Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am a 43 year old female paraplegic. When I was just 19 years old in 2001 I was in a automobile accident resulting from a complete spinal cord injury at the T8-T9 level of my spine along with a few other minor injuries. I was sent to St. Johns Mercy hospital in St. Louis and had rods put in my back to keep my back straight while the bones healed. My spinal cord was not severed, just bruised. I was in rehab for about a month to learn how to live and adapt to life in a wheel chair. It was very challanging, frustrating, confusing, scary and emotional to have to learn and deal with so much all at once at an age where your meant to be having fun, but I did it with the help, love and support from my family and few friends that I had left. 

As the years have gone by I have tried to do my best in taking care of myself and try to have a life at the same time. I didn't give too much thought of a cure or treatment because there really wasn't much that could be done for a complete spinal cord injury, and there still isn't one. As I am getting older, I realize that life is very short and you really truely must make the most out of it and cherish the people that are close to you becauase in an instant they can be gone. Now that I am really very much wanting to be able to enjoy the things that I used to before my injury and do things with my loved ones that you can't easily do while your in a chair. You can pretty much do anything while your still in a chair, but the enjoyment isn't the same, ecspecially when you can't feel over half of your body and all you have is your arms and upper chest to move yourself around. 

There are treatments, not cures, in other countries that are not available here in USA. The medical side of being paralyzed is something that takes work and knowledge. One little sore can become and infection and make your life very difficult. You have to have knowledge about SCI and how to take care of yourself in order to have a better quality of life. It took me years to realize that I needed to take better care of myself. 

I have very bad muscle spasms and stiffness in my body that make doing the most easiest things very challanging. I used to have a baclofen pump inplanted in my body that helped with the spasms. After i went through withdrawls for 5 months because there was tiny holes in the catheter and I was not getting the medicine the way that my pump was programed to give me so they had to go back in me and change all the hardware and the catheter. After having that surgery I ended up getting spinal meningitis, a bad blood infection and my brain was very swollen. The surgeon keep telling me I had something else and was given antibiotics for a few months, but that did not help. After going through the head pain and high fever i was taken to the ER and they finally found out that I had meningitis. Being on IV antibiotics for 2 weeks and high pain meds for the head pain, after a few months I recovered from that and it took a few months for the swelling in the brain to go down an they head pain finally went away. I lost some of my vision cause of it, but not my hearing thank goodness. So now I dont have my pump to help with spasms, I have to deal with them an its very very difficult and frustrating. I cry a lot because I just want the spasms to stop.

After all this happened to me is when I started searching for something else that would help since no medicine would really help. I came across therapies that other people were getting to help bring back muscle control and feeling with other functions for SCI. There is things that can be done, but it does cost money which I do not have. So that is why I thought maybe other people would like to know my story and help me to get some sort of therapy that is being done to help with SCI. Being in a chair is not as bad as some may think. The things that go along with it like, muscle spasms, lose of bladder, bowel and reproductive function is what makes it sad. I didn't worry about ever getting my injury fixed or ever walking again. Going through what i had to go through last year in 2015 with my pump brought on major depression and sickness. I have to get botox in my bladder or else I would be peeing on myself and can't do anything about it. This part is hard to talk about, but it's the truth. Bootox has saved me from a lot of pain and depression. This is why I am wanting so badly to get treatment to get some function back. I would love to tell my story to anyone who wants to listen. There is more to it of course, but I am just telling the basics right now. I have found a few countries that do therapy and treatment so I am asking for help with the funding.

ANYWAY...I'M REALLY WANTING TO GET A STANDING FRAME CALLED A GLIDDER. IT WILL HELP WITH CIRCULATION, BONE HEALTH, BLOOD FLOW, (WHICH I DESPERATLY NEED RIGHT NOW TO HEAL A WOUND ON MY FOOT THAT IVE BEEN TRYING TO HEAL FOR 2 YEARS. BEING HAVING TO STAY IN BED MOSTLY. TAKING AWAY LIFE FROM MY DAUGHTER AND FAMILY, AND ALSO A LIFE!! THIS MACHINE IS ALSO GREAT FOR GETTING YOUR ARMS BACK IN SHAPE. I HAVE TEARS IN MY ROTATOR CUFFS, BUT NO WAY AM I GOING TO HAVE SHOULDER SURGERY. THAT WILL BE AT LEAST ANITHER YEAR DOWN. THIS HAS SOOOO MANY BENEFITS. STRWTCHING YOUR HIPS, KNEES, AND HELPING CORE STRENGTH WITH BALANCE.

PLEASE ANY LITTLE AMOUNT WILL HELP OUT.

THANKS FOR LISTENING TO MY STORY!