Welcome everybody to the final segment of the TCAA seven-part webinar series on spinal cord injuries. Today, you will hear the remarkable story of spinal cord injury survivor, Alex Shanner. My name is Paige Colburn-Hargis, and I'm the current chair of the TCAA Injury Prevention Committee, and I'm honored to be moderating today's webinar. I also work as the Injury Prevention and Community Outreach Coordinator for Scripps Memorial Hospital, La Jolla. We're a level one adult trauma center in San Diego, California. I first met Alex in 2017 when planning our hospital's 33rd annual trauma survivor reunion. And honestly, my voice is shaking now just even thinking about it. I first met Alex as he was walking up to the stage less than four months after his life-changing injury to share his story. It was absolutely awe-inspiring. Alex is a 32-year-old resident of North County, San Diego, and a walking quadriplegic. His spinal cord injury caused significant disruptions in his life, but he was able to continue pursuing his passion for public service. He has spent his career serving his community first as an ocean lifeguard, and now as a fire inspector. To achieve this, he had to overcome significant obstacles and draw strength from within. Welcome, Alex, and thank you so much for taking the time to share your powerful story with all of us today. Hi, Paige, thank you for having me, and I'm glad to be here. So yeah, I'm Alex Shaner, and glad to be part as a spinal cord injury survivor. And to start things off, so yeah, I suffered a spinal cord injury, and it occurred on August 17th of 2017. I was an ocean lifeguard at the time, serving a city for the North County of San Diego. And it occurred around five o'clock in the afternoon. Lifeguards are given opportunities to do personal workouts during the shift because we don't get set breaks. And so around five o'clock in the afternoon, my unit had pulled up to give me a quick relief break. And me being the ocean person that I am, I was always avid to go in the water as much as possible. And what later occurred is what some might consider their worst nightmare, where I found myself face down in the water with the inability to move. As I took my workout break and swam out past the surf line and set up for a little bi-surf session, the first wave of the set came through and wasn't working out really well, so I picked out of that as we trained our lifeguards to do to prevent injuries. And then the second wave on the set, I got into and wrote it out a little bit and used the same method of our wave exit. And at this time, the sand had shifted significantly since the morning, and I struck my left shoulder on the sandbar, which then caused my head to hit on my temple. And my head rocked pretty hard to my right shoulder. And as soon as it came in line with my right shoulder, I felt a pop and then I blacked out due to a loss of consciousness. I came to face down, and when I opened up my eyes, I was looking at the bottom of the ocean, and sand's probably five feet away from me, and I'm looking down and I'm trying to figure out what's going on. And so I assume, like initially I just thought it was a concussion, so I went to take a stroke to get into shore and tell my supervisor that I needed to go to urgent care and get a quick scan for a concussion. But when I went to take a stroke, my left arm didn't move. And I initially thought that due to the power of the hit, that I probably dislocated the shoulder. And that was the reason for I couldn't take a movement with that arm. So I then attempted my right arm to take a stroke. And again, no motor and no sensation was present, which I thought was a little weird. And I was like, well, I'll just figure it out. And I went to kick. And again, no motor and no sensation was present. And at that time, I kind of did a quick checklist. And I was like, okay, all extremities are not functioning. And going back to my field medical training as an EMT, work on an ambulance, I was like, this is either spinal shock, or I'm in a really bad situation where I've broken my neck. At this point in time, a wave then rolled over my back. And I was going through my process of trying to just stay as a viable patient. So I counted the number of seconds between that wave and the next oncoming wave. So I'd get a reference of time for how long I'd been conscious for. And then also to try and use the following wave to try and roll over so I could be face up, so I could breathe, and also call for assistance from my coworkers. 15 seconds later, the second wave came, and I attempted to roll, but could not roll over due to my paralysis level at the shoulders, and also due to where I was in the water. We call it an inshore hole, or if you're familiar with rivers, it's like a little eddy. So it's basically like a little just deep spot in the water that doesn't create, it's kind of swirling, and it's very stagnant in some regards. And so I was stuck in this little spot in the water. So I was not able to be, I was not gonna get pushed into the shore. I wasn't gonna get flipped over. I was kind of stuck in this scenario. So at the realization of that, the only option for me was to consciously try and focus on slowing my heart rate down, and kind of reach a zen state so I could slow the burn off of oxygen. I was conscious for roughly two minutes before eventually blacking out, and there were multiple thoughts and mental states that occurred during that time of consciousness. I go through, I refer to it as the rapid five-second states of grieving. When I came to the first realization of the inability to move, there was some anger, a little bit of acceptance of the situation, and eventually thinking upon my past and where I would be viewed. For example, at 45 seconds in to the face down, situation, I was thinking about how I'd be remembered if we were to do a celebration of life or a funeral. Being a 26-year-old lifeguard, my mind was like, well, I hope it's a celebration of life, and there's kegs all around, because that's how I'd wanna be celebrated or remembered as the good times individual that I was. And after kind of coming to that conclusion, I was like, okay, we're good. Go back to my zen state, clear the mind. And all during the time I was dealing with some diaphragm contractions and was just really leaning on my training to trick the mind to allow my consciousness to be present so I could not intake water and drown and stay a viable patient. And then around a minute 45 is when the diaphragm contractions became uncontrollable. And at that point, I knew I was about to run out of oxygen and blackout intimately. And at that point is when I thought about the severity of the situation I was in. And that's when I kind of was like, am I okay with dying? Like, this is probably about to happen. There's a good chance I may not open my eyes again. And battled with that for a few moments, but eventually it was like, well, if I'm gonna die, I'm glad to be doing it, body surfing, doing something I love. And at least this will appear to be a peaceful passing. And I blacked out again. And then I woke up on the beach with a sternum rub, with a modified jaw thrust, and a coworker doing a nice blind finger sweep, which garnered the response of, get your fingers out of my mouth, is the first words that I said when I regained consciousness. And I hear, it's good to see you too, Shaner. And I kind of opened my eyes and I look up and I see my coworker, we meet eyes. I'm like, am I alive? My coworker responds, he goes, yeah, we just pulled you out of the water. And I just followed up and I was like, epic, okay. And he's like, yeah, you're in good hands. We got you, we're gonna take care of you. And then at that point, I'm kind of scanning around at kind of this patient assessment scenario, which I'm very familiar with, but not on this end of the call. And I'm seeing all the familiar faces around me, my coworkers, off-duty fire personnel that frequented the beach at the tower where I was at. And we were going through the whole patient assessment. And I continued my regular personality. I was constantly, you know, cracking jokes and keeping the situation light because of how tense I could feel everyone else was due to the situation and me being a lifeguard in this scenario. We packaged up and we got me, they call it in for lifelight pretty rapidly. And so I was on the beach for no more than, I would say 20 minutes before being sent to a local high school football field, which was right across the street, where lifelight was waiting. And they hit me with some fentanyl on lifelight. And that's kind of when my memory went hazy. And I remember two moments in the ER where I was in the MRI machine. And then also arguing with the nurses on not to cut off my board shorts because it was my neck that was broken, not my back. Just some of the insight of how I was a good patient, but I was also one that was trying to hold my ground and I was very proud of wearing those reds all summer. And that's a very lifeguard thing to do is, save some reds as a little memento. So that kind of date of injury, a lot of survivor tactics went into play with my mental process and handling the initial injury where I was, the inability of not being able to move anything. And that continued through the patient assessment and obviously when I got to the ER, they hit me with enough drugs that kept me sedated till I was in surgery the next day. And so this was me at first full day in the hospital at Scripps in the ICU prior to surgery. And so they had me on a breathing machine, a nice tower stack of variety of drugs that kept me sedated and unable to move. And so we weren't sure what kind of injury we were doing with that time. We know some form of paralysis, but my family and I got a lot of answers after the surgery of kind of what had occurred and the damage that I had done. So I ended up breaking my four, five and six cervical vertebrae. As you can tell from this image, all the spinous processes are split in half at four, five and six. So they knew that some damage was done to the posterior area of the cervical spine. And then with the cross section, they were able to tell that the entire back half had broken away from the front. So I basically broke those cervical spine in half followed by the soft tissue damage that I incurred here in this MRI of the swelling at the spinal cord and also the ruptured tissue in the back of the neck, which led to some internal bleeding there and a lot of ligaments and tendons being torn away. So there's no longer structurally sound. Along with the damage that I did to my cervical spine, there was some drowning damage due to the unconscious states of being in the water. And so this was an image that I saw a year after my injury at a speaking engagement of my lungs. And as we can note the white cloudiness of fluid that was in the lungs, which required a lot of work from nurses to drain that, which used a rumble vest, which actually put me to sleep and I enjoyed. And then they would suction out the fluid to eventually dry out my lungs enough. And I was able to start breathing on my own by day eight after being intubated for seven days. The ICU stay was a very interesting state. I don't recollect a lot of it, but I do remember, you know, my family using the letter chart to spell out what I would like. And that was a very, we laugh about it now that at times, like my mom and sister were very rapid with the way they would go through the letters. And I would obviously get visibly annoyed and frustrated. And then I would spell other words to express my frustration with them, which was very comical with my family and how we interact. So the damage that was done required an anterior-posterior fusion. And so obviously there's two nice visible scars that are accumulated from this injury. And I was paralyzed from the shoulders down. And it wasn't until probably day 10 or 11 that there was some muscle activity going on in the quads. But not really anywhere else. And I was able to kind of flex them, but not against gravity. So we knew there was kind of a long road ahead in that regard. And I remember the interactions a lot more during med surg with my trauma doctor and the nurses. So obviously when I suffered this and kind of learned the severity, my personality is one that is like, well, I'm gonna power through and I'm gonna return just as well as I would have been prior to this injury. So my goal was to be back and able and back life-gurning again within months. And that was my goal, which I expressed internally. No one knew about that. But I remember my trauma doctor coming in and we had a conversation about goals for a year post-injury. And he was like, so what kind of goals have you thought about and what would you like to do a year from injury? And my first one was like, well, I'm gonna swim back in the ocean where it happened. I'm gonna swim past the seraphim back. And at this time, the doctor kind of looks to my family. So it was my mom, dad, brother, and sister, sister-in-law. We were very flexible with the rules of how many visitors were allowed in the room at one time. But it was great for me to have that for their support. But he looked at all them and they stayed silent and kind of shrugged their shoulders. And they're like, that's what he said. And he turns back to me, he's like, well, have you thought about any other goals that you have for like a year from now? I said, nope, but I'm gonna swim back in the ocean where it happened under my own power. And he kind of got the grasp that I was not gonna take no for an answer. And that when I set my mind to it, that's something that I will do everything in my power to do. And he said, well, I can't advise that as a medical doctor because I don't want you to break your neck again because you'll end up probably worse or equal to where you're at right now. And I was like, I hear you, but this is what I wanna do. The ocean is a place of solace for me. It's my happy place and that's where I wanna be. And I do not wanna have fear or any kind of angst towards the ocean because it was a freak accident. And so at this time we kind of go over my initial prognosis and he was like, well, there's a very strong chance that you will be in a power wheelchair for the rest of your life and you will have limited mobility in your arms and you'll probably need 24 seven care in order to kind of have a regular normal life. I said, well, that's your opinion. I'm gonna walk out of the hospital at three months. So it was a constant kind of a banter between my trauma surgeon and I. And it was one that never, I felt negative towards. It was for me as an individual as well, it fueled me. It was, I'm gonna overcome these odds. I'm not gonna become part of the statistics within these odds. And that's kind of how I embodied my recovery going forward. So after Scripps where I spent two weeks, I transferred to a Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado where they specialize in traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injuries. I was fortunate that I did not suffer a TBI due to the state of where I was with limited oxygen because due to the kind of call notes, they guesstimate that from the time that I probably hit the sandbar and the time that I woke up on the beach, seven to 10 minutes had passed. So that was roughly seven to 10 minutes that I had not taken a breath and I suffered no hypoxic brain damage. Concussion, yes, but no extended hypoxic brain damage, which was very fortunate for my recovery. So I could just focus on the spinal cord injury at hand. But I went to Craig and I spent three months there in inpatient. And a lot of things that helped me through this time were music, my sense of humor and relying on my past experience as an athlete, as a collegiate water polo player and the physical occupation of being an ocean lifeguard is really what I leaned into during this time to recover to the best of my ability. Craig was an amazing facility. This was an FES bike that they use that they have a row of 10 of on their base floor gym. So everyone gets reps on this at least every day or at least three to four days a week. They use electrodes to stimulate muscles to send signals back up to the brain to try and lubricate and re kind of start or kickstart some neural connections to the brain, to these extremities. And it was a area that really helped me progress early on. And that this time, this was I think my first or second time they had to use a gait belt to keep my knees in line or else they would just fall out to the wayside. So they definitely use different adaptations to set you up for success and to kind of retrain the body and the mind to reintegrate, to progress. At this time, I had my second prognosis meeting with the neuro doctor at Craig. And at this time, there was not much hope for walking, but there was some signs that maybe that could be a reality and again, I told him that I was gonna walk out of this hospital at three months and it was met with a very silence response, which didn't affect me. It was my goals were my goals and I was gonna carry them out however I saw fit, but it progressed. And so this was a month post-injury, roughly a month and a half where I am at a weight bearing harness and taking my first steps upright and it took some work to get here. And as noted, I'm using this little platform and my hands are strapped to it due to my lower extremity coming online much more quickly and efficiently than my upper extremity. So the hands need to be strapped onto the machine otherwise they would just kind of fall to my wayside because there was not much control at this time or limited function. And so this was a month and a half post-injury and we progressed pretty rapidly once I was getting upright and there were a lot of different things, modalities that they use there. This being one of them, which I did very often, there was also like a bioness, which gave E-stem to different parts of the leg muscle to try and initiate proper gait mechanics and which really helped the walking progression. And a lot of like the lateral movements and stuff is something that I tapped into as being a former athlete and I thought of being a water polo athlete and having to try and teach stepping sideways and the muscle activation. So it definitely, my experience there helped me with the therapist when they were telling me how to do a movement and how I could coach myself through the movement to get it to work when I couldn't feel muscle groups or muscle activation or had limited muscle activation. Craig allowed for a different variety of things and normalcy or return to normalcy was one of them. So they had a great therapeutic recreation program that you got to go bow and arrow shooting. This was a fly fishing event. So I got to go to an accessible pond and fish for some trout on a little bamboo fly rod. And it gave me the kind of understanding and notion that I could return to activities that I did prior to injury. They might take some more adaptation or some consideration, but these things could be a reality. So I can go back into fishing and still do my back country camping. And it's something that I embodied and really appreciated about that facility to provide those opportunities to learn how to work with this new body. And as it's progression to keep working through that and figure out how I can make things work going forward. So at three months from Craig, it was right before Thanksgiving of 2017 is when I was discharged and I upheld my goal of walking out at three months. It took a lot of good days, great days, but my family being there, being present, my friends visiting on a regular basis really assisted that process for me to heal in the way that I did. It gave me the opportunity to focus just on my rehab and to have some normalcy with friends and family to get through that. To have some normalcy with friends and family to really continue to push my boundaries. As I told the first doctor at Scripps, I was gonna swim at the ocean at one year post-injury. That was upheld and it took many days at a local gym in a pool to train. And the day of that we went back in the ocean, I had not swam in the ocean since. And going into the day, there was a lot of confidence. And then we showed up on the beach and that confidence started to dwindle a little bit as soon as the first set rolled through and it was about head high surf on a set wave. And I looked at my buddy and I was like, I don't think I can do this. And fortunately, being a lifeguard, all your friends are either lifeguards or firefighters. So I picked the right people to help me on that day. So we had a lot of medical professionals right there present. And so we just needed help getting the fins on and were able to right my body and natural instinct and my muscle memory kicked in and I swam out past the surf and back. And this was at the Oceanside Body Surf Contest that's held annually in August. And that was actually, I was injured right before the weekend of the contest in 2017. And so in 2018, I swam out during the contest with a lot of amazing support from multiple communities, which really hit home and was a very emotional day after completing the swim. I reserved my emotions prior to the swim because the mission had not yet been accomplished. But once I touched sand again, it was a very amazing and just relieving experience in a sense. And then in 2019, I returned back to San Diego and that my two year anniversary, I took up surfing again, which took some modification adaptions. Again, leaning into my lifeguard and firefighter friends to push me into waves. I wore an impact vest at the request of my mom due to they don't want me to drown again, which was understood. And so it's something I still use as far as when I'm in surf, but usually in lagoons or lakes, I might have it with me, but I'm pretty confident in relatively up to six feet of water. But once it gets deeper than that, it's something that I do wanna have just to create some buoyancy. So although drowning wasn't too bad the first time, I'd rather not do it again. And so the return to San Diego was an amazing experience. It, again, was heavily relied upon friends and reintegrating activities that I did prior to injury and even new ones where I got into rock climbing at a gym and which really helped my recovery process with its integration with all different muscle groups and different challenges and created a kind of controllable environment at a rock climbing gym to really work on my body and kind of find new passions that I could do on a more regular basis. And being back in San Diego was just amazing in so many regards because the ocean is a place of solace for me and basically like a second home. It gives me the opportunity to deal with my mental health in the way that I like to, which is when I'm feeling kind of in a funk, I've done some psychology work and I still do, but some of the best thing, one of the best things that I do for myself is just getting in the ocean and just taking a quick dunk. Now, it may not even be swimming out, but I could just be getting into waste or chest deep water and just dunking my head under and coming back out and I just feel like 50 pounds lighter. So it was something that really helped me through this ongoing recovery process and return to normal life. Being part of the ocean and being in the water is just a huge portion and part of my life, which I'm still able to uphold. And now currently with newer activities, I mean, I did some prone paddling before injury, but now I do it much more frequently where I'm doing it two to three days a week, depending on weather, but something I can do more independently where I can just go to the lagoon in Carlsbad and hop on the board, paddle for a couple of miles and then go to work. And it just gets my body in the right space. It wears me out, but it's something that I enjoy and gives me some independence and kind of benchmarks for me to challenge myself as I time myself around paddling the lagoon so I can kind of set my benchmarks and continue to set goals for myself with my exercise and different activities that I do. But none of this would have been possible had it not been for the quick action of the lifeguards getting me into the hospital within the golden hour, which really put me up for success going forward with my recovery. My body's resilience during the ICU stay, I narrowly escaped pneumonia, which would have extended my stay, which may have prolonged or changed my recovery. Going from someone whose reality was probably a power wheelchair to being an independent walking quad where I'm participating in activities in a different fashion, but still enjoying the activities that I did prior to injury. And Craig Hospital was another entity that was huge in the recovery process due to its availability. Like when I'm at my peak with rehab there, I was starting at 7 a.m. with my daily duties, like just taking a shower, brushing teeth, getting dressed, combing hair. And then by eight o'clock, I was at PT and I would take a break for lunch from 12 to one. And then from one to six, I was in numerous activities as well, whether it was occupational therapy, some form of therapeutic recreation where I was riding a recumbent bike around the hospital, fly fishing, shooting an air rifle, just really focusing on getting into all the activities kind of preparing my body to be upright and available for as long as I can go. And so Craig Hospital was an amazing process and facility for that to help me achieve where I am today. Unfortunately, I was not able to reach the point where I could return to lifeguarding. And so I was able to transition into the fire inspector role which allows me some out and about time during the day as well. So also more of a like in the office, which is more suited if I'm gonna work more full-time, office work will be more of my reality due to the amount of effort it takes for me to move around in the heavy boots and a fire uniform. But also it just gives me the energy to work to do more of my recoveries and physical therapy before and after work, which is something I still carry through today. I do a PT twice a week. Acupuncture has been a great addition to the healing process. And then I do soft tissue work where we're doing active range of motion with muscle glides which is just keeps me maintained and as mobile as I can be, which so this body still takes a lot of work to get through a week of regular day life, but it's provided me so much insight on what we can attain from life and how I've learned so much more about myself through these near six, going on seven years of living with this injury. But I learned a lot through the therapist that I had, both positive and negative. Early on at Scripps, they would always talk to my family and only my family not really see me in the room. And my family kind of helped by, hey, why don't you talk to him because he's more medically savvy and trained. And that kind of helped engage me in the recovery, in the early process. I mean, although sometimes I'd be awake for maybe half of what they were saying and then pass out due to the drugs. But for that first little bit, I was engaged in kind of comprehending of what they were talking about. And even at Craig, there were positive and negative experiences there with individuals, but ones that I was able to address with them directly. They were always very positive, but at times they weren't sure how to kind of push my limits and boundaries. I was in a sense an anomaly at that time for the therapist because it seemed that they weren't fully prepared to keep up with my progressions as rapidly as I was going. But with my go-hard attitude, we were able to find different things through time, which has only benefited those that have come after me that I've recovered relatively similarly. And I just continue to push on the good interactions. And even with my PTs now, I help facilitate conversations about how to talk to patients. There are not a lot of patients that are as motivated as I am or was. And I had enough inner fire where I didn't need an exterior motivator because I built that within myself. But there are times that, and individuals that you might work with that need that external motivator that need that external motivator or a little glimpse of hope to push where they can to recover and hopefully do the best of their ability. But all of that really tied into where I am today and my growth as a walking quadriplegic and just a regular dude going through life. And so I'm glad to have gone through this. I'm glad to be able to present my story and talk about how I got through these different stages and how life-altering injuries can take a toll, but they can also be areas where we can push through and become better human beings by going through them. But I don't recommend it. Thank you. And Paige, whenever you're ready, good to roll. Thank you so much, Alex. Boy, my heart is so full right now and I'm so inspired by your story. I'm sure our audiences as well. You can go ahead and start entering questions into the chat, but Alex, the drive and the determination and the grit, or as you called it, your go-hard attitude in getting through an ordeal like this is really remarkable. And anyone that knows me knows that I am really the ultimate super fan of trauma clinicians and rehab providers. I mean, they're amazing people and miracles truly happen in our trauma centers. And at the same time, when I hear about adversity and the challenges that you and other survivors go through, I'm deeply inspired and I wonder if this grit and this determination are teachable skills. And so what tips and tools can we learn to equip people that are affected by serious trauma and help them get through their own journey? And really, what can we all learn about how to face adversity, whether it's something as severe as that, that you went through and what our other patients go through but just for us as just normal people going through life, I think we can all learn from these tips and tools that you used. Yeah, whenever I think about that, I always kind of think about we are more capable than we give ourselves credit for. We, as an individual with ourselves, we can almost be our worst enemy at times with self-negative talk. and at times that, that affected me, um, I wasn't, I wasn't immune to it. Um, there were my competitiveness, my competitiveness and go hard attitude sometimes bit me in the butt a couple of times, um, where I would get so frustrated that I wasn't at a certain point in my recovery that, you know, I would need probably three hours to, uh, let out a little anger and frustration and then reset my mind and be like, it's only been this much time. You just got to keep plugging along one day at a time, one rep at a time. And, um, that just really just kind of helped reintegrate myself with the, with the mission and with my goals. Um, but sometimes my mind got ahead of my body and, um, It would be a learning experience, uh, and also like one for my family would do like, Hey, we don't need to talk to him right now. He's just going to be in his room for a little bit and he just needs to, you know, reset himself and then we can get back to it. And so, um, they were there really helpful in a way to just grant me that space to be who, who I am and who I was and, um, to get through the process in my own way. Um, but I think with for individuals, I think it's just being more capable than you think you are. Um, because we often sell each other, sell ourselves short. Um, and it can limit us in many factors. Absolutely. We have a couple of comments, um, about, uh, so let's see. Uh, so people are kind of talking about that. I'm seeing a little bit of a, uh, a pattern here with people talking about the power of you going to different facilities and talking to other patients. Have you done much of that? Can you, can you speak to that? Yeah. So I do. Um, I've probably been into. I think eight different hospitals in the orange County, San Diego area. And I've met with roughly 16 patients. Um, obviously, you know, I share parts of my story and I, um, due to my experience with Craig, um, I always recommend it. Um, you know, cause when we were at Scripps and the trauma doctor was like, you need to find a place to go. Um, we were like, okay. And we didn't, you know, we didn't know where to go. Unfortunately, one of my best friends and her brother had suffered, suffered a spinal cord injury five years prior to me. Um, and they didn't go to Craig, but they, as soon as they heard that we were looking for a rehab facility, his parents were like, go to Craig. Um, it was what they wish they had done. And after going there and having that experience, I always recommend it. Um, and another reason for that was in California, um, all the facilities we looked at, it was like a maximum of eight weeks of inpatient rehab. And I think the highest end of therapies in a day were four hours. Um, whereas Craig, I was almost in therapy for 10 hours a day at times at my peak. Um, and I had access to a gym on the weekend. So on Saturday I would go down and work out for two hours on Saturday morning. And then Sunday I would have access to the gym on my floor, um, where I would just go on like the, uh, the high tables, uh, they were like big mats. Like I'd say they're like six feet by six feet and I would just do my mobility stuff on there, um, and do some stretching. So seven days a week I was moving and Craig that Craig hospital facility gave me the opportunity to do that. And other facilities, I would have not had that option. And so based on that, on the availability of, uh, resources and facilities. And I'd say in California, I would have gone home in a power wheelchair instead of walking. Yeah. And, and how do you feel, um, you know, how can we help our trauma centers and staff kind of know what's available? Um, you know, what do you think is the best way to kind of get that these, these ideas out there that there are these super centers out there, um, that we can look to, to send our patients after injury, I mean, I, I think, well, I know Craig has representatives that do go hospital to hospital. Um, and so we met with one of the representatives at, um, at Scripps. Um, I don't know about other super centers. I do know there's one in Atlanta, New York and Chicago, but I don't know if they do have representatives that go out to, um, facilities or have like locally sourced representatives to stop into hospitals. Um, honestly, I've been spreading it by word of mouth. There's been my best way. And through my Instagram and stuff, I've always, when I've always posted about my older recovery stuff, I always tag Craig hospital because that's the place where I was at and also, you know, where that, um, equipment was. Um, I think it has to do with a lot with like learning your, your area of your community, understanding kind of what's available in the area. Um, and even what could be, um, just outside of what's your regular response area, um, like for Craig, we took a fixed wing jet from San Diego to Colorado. And that's how I was transported there. Um, because that was the only option. Otherwise I wasn't going to take a two day ambulance ride. Um, so there are methods to get these patients to these facilities. Um, And I just understanding what's in the area, but those, those are the big four that I know off the top of my head, but, um, researching what's nearby. And I know, um, when I was at Craig, you know, we had people from all over. We had people from Wyoming, from New Mexico, um, Minnesota, uh, California. Um, you know, we're all that kind of surrounding area of States. There were people coming in to that facility because it was the best facility for them in that area. Yeah. And, um, I hate to even say the word, but how, how was your medical insurance with all this? How did, uh, any challenges with that? In some regards, I was fortunate that I was workman's comp. Um, cause I was on the job when it happened. So I was fortunate in that regard. Um, but workman's comp at times was not always the easiest to deal with, like any insurance company. Um, it was the first time they had any injury like this. So I was patient zero for them and creating, um, plans, uh, different types of response and how they would, uh, how they would treat these types of injuries going forward. Um, so I was kind of creating a new avenue and path within the workman's comp of the city that I worked for in addressing injuries like this. Um, so we kind of had to scrape and battle for a lot of things, um, because they were just unfamiliar and had not done these things in the past. Um, so, but, and fortunately I had people within that staff that was very supportive and, um, were able to kind of turn the nose into yeses. Um, but yes, at times it was very challenging and almost, um, and frustrating at times. Cause you know, you're like, when I went back for outpatient to Colorado, it was a three month program and they wanted us to stay in an extended stay in America in a one bedroom and a pullout couch. And it was like, well, I'm not sleeping on a pullout couch. Cause I'm like handicapped and I don't want a metal rod in my back or I have two in my neck. Um, and I don't want my mom sleep on a couch. So at that time I still needed some assistance with cooking and, um, transportation cause we couldn't live at Craig, uh, like inpatient. So I needed a ride to get to, to the facility. Um, so we had to battle and scrape to get an apartment, um, to short term, short term rent. Um, but they were very confused on why we didn't want to stay in an extended stay America. It's like, well, we want to cook our own meals. We don't want to eat out every day. Um, you know, there's a lot of things about lowering costs for an individual by having the ability to cook for themselves. And also it gave me the opportunity to work on those things. It's like three days a week. I was responsible for cooking dinner for my parents. So I had to look up recipes and figure out what I could manage, um, after a day of therapies. And so, um, yeah, the insurance is regardless of if they work comp or not, they all can show difficulties and challenges. Um, and it, we really just had to hold our ground on certain areas. Um, and not budge was the only way we would get approved for something. Yeah. So that, that advocacy piece and having people kind of help you assist that, like what role did your family play in all of this? They played a big role. Um, they kind of, they kind of handled that so that I could just focus on the recovery. Um, like they were always the ones in like initiating emails and communication. Like they would let me know what's going on. Um, and they'd ask me questions about, you know, how they'd want, how I would like to address it. Um, and so they handled that communication so that they wanted to keep that separate. So it wouldn't affect me in my recovery and overthinking, like thinking about my body and also thinking about this. So it let me kind of say more centrally focused on the recovery portion. Um, but sometimes there was a boil over when, uh, uh, I needed to make phone calls on my end to, uh, really harp on the importance of me having this opportunity or something like that. Yeah. So really advocating for yourself, having your family advocate for you, having those people there to really kind of push, uh, what is being offered up initially, um, it sounds like is a big priority. Um, you also kind of talked about some of those things that were helpful and not so helpful, um, with clinicians in your practice. Um, I was wondering if, if you could, I know that, you know, for clinicians that a lot of things is based on statistics and what we have seen historically, and yet there's still the hope piece in there to any, any, um, kind of more ideas about how we can, you know, ground our clinicians in how to, you know, striking that balance, not making promises that are maybe not going to happen, but, but really kind of keeping that hope, um, and, and helping to flame that hope in our, our patients and their caregivers. Right. Um, yeah, I mean, I mean, there were like with my interactions that, you know, they weren't, I was not given any possibilities or hope, all those were instilled within me or like what I said out really towards them. Um, but like their lack of presentation of like hope and possibilities didn't phase me, um, because I just took that as, that's just fuel for me to overcome these odds. Um, that's just, I'm not going to be a statistics to your statistics. Um, but I think there's a balance in like presenting what the statistics do say, but also saying like, you're also an incomplete injury. There's opportunities, there's opportunities or possibilities that this may not be your forever state. Um, I think thing that's when I've met with patients and I have met incompletes, you know, like a lot of them, they're like, well, maybe I'll recover. Like, you know, like that, that is possible, but also like, don't like, don't solely focus on this being your only goal, like push every day, like one day after another, one, one rep at a time. It's kind of my, has always been my motto, um, when going through it. Um, but just saying, I mean, I always got, there are unknowns, like they're like, well, we don't know. This could be it, but we don't know. That was kind of like the, the hope that I received. Um, so if there's different ways of doing that, I think that might be better received by patients who are in need of it. Um, I wasn't one of those, but there are patients out there that I've met that definitely needed that little bit of hope to get through the early stages. Uh, cause I saw, I've met with like a variety of people in different mental spaces during those early days. Um, and I could tell the ones that were self-motivated and were like, didn't care for what the doctor's opinion was. And there were those that heard what the doctor said and then accept almost were accepting of it as their reality. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a delicate balance. Um, we have a really interesting question from Chelsea in the chat. Um, she thanks you for sharing your story. And she's asking, um, if you think that there's a place for certified nurse coaches that can aid in recovery and help establish realistic, but also challenging goals in the aspects of the recovery process, yes. I don't see why not. Um, I, I, I'm not thinking, I'm like trying to think of like, cause I was like, you know, I think it's similar for me there there's, there's, you know, for there's doulas, there's people, there's nurses that are trained to help people get through childbirth. There's now, you know, nurses that are trained as death doulas to help people get through the transition of, you know, a terminal illness. So I think, you know, uh, for me, the question is asking, do you think it would help to, you know, help raise this certification to have people on the patient team that can, um, that are trained clinically, but also trained in some of the, you know, some of these techniques to help, um, you know, I guess it's really more like the mental aspects of overcoming all this. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I 100% think so. Um, so I got Craig, there was a neuropsychologist that was in our team that we'd see maybe once a week or once every other week, and, and, and um, and I think though that did help people. Um, but I think if there was something more frequent, I think that could be even a better resource because at times there, you know, you're on your own, like for good hour, two hours, you're like in the middle of the day, you're on your own and you're like, you've maybe not had the best day, like what you were doing yesterday, you were not doing today, you're like two steps back from where you were the day before. And you're just, again, that self deprivation mentality, you're like attacking yourself, you're like, well, if I'm not where I am yesterday, then I'm not progressing. And, um, I think having someone that could be like, Hey, this is going to happen, you're going to go in ebbs and flows, like you're going to have. These big jumps and then you're going to come back a little bit like the bodies it's in this healing process. Um, I do think that would be beneficial. Um, the neuropsychologist that he was helpful for some people at Craig. Um, it was not helpful for me in some regards, um, because of how I was progressing, I didn't feel like there was anything I needed to say. Um, as far as the inner things that I was dealing with, um, It wasn't until like three years post-injury that I've done like EMDR and like trauma, grieving, proper psychology that has really helped, um, my mental state and, uh, coping mechanisms with going forward. Um, but yeah, but there was a neuropsychologist there. Um, but I, I didn't feel like I was, uh, a patient who needed that at that time. Got it. Um, okay. So we have two minutes left, Alex. So I know it's probably burning. It's burning on my mind. It's probably burning on everyone else's mind. I know that you recently graduated and got your bachelor's of science degree in emergency management and, um, Homeland security. What is your dream job look like? And how do you keep getting up and facing these challenges to pursue your goals? Uh, well, these ones is definitely can be attributed to my fiance and my psychologist. Um, I think going to that psychologist really broke some glass ceiling for myself. Um, but with what I want to do that as a, either emergency management director, like some form of emergency services coordinator, um, I got up since 20 years old, I've worked in first response. Um, so whether in the response mitigation, um, and some form of planning, I've always been integrated in some aspects of that. And so the emergency management and home security degree was a state. A really fitting avenue for me to continue that, um, service that I provide have provided for my communities. Um, and one that I can in the longterm serve as, uh, due to my slight limitations here and there. Um, it's more of an office-based role. So with that, I can continue to use my very first response services, mind and brain to benefit my community and hopefully mitigate and prevent, uh, injuries or catastrophes, um, and life altering injuries, such as the one I suffered. Um, so doing that has been, uh, an area where I've truly seen myself grow into, um, through that degree. Amazing Alex. Okay. Well, you heard it, everybody. Alex is available. So, um, uh, let's get him hooked up. Let's keep him in our community. Let's keep helping him help refine and grow how we, um, treat and help rehab our spinal cord injuries. Thank you so much, Alex, for everything today. We really appreciate your time. I know I've learned a lot and, um, Chelsea, thanks for clarifying nurse coaches are trained in holistic care and wellness coaching, treating the patient as a whole and establishing goals. So thank you. It sounds like a really, um, amazing avenue. And, uh, thanks again, Alex. Thanks everybody. Have a great day. You'll be receiving an evaluation of this seminar and we look forward to seeing you next time. Bye.

spinal cord injury

recovery journey

challenges

obstacles

physical therapy

determination

support system

medical professionals

resilience