me busy, as is wedding planning.  It seems ridiculous that so much planning goes into something that lasts a day.  But I guess you could say it lasts a lifetime, too.  It should be fun, though.  

Work, however, is exhausting me.  I hope that it all has some sort of meaning.  I want to positively influence the staff as much as possible.  It’s extremely hard to do.  You can pray for that, too, if you want.  

God bless and g’night - 

Chip

288

This morning Rebecca ran her 20-miler, gearing up for the Chicago Marathon, which I am also signed up to run.  It was supposed to be our first marathon together.  She kicked butt and remained (fairly) injury-free.  I’m getting a refund, thankfully.  It was supposed to be my best time, yet, hopefully working my way to qualifying for Boston (probably by age 45 when the qualifying times get easier!).  God had other plans for me.  

Instead, I’m on a daily basis debating whether or not this SkyRise Chicago stair climb event is biting off way more than I can chew.  Usually I’m thinking I’ll just climb the last 40 stories or something like that.  But this week is really boosting my confidence:

Tuesday: 112 stairs (crushing my previous PR of 58)

Thursday: 140 stairs

Today, Saturday, I had some extra time so I decided to shoot for my entire apartment building, no matter how long it took.  I took the elevator down to the first floor, walking with my crutches.  I waddled over to the staircase, turned on the iPod shuffle, and started.  The first few floors are the hardest thanks to the amenities.  Floor 4, where the pool and rooftop deck are, kicked my ass.  That was 38 stairs alone.  I kept trucking on up, taking a break here and there to stretch my shoulders which were getting a workout.  I use the front of my shoulders constantly for pushing the wheelchair and walking, but don’t really “pull” much, which is what you do when you’re climbing stairs the way I do.  They were achy starting halfway up the 4th floor.  

At floor 8, Rebecca jumped in the stairwell to say hi and cheer me on.  She ran to get me a water and also helped by taking the crutch I wasn’t using on up to the top.  I had been throwing it up to the flight above me over and over again, so that was an unexpectedly removed annoyance.  

Floor 11, 12, 13….

I made it up to floor 18 without too much difficulty.  I had no idea how long I had been working.  I noticed there was another long flight of stairs to the rooftop.  I didn’t like the idea of leaving those untouched, so I kept going.  I thought the idea of opening up the door and soaking in the night air would feel awesome.  I was drenched in sweat.  I pushed on up to the top only to find that the stupid door was locked.  But I made it.  It took me another few minutes to walk down those last 19 stairs, onto the 18th floor, and into the elevator, walking back to the apartment on the 10th floor.

There are 288 stairs from the first floor to the roof, and they all experienced both of my feet :)  I got back and Rebecca said, “That was less than an hour!”  I then just sat there for a minute and realized I had far exceeded my goals for the week.  I said, “Hmmm… what should I do next time?  Just do the same thing, take the elevator down to 1, and do it again?  Ha!”  

So maybe I have a shot at the Sears Tower.  I don’t know.  Time will tell.

Feeling pretty pumped.

Chip

112

It’s been 10 days since my last post.  My life is a whirlwind right now.  It seems like every day there are 1000 things to do.  I’m sure many people can empathize.  It’s just all that much harder when you’re trying to zip around in a wheelchair.  Actually it’s not even that.  It’s this stupid “tone” in my legs.  And the spasms.  Transferring over to my wheelchair takes 1-2 minutes, whereas most paraplegics take about 10 seconds.  Frustrating.

A lot of awesome stuff has been happening, too, though.  So I really can’t complain!  

Trip to NY

I mentioned before that I had been practicing with the wheelchair softball team.  More specially, the Cubs, since the Cubs sponsor us.  Last Thursday, 10 players, 2 coaches, and a cheering section consisting of Rebecca headed to the airport to fly to the “World Series” in Long Island, New York.  They have a wheelchair softball field there.  All the MLB-sponsored teams were invited.  Those that made it were the Yankees, the Mets, the Red Sox, and us, the Cubs.  

Apparently there was some sort of weather delay on Thursday.  It was frustrating since it was 70s and sunny in both NY and Chicago.  Storms in between caused first delays, then cancellations of something like 10 flights.  And that was just on United.  This created standby lists a mile long. 

Long story short, we headed home late Thursday and came back to fly out Friday afternoon.  The Mets were nice enough to hook us up with tickets to a game at Citi Field.  Then we headed on to our hotel in Long Island.  

This was earlier on in the game.

It got colder so we split a hot chocolate.  

The event organizer was nice enough to rearrange the bracket so that we could play all our games on Saturday.  It wasn’t perfect.  He whispered to our coach that things would go smoother if we just won every game.  Ha!

First game against the Mets.  Up by 10 by the end of the 5th, so we won by virtue of the slaughter rule.  I played right field.  Not too good at fielding but got a couple hits.  

Second game immediately afterwards.   Tied after 7 innings.  Tied after 8.  After 9.  After 10.  11. 12. 13… we won in the 14th.  It was a pretty huge finish, too.  I was on first and Tick-Tock was on 3rd.  Justin was up - he’s a quad.  Quads are the only ones allowed to bunt.  So Justin bunted perfectly right down the first base line.  Tick-Tocks rushes home.  The first baseman ran in to get the ball, but since he was on the line, Justin collided into him, sending him flying onto his face!  Meanwhile, Tick-Tock crosses home plate for the win.  Cubs win!!!

We then got a break for food and to rest up for the final game for the championship.  The Yankees were already out.  The Mets and Red Sox both had one loss (to us), so they duked it out while we ate.  

That’s Dan in the middle.  He goes by Cornbread on the team for some illogical reason.  He was crushing it.  For the day he had 10 doubles and a triple and something like 18 RBIs.  Crazy.  

The Red Sox beat the Mets, so we played them (again) for the final game. We almost won by slaughter rule in the 5th.  We ended up winning with something like 13-3 for the championship.  Probably the only time I’ll ever see the Cubs win a World Series :)

I’m doing my best to hit there in the final game.  Hard as heck.

We got a nice trophy for winning the thing and I somehow got Rookie of the Year.  I think I must have been the only rookie or something.

Training

Training and therapy are coming along.  I have been reluctant to sign up for that stair climb but after last night I think I’ll do it, even if I only make it up 20 or 30 floors.  Last time I posted, 10 days ago, I had climbed 58 stairs for a new record.  Two days later I tried again and only was able to get up 42.  Pretty abysmal.  I didn’t try again until last night, when I got up 112!  Still a long way from 2,109 but it felt good to break 100.  At the end my arms were more tired than my legs.  Well, at least I think so.  I can’t really feel it when my legs get tired.  So that’s a plus.

Other than that, basically I’m just getting a tad stronger.  It’s easier to tell by the week than the day at this point.  I’m about 5.5 months post-injury. Cornbread told me it took him 2 years to get his left leg moving decently. He can now ride a regular bike.  I would LOVE to do that again someday. Fingers crossed.  I’d probably just end up in the hospital again if I tried right now.  

Wedding

Rebecca and I are getting married in Kentucky in late October.  We sent the save-the-dates just a few weeks ago and the invites have been systematically going out the last several days.  We’re going to keep it small - just 50-60 folks.  I think her immediate family and their spouses make up half that.  

The planning certainly takes a lot of time.  It seems like a lot of work for an event for ourselves.  The whole process is bewildering to me.  I’ve never been one to say, “Hey guys, I really want to ______ for my birthday this year!” So it feels weird to have an event where we will be the focus.  But I’m sure it’ll be a great time.  I just want the planning to be done so we can enjoy it.

Dear Lord, thank You for giving me the willpower to fight this fight (and fight it hard).  Thank You for the healing You have given me so far.  Please keep healing me.  Thank You for always being there, even though it’s not always ways that I expect.  Thank You for giving me so many gifts in life, even though so many of them are different from things I wanted. Please help me to better understand Your will.  Help me to follow a path that will glorify You the most.  Help me to do something good and right in this corrupt world.  Let Your will, not mine, be done.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

This is from the wall by the elevators on the 9th floor at the RIC, which is their prototype design for the new building they are… building.  

If you aren’t very “religious,” I hope I don’t scare you off.  It is true what the bible says about the meek and humble having an easier time finding God.  I am much more of both now.  It’s hard to be saved if you don’t feel like you need saving.  I hope that instead of thinking, “That’s nice for him, but I’m different,” you ask questions.  I hope you have a heart yearning to learn more and yearning to make this world better.  Self-serving agendas do nothing for anyone, including the “self”.  

Thanks,

Chip    

58

Each floor of stairs in my building is 14 stairs, split into sets of 7 with a landing halfway up.  A few weeks ago I did 40 stairs with much difficulty at RIC.  This time I did 58 stairs with equal difficulty.  It’s a long cry from the 2,109 needed to climb the Sears Tower, but it’s improvement.  

That was just about an hour ago.  My day started off on the opposite end of the spectrum.

I went to bed and woke up feeling miserable.  The last few days I felt extremely down about life in general.  I lost focus and lost faith.  Those are probably the two biggest parts of my life so it was a real problem.  It simply seemed like nothing was going right and no matter which way I turned, there were more problems.  I try to look at problems as challenges, but the last few days I just felt like there was a ton of bricks continuing to pile up on me.  

As miserable as I was, I knew I had to go to church this morning.  With our crazy schedules, Rebecca and I hadn’t been since going in Kentucky.  It was definitely needed.  As much as I wanted to just sleep in and wallow in my grief, I got up (slowly) and we headed to church, arriving a good 20 minutes late.  

There wasn’t much scripture today.  Jackson read from Jeremiah 29 about how it is our responsibility to do good in the city.  In Chicago.  I strongly believe in that and it really struck home, especially with my business.  I didn’t just open the business to make money.  One reason I love Rebecca is because we agree that the most important thing we can do in life is positively impact the world - following God’s will - as much as we possibly can.  

But it has’t been so easy to do that with the business.  There is corruption everywhere.  Everyone is scheming.  I know I should think, “Well all the more need for something positive!” But it has been overwhelming.  That combined with the struggles of my injury, combined with the other ramifications of my injury (financial, emotional, etc.)… it is just a lot to swallow.  

The church service was, as usual, what I needed to realign myself.  But it wasn’t quite enough.  Luckily, Rebecca was there to remind me that I usually don’t think this way and that I’m always talking about all the positives in life, even with my injury, and how blessed we truly are compared to the majority of the world.  And she’s right.  It feels weak to wallow in grief like that.  Like anyone else, I hate feeling weak.  And you feel weak an awful lot in a wheelchair.  

I am finishing up the book by Metaxas about Bonhoeffer.  It’s absolutely incredible.  If you don’t mind a bit of history and density in reading, I highly, highly, recommend it.  He was a saint, basically.  I’ve never heard of anyone more consistent or true in their faith.  So if trying to be like Jesus seems completely impossible (since it is), trying to be like Bonhoeffer is another option that is a good goal I doubt I will ever attain.  

Dear God, please help me.  I am weak.  I need healing of not just my body but of my soul and mind.  Please fill my thoughts with faith and hope so that I can follow your will and positively impact the world in big ways, as I believe You do want me to do!  Make me as strong in stature and faith as David and as wise as Solomon.  Make me as kind and patient as Bonhoeffer.  Help me see the way, dear Lord.  I am lost without You.  I am nothing without You.  Everything good in me is because of you.  Give me the strength to get through today and tomorrow.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

As Mother Teresa said, 

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

G’night!
Chip

Trip to Cali -

The last week was extremely busy.  A week ago Friday, my dad dropped us off at the airport before officially moving back to Kentucky.  I got to experiment with how to do things at the airport and on the plane.  Since we had a layover and airports are huge, I went with checking the wheelchair at the gate.  They are actually extremely helpful and accommodating.  For the first flight, I transferred over to the “aisle” chair, which is a tiny, thin wheelchair they use for people like me to take them to their seat.  It had 4 separate seat belts and then they asked me to cross my arms and wheeled me backwards.  It was extremely humbling to say the least.  When we got off that flight in Minnesota (layover), I decided to use the headrests to walk up front where they could hand me my walker.  Much, much better!  For the other 3 commercial flights of the trip, I never used an aisle chair.  I would use my crutches or walker to get to the first row of seats, then use the headrests, or just the crutches.  The walker is too wide for the tiny aisles they have.

Cali presented more challenges, starting with the 8 stairs leading into the house where we stayed in LA.  We had a place on Venice Beach which was sweltering since there was no A/C.  I think I only used the wheelchair to check out the boardwalk on the beach and at the wedding.  Because of the steps going into the house and the fact that the wheelchair didn’t fit through half the doors, it was the logical thing to do.  At first it was annoying but now I’m glad it was set up that way, forcing me to walk around.  I even did standing showers throughout the trip since I didn’t bring my shower chair.  Here are a couple pics of us at the wedding:

That’s (left to right) Neish, Matt, Erin and Christian, with Rebecca and me up front.  They had cheap sunglasses with a sign that said “In case you are blinded by our love” or something cheesy like that.  Pretty funny.

After a few fun days in Cali and a great wedding, we headed to San Diego to hang out with Jonathan and Kristen; Rebecca’s brother and sister-in-law.  Steps leading down into the apartment kept the challenge going, so I didn’t really use the wheelchair there at all, actually.  

The highlight of this part of the trip was maneuvering into a small, 4-seater Cessna and then Jonathan flying the 4 of us to Catalina Island.  Really cool, especially hearing him talk on the radio and seeing how he flew.  He let me fly for a couple minutes.  I dove about 8 feet and Rebecca freaked out, which was my goal, so I turned it back over to him.  Really cool thing to do.

We went to the Padres/Giants game that night, too.  What a huge ballpark!  Crazy.  

I sadly had to spend a lot of the days working in San Diego, putting out fires and whatnot.  But it was a great trip.  I got tons of walking in, including walking with crutches most of the way from one gate to another in Salt Lake City for our layover.  That had to have been a good 1000 feet or so.  

Tonight I’m gonna try and grab dinner with Kip, one of the inpatients from RIC.  I think he’s mostly rid himself of his wheelchair except for long trips around the city.  He’s the one that had the exact same injury as me, accident days after mine, and maintained a lot of movement in his legs from the outset.  It’s interesting to compare.  

A lot going on.  This week Rebecca and I head to NY with the softball team to compete in a major league wheelchair softball tournament.  That’s  a mouthful.  It should be fun, too.  I think I’ll actually get to play this time.

Have a good weekend - 

Chip

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Stim therapy.  Cool stuff.  Might have to buy me one of those.

SKYRISE Chicago - Yeah sure why not? + Tony Baptized!

Tiffany (my therapist) told me she thought there was a chance that if my recovery continued at its current pace, I’d have a good shot at completing the SkyRise Chicago.  It’s climbing all 2,109 steps of the Willis Tower (still known as the Sears Tower in Chicago).  As Mark Stephan says, “If you can climb 2 stairs, you can climb 2,000!”  Well, apparently Tiffany asked Mark if he thought I could do it.  Upon hearing I had already climbed 40 stairs, Mark - perhaps overly optimistically - said, “Oh yeah.  Easy.”

Mark has climbed the tower 2 or 3 times already.  Maybe more, I’m not sure.  Apparently he shaves off an hour each year.  I figure if I get in good enough shape to climb 7 stairs a minute, then I can do it in 5 hours.  7 stairs a minute doesn’t seem hard.  7 stairs a minute for 5 hours seems pretty daunting.  But so did running a marathon the first time.  And so did climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Well, fine, yes, they WERE daunting, even while doing them.  But still, I need a big challenge and I think this is it.  

Here’s the link.  I think I’ve posted it before.  There is a cool marketing video.  Mark, who I’ve mentioned several times, is actually in the video.  

http://ric.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=home

Okay so that’s the big news.  Other than that, therapy has been progressing.  It’s been less than a week since my last post so nothing revolutionary to share (other than what I just talked about).  

One cool thing Tiffany did was use electric stimulation (stim therapy) to get some of the weaker muscles in my left leg kicking.  It worked.  I’ll post a video in a sec of what she was doing below, which is getting the muscles to flex that make my foot lift up.  This is the muscle that, since it’s weak, causes my left foot to drag when I’m not wearing braces.  

After we did that for a little bit, she got a “trigger” that allowed her to shock the muscle at just the right time while I was walking on the treadmill.  She’d go 1:30 minutes like that, then 30 seconds of me on my own to see if it continued.  Pretty cool.  We did that for a while.

What is probably the biggest news of the week is that my friend Tony, who was my last roommate at RIC, was baptized this past Sunday at his church down in Englewood in Chicago.  A couple weeks ago when I asked him how he was doing he texted back, “I was saved today,” at which point I started bouncing off the walls.  Very cool to see this change in him.   

Tony and me outside his church after the baptism.  What an awesome worship, by the way.

Tony and I agree on the answer when the inevitable question comes up, “Why me?” First of all, God doesn’t punish us.  Not since Jesus died.  Okay there’s that.  Next, if this happened to us without us having any decision in the matter, then it was God’s will.  Either that or you can argue that it was meaningless, which is fairly depressing.  Okay so let’s go with God’s will!  So if it was God’s will, and He doesn’t punish us, then what is the number one thing God wants of us?  To worship and glorify Him.  So there’s that.  So then, it’s only logical that this happened to us because we would better worship and glorify Him, and better show others how to worship and glorify Him.  And we know it’s true because it’s already proven itself over and over again.  

Okay so big week, actually.  Let me see what videos my dad took that I can post.  He is heading home tomorrow to Kentucky for good.  He will certainly be missed but it’s time for him to go hang with my mom again :)  

Oh yeah - also Rebecca and I are heading out to California tomorrow for her friend’s wedding this weekend.  We’ll be staying in a cool beach house in LA for the wedding, then going down to San Diego to see her brother Jonathan and his wife, Kristen.  Jonathan has a pilot’s license so I’m gonna try and hop up into a private plane so we can buzz over to Catalina Island.  Sounds pretty sweet, huh?  It’ll be an experiment!  Where do you put a wheelchair in a small prop plane? Haha…

G’night!

Chip

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This is from yesterday.  We spent about 5 minutes walking with no braces at all.  As you can see my left foot drags a bit as I can’t lift it up the way I can with the right foot.

No more Facebook notifications -

I’m turning off the feature that follows a post with an update in the newsfeed of Facebook so as not to annoy those not interested.  Just go to chipgettingwell.tumblr.com if you ever want an update on my progress.  Thanks!

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Walking with no brace on my right leg.  Much improvement in the last couple months.

More progress - Go Louie and Ralph!

Alright Candi Sutton - since you complained that I hadn’t blogged, here ya go!

More progress all the time now.  Tiffany (my PT) is back from her vacation and she was encouraged by how far I had come in two weeks with Walter.  I saw her Wednesday and Friday this week.  First she had me walking on the treadmill.  She said my gait was already better.  It was nice to hear that since I can’t tell the difference.  We did some interval training and I got up to 2 mph which is a dead out sprint for me.  1 mph was a comfortable pass in between.  After a while doing that, she wanted me to try walking without any brace at all on my right leg.  That is definitely more difficult but forces those stabilizer muscles in the ankle to get to work.  I’ll post a video, but it went surprisingly well.  After a few minutes my right ankle started to fatigue.  Pretty cool, though, walking without anything that fast.  I had never tried walking with an AFO only on my left foot.  Very encouraging.  

After that I was drenched with sweat and exhausted, so we stretched for a few seconds before she had me trying to lift my leg while on my stomach - i.e. work the hamstrings.  I was able to keep my left leg from falling (can’t lift it, yet) for the first time.  Very cool.  My right leg was able to “curl” multiple times before it got tired.  Before I could only do it once, maybe twice.  Progress.

Then we walked around with the crutches.  But first she had me try standing on my own with them.  I haven’t been able to, yet.  I fell on her.  I’ll post the video - it’s pretty funny.  

She had me go to this undulating turf section in the obstacle course area.  It was slightly hard just because it was new.  About the 5th time through it was no big deal.  That was Wednesday.

Today we went outside and took the crutches up and down a ramp.  First using the handrail, then using just the crutches.  Not so bad at all.  I showed her how I could go up and down the stairs - no problem.  Then I walked through a bunch of grass and even kind of messed with her by stepping on a bunch of roots so she would think I was gonna fall.  Good stuff!  

After being outside we went in and worked on the treadmill.  We took my right brace off immediately.  It went better than it had a couple days ago.  I did it for 20 minutes, and then we took off the left brace, as well.  My left foot dragged just a little bit, but otherwise it went alright.  Pretty cool to be walking without any braces.  

Also I was able to stand for 1 minute 4 seconds without holding on to anything.  

Last night we went sailing on Tom’s boat with a bunch of folks.  Really fun.  And beautiful views of the sunset, moonrise (if that’s a thing) - just awesome in general.  Here’s a couple pics people took: 

And after therapy today, I did some work and then went to my first wheelchair softball tournament.  Really awesome and the team was playing great.  I didn’t get to play as I showed up when it really mattered.  But I learned a lot.  Hopefully will play when we go to NYC.

That’s me on the “bench.” This is the quarterfinals.  We won.  I left after the first inning of the semifinals.  We play tomorrow if we won that.  I have no idea if we did or not.  I had to go because Rebecca and I are going bowling tonight.  That’s right.  

G’night - 

Chip

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This is when I fell on Tiffany.  Whoops!

The Need for This Blog...

It’s been exactly two weeks since my last blog entry.  When I stopped and nobody really said anything, I figured that meant that it was time.  Yesterday, however, I was told time and time again by members of my Prospect, KY church - St. John UMC - that it was missed and still of use.  So here I am again writing about my life, for whatever it’s worth!

The last two weeks have been fairly hectic.  I’m staying extremely busy with work trying to get the business where it needs to be.  On top of that therapy and training to walk again take up much of my time.  I devote whatever energy I have left for the other passions in my life and hanging with Rebecca and/or friends.  I’m really happy with where work is heading, but that’s not that interesting to most of you.  I will just say it took me too long to realize how extremely important it is to have the right people in the right places.  

A few huge things have happened lately that left a huge impression on me.  To start, I believe I mentioned before how Stephen and Leah - Rebecca’s brother and sister-in-law - are about to venture off to Kyrgyzstan to start a business focused on chickens and more specifically, eggs.  Yeah, that’s right.  Also Leah is hoping to score a gig as a nurse out there.  Anyway, I had very interesting conversations with them and others about their approach.  It is a very interesting model of how to approach business internationally from a triple bottom line perspective.  

Here’s a pic of a few of us out to brunch discussing exactly that - 

That’s Tweet.  I love that place.

What else?…

In therapy, I’ve very much been focusing on walking with crutches and going up stairs.  I’m up to 40 stairs in the RIC stairwell.  I can also walk down forward, which is harder than it sounds.  Ralph (my right leg) is the one doing most of the work on the stairs.  

Through a mixup at SideStix, they sent me a brand new pair of crutches to my specifications.  I’m really excited about them as they just arrived.  I’m hoping to only use the walker when I absolutely need it.  Anyway for insurance I asked for a quote for SideStix and they thought it was a “paid for” order so went ahead and sent them to me!  Sweet, right?  So I talked them into a 30 day trial at which point hopefully insurance will have paid for most or all of them.  

Here’s me walking around with RIC’s trial pair in training:

Yeah that’s right - I’m walking so fast that Louie (left leg) is a blur.

Here’s me on the stairs - 

The big event, though, was heading home to Kentucky these past several days.  My dad, Rebecca and I headed down on Wednesday and just got back about an hour ago.  My brother Marc had flown in from Dallas to be there.  It was really awesome to just relax and hang out with the family for a few days.  I saw my cousins Ellee and Beth, Beth’s kids Saylor and CJ, Aunt Cha, Uncle Lee, Ellee’s “beau”, Kurt, and TONS of friends of the family.  I was staying upstairs but used the bathroom downstairs since it was more accessible.  Every day I walked up and down the stairs.  Easy way to get a workout in.  

Saturday we had a get-together during the day for everyone that ever emailed me or wrote me a card in the Louisville area.  It was a LOT of people.  I felt very much loved and supported.  It’s been close to 5 months since my accident, but these people still genuinely care about what me and my family have and are going through with this ordeal.  It was touching and overwhelming.  They are the reason I write this blog.  When I hear about kids getting interested in what I write and asking their mom’s to read them the blog as their bedtime story, I am truly touched.  I also have to remember to try and keep it PG!  

Without naming names, several people there are going through their own challenges, or have family members with challenges.  Honestly, everyone has SOMETHING they are dealing with.  It’s not always obvious physical issues like paralysis or cancer.  So I’d like to think this helps everyone out there in some way gain perspective.  Anyway, it was great to connect with everyone, regardless of what they were going through.  

Here is a pic of me with Rob Partin, who I’ve mentioned before.  Rob has a large brain tumor and just completed radiation treatment, going into chemo.  I though he looked great and seemed very much himself.  

Just a couple guys with their life-altering changes! Oh, and my dad.

At church they “recognized” me during the service, which felt very humbling and fairly awkward.  I’m used to people staring at me when I sing or give a presentation, not for being in an accident!  Still getting used to that.  

In hopes of not making this all about my recovery, I’d like to talk about a cool topic that seems to keep popping up.  Does God still speak to people?  That’s the question.  Pastor Dan mentioned it in his sermon today, my parents and I talked about it, and also I read about it in the book called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.  I’m more than halfway through and it’s incredible.  He’s incredible and the book gives an amazing insight into those Germans during Hitler’s reign that vehemently disagreed with everything he stood for.  

Bonhoeffer said that while he never experienced God actually “speaking” to him in an audible way, such as often happens in the Bible.  However, he also said that he felt that is why God gave us the Bible - to speak to us. If we ever want God to speak to us, we need only to read the Bible.  Pastor Dan said something along the same lines today in church.  I completely agree with them.  I am not one to say whether or not God audibly speaks to people.  It seems to me that since we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit influences our thoughts and decisions by “speaking” to us from the inside.  For me, God is always there in that way. Whether it is my own conscience or actually the Holy Spirit/God becomes much easier to decipher when I am in the word more often.  The less I read the Bible, the quieter that voice is inside me.  Perhaps you are different or similar.  But that’s the way it is for me.

Okay that’s enough for today :)  

I’ll leave you with this pic.  It’s much more pleasant holding on to a gorgeous girl than a walker in able to stand.  By the way, I’m up to a minute standing completely unassisted!

That was on the way back from Louisville.  I had to stretch my legs because they get so cramped and tight.  Sucks, but as you can see it has it’s perks.

Dear Lord, bless all the folks at St. John that made me feel loved this weekend.  Thanks for all the things in my life that I DO have.  Thank You for the progress and allowing me to climb steps.  Thanks for great family and friends.  Please be with all those that I talked with this weekend that are having their own struggles.  Give them strength and fill them with the Holy Spirit so that they can fully enjoy their lives.  Give me rest and healing, God.  Please let my progress and recovery continue.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

G’night,

Chip

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I’ve been doing stairs, lately.  I’m up to 40 in the RIC stairwell.  Crutches should arrive soon, too, which will let me practice at home.  Pretty excited about those.

Da' Bears

The Bears event turned out to be very public, which I didn’t realize until we got there.  29,000 or so people attended to watch them PRACTICE!  Crazy to me that they all paid money for those tickets.  Seems like the Bears should do that more often (however from my viewpoint it was a pretty worthless practice - almost zero hitting).  

The much cooler aspect was having so many friends there.  Erik had invited a few of our mutual friends using his tickets so we had a good crowd.  

Chewie & Keri with baby Elise, my dad, Stephen, Erik & Nina, Ben, Rebecca, Jake, Doug & Sandy and baby Brandon.  

Me and little Brandon!  Dude rocks!

I pretty much watched the practice from here since the seats weren’t really accessible.  Once I start using crutches in public I’ll be able to do stuff like that.  

We all chilled out and enjoyed the great weather and nice view of the field.  Afterwards there were fireworks, at which point Rebecca dropped her phone over the edge where it fell a good 30-50 feet, maybe more.  She ran downstairs to retrieve it and came back laughing.  Somehow, there wasn’t a scratch on the phone.  And it wasn’t even in a case!  An iPhone!  I dropped my iPhone 3 feet and it destroyed it.  What the heck?

Rebecca and I afterwards.  I’m wearing the shirt Chewie got me for my bday.  He is really good about getting gifts.  I am terrible with that stuff.

Afterwards we went to Erik’s for a bit just to wind down the night.

Jake snagged that photo.  Sneaky.

August 4, 2013

Breakfast of leftovers from brunch and Thousand Hole Cake.  You probably don’t know what kind of cake that is.  It’s incredible and my favorite.  My grandma, Grie (short for Gene, somehow), used to make it. 

Since we missed church, we listened to my mom’s sermon from when she returned from Chicago that first time, 2 months after my injury.  It was about worrying and it was good stuff.  I don’t know how she held it together.  I didn’t. 

Rebecca and I caught up on some work and then headed to Dollop, a local coffee shop we like.  I decided to walk to get my workout in.  I had no idea how far it was, really. It seemed reasonable.  We worked for 2-3 hours and then walked back.  I just looked it up on www.mappedometer.com (amazing for measuring running routes and things like that if you aren’t familiar with it) and apparently I went 3,670 feet!  Almost 7/10 of a mile!  That’s from my apartment door to Dollop and back.  That explains why I was dying at the end and getting all grouchy at Rebecca.  Some guy walked by with a little puppy and she said, “Babe look!  Such a cute dog, did you see!?!” to which I responded, “You think I care about a stupid dog right now? Come on!  I’m dying here!”  Sorry, babe.

I don’t remember what I walked in Michigan but I’m pretty sure this is like 1000 feet more than that.  New PR! (as I pass out)

G’night,

Chip

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Leg extensions.  This is my left leg, which is far weaker than my right leg.  It’s coming along.  This is with a 2 lb. weight strapped to it.

Stairs! And getting old -

July 31, 2013

Wednesday went alright - did a couple laps with the crutches for another 520 ft. and some treadmill work.  I worked the rest of the day.

August 1, 2013

Thursday I basically worked all day.  I did some light workouts at home before heading to watch Rebecca’s softball playoff game.  It was a great game, actually, with a come-from-behind victory in the last inning with 2 outs and 2 strikes.  I rolled up to the fence and stood up for the last inning there to watch, which felt somewhat “normal.” Hung out afterward with the team at Bad Dog.  Sanchez threw me a team shirt.  That was nice of him - they are pretty sweet.

August 2, 2013

I tried actual stairs in therapy for the first time!  It was awesome.  Therapy leading up to that point sucked.  The treadmill I like was taken so I ended up on a far less efficient one (for me - hand rails were too low).  After that I did crutches but they were the wrong ones and were too short.  Again, trouble.  Then had bathroom issues.  Ugh.  

But then we tried stairs which I had really been looking forward to for some time.  Mark Stephan said, “I thought to myself, ‘if I can do two stairs, why not two thousand?!’”  So I was thinking about that.  It was a setup they have on the 12th floor there - 3 steps following by a landing area leading to a doorway.  There is a hand rail on the right side.  I used the handrail with my right hand and had a crutch in the left.  My right leg is the only one I can lift up like that, but the first step when great!  Tiffany was concerned about going down, not up, so we went up and down the first step 2-3 times.  Then I got impatient and went up all 3 stairs.  It wasn’t quick or anything but man did it improve my confidence.  I’m considering signing up for the Skyrise Chicago Tower Up!, which is to climb the 103 flights of stairs in the Willis Tower (Sears Tower).  It’s obviously a gamble since I don’t know where I’ll be in November.  Here’s the site with a cool video if you’re interested:

http://ric.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=home

There is also an indoor hand-cycling competition on the ground floor.  If I decide not to do the climb I’ll probably do that.  

After the stairs I did some strengthening work on the mat.  I’ll post a video of that in a sec.  The highlight was doing some leg extensions.  My left leg was lifting 2 lbs. (3 x 15 or so) and my right leg was doing 16 lbs!

Aug 3, 2013.

My birthday.  I’m old.  Mid-thirties.  Ugh.

So far today I’ve had a pretty great day.  The weather is a sunny 75 and I got my workout in early by walking to the grocery with Rebecca.  While we were heading back my dad showed up to go to brunch so I jumped in the car. 

I mentioned a while ago that my friends - mainly Erik - had worked to get me a signed jersey by the Blackhawks.  We were all surprised when I opened the package to find a Toews jersey.  It was signed by Toews on his number on the back.  But when I flipped it over we were shocked to see the rest of the team had signed, as well!  Now that the Hawks have won the Stanley Cup, it’s a bit of a treasure.  So for my birthday my dad had it framed - glass on both sides so I can flip it and show either side.  Cool, huh?  Thanks, dad!

We had a great brunch at Tweet.  So good.  I had an interesting drink which was beer mixed with tomato juice.  I forget the name.  Awesome chorizo quiche, too.  

Tonight we are headed to Soldier Field to eat and watch the Bears practice.  I’ve definitely had some setbacks in my life recently, but things are very good.  Praise God.

Dear Lord, thank You for the continued progress.  Please be with Kurt and his family.  Please be with the Partin family.  Please be with Janice Zimmer.  Please be with the Batsons. Please fill everyone with the peace and hope that can only be found through Jesus Christ and understanding how He loved the world.  Thank you for letting me see another year.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Okay gotta get ready for the Bears.  Peace.

Chip 

Likin' the crutches -

July 28, 2013

I went to church where Stephen and Leah talked a little about their upcoming journey to Kyrgyzstan.  I still can’t believe they’re moving there for a couple years to join some sort of chicken business.  Crazy!  

After that, we made our way out to the burbs for a party at pastor Joe Riccardi’s cousin’s house - Mike and Jackie.  They call it a Riccardi Party (pronounced Rikotty Potty, spoken loudly).  There were other family members there and lots of people from church.  Mike and Jackie are great.  They are all italian so we ate really, really, really well.  They have a great house with tons of games and activities in the backyard including monkey bars, a zip line, pickle ball on a tennis court, volleyball… probably more.  I got jealous of everyone playing sports so did a few pullups on the monkey bars (they are kid height), wheelchair with backpack and all!  It got a few laughs.   Wish I had a pic so you can believe me.

After dinner Joe went around and asked a few people to share their testimony.  When he asked me to talk, it went well until I mentioned the accident, then started sobbing a little.  I hate that.  Can’t control it.  I talked about how it has changed my life and how it’s frankly just terrible.  But also how it has brought me so much closer to God and how clear His plan is to me now.  I feel like that’s what it’s like - seeing God’s plan - it’s either blurry and foggy, or clearer and clearer.  I talked about how Rebecca and I had a plan that worked out very well for both God and us, but didn’t necessarily include much suffering for His sake.  It was a convenient arrangement.  And now that we are experiencing so much suffering, it is very clear to me how I can use the suffering to do His will.  I should also look at other ways to change my life so that I am really pushing my comfort levels to do His will, not just stuff that makes me feel good.

I am directly below the photographer here so you can’t see me.  The guy on the steps is talking about his story.  Another good one.

July 29, 2013

Therapy/training in the morning.  Now that Jeremy is gone, I get subs.  On this day I had Jillian.  Holy cow did she push me!  She started nicely asking if 30 minutes was okay on the treadmill.  I told her my records were 41 minutes and 0.52 miles and that we should try to break one of those or both.  Once she realized my attitude she kind of went nuts and we starting doing crazy stuff - walking backwards on the treadmill, interval training much more intensely than I had done before, and more that I’ll explain in a sec.  In the interval training I was doing 1.4 mph, which is a PR for me.  I was so exhausted by the walking backwards that I didn’t have tons of energy left.  And I wanted to try the crutches again, so I only went 1/3 of a mile.  

We went to the 9th floor where they have a sweet track system.  I think I already posted a video of that.  With the crutches I made it two laps this time, or 520 feet!  Definitely a PR for me.  Just two sessions prior I was barely able to make it back and forth a few time for probably less than 100 ft.  It’s nice to be getting the hang of it.  When I practice with the walker at home it seems lame now.  So 4 stars for Jillian.  Good day.

July 30, 2013

Today I headed to the burbs for a co-op board meeting for Papa John’s.  It was nice to see the guys again and talk kind marketing strategy for several hours straight.  Right up my alley.  Thanks to my dad for driving and I’m glad he got to hang out and see what the banter was like.  

After the meeting I had a series of work calls and then worked out at home.  The highlight was heading out to my first wheelchair sporting practice.  After hitting some balls they invited me to go with them this weekend to compete in Nebraska.  Kind of nuts consider I hadn’t even taken the field, yet.  But I think they are short on guys or something.  I had to say no since it’ll be my birthday and we are going to an event with the Bears on Saturday where I’ll be representing PJs.  Here’s a pic of the field:

It’s kind of cool - sponsored by the Cubs and the Chicago Park District.  It even has a scoreboard.  You use specialized chairs, too (thanks, RIC), that have slanted wheels for quick spinning and speed and they can’t tip back at all.  There’s a bar that goes around the front in case you ram each other trying to make it to a base!  Crazy!  Can’t wait to get into this stuff more.  Apparently wheelchair rugby is pretty intense.  Sled hockey just SOUNDS cool.

That’s about it.  Great couple of days.  

God bless!

G’night - 
Chip