Friday-donations-are-keeping-me-afloat-and-cycling-rocks-Update!

FIRSTLY a Big Thanks for your donations - my stress levels are sooo much less right now, as financially I am fine for 1.5 months because of them. Which gives me time to find a job and Not Stress and maybe even one that I like! I had been denied for unemployment because "since December 2012 you have been on voluntary leave" - what?? So I have to appeal that too. And there's appealing social security, figuring out what to do about the guy that hit me, figuring out about my job at UL, and my custody battle. So, 5 court cases at once? I didn't know if I could handle it, and financially I definitely couldn't, but your support allowed me to. I can't be thankful enough. Hooray!!

My training log has been more sparse this week, but my improvement is still awesome. I'm up to 1.8 miles walking and will break 2 hopefully today, and my hip is reacting much quicker, bringing my walking speed up to 55:45 min/mi which is about a 33% improvement from last time and almost a 50% improvement overall!
This is also evident in my elliptical speed. I took my heart rate after the elliptical last time and it was 148bpm. This is Great news because with spinal cord injuries sometimes hearts can't beat quick enough to sustain a heavy workout. I'm going to see if I can get it over 150bpm next time, but this is a really great sign.
Swimming is doing great too, I swam 750 yards and could do 100 yards at a time, probably more but I didn't want to push it just yet. I also filmed it for my PT Wulf to see and he had some ideas on how to improve. My right let is still not bending well at the knee under water, which is why my legs sink. Also after a while I can't keep my fingers straight, they're not strong enough yet. So I'm going to try some things.

The biggest news of the week is about BikeLafayette and the "Ride of Silence." I'm way more involved with cycling now that I've been smashed up on one than I had ever been before! The reason is that this happened to me at the time where Lafayette got large enough as a city to qualify for more federal funding, and since we're a fast-growing city many people here started pushing for growth of safer places to cycle, and It's Working. The city is working hard to make this happen, and along with public forums inviting people to learn and vote on the way they want the city to grow, I see great things for cyclists on the horizon!
BikeLafayette is a cycling advocacy group run by responsible (and incredibly nice!) people that attend government meetings and such to, well, advocate cycling. They've been a key part of decision-making for the city, they're becoming better known all the  time, and I'm incredibly proud to be a new member of their board. AND, boy do I have a lot to learn, HA! And I can't even ride yet!

They hosted Lafayette's "Ride of Silence," which is a world-wide event honoring cyclists that were hit on roadways. We had more than 100 people turn up! Here's some links to some local coverage:

KRVS radio show with Jen Steele and Tommy W - this one I got to share my complete story of getting hit, and we touched on every subject that I thought was important - I really love this one!

The Advocate Meh, I don't even drive a car much less having trouble getting out of it, but great article!

Happy Friday ya'll!

Summer Rain...Happy Birthday BONO!!

The purpose of this post is to hopefully show a great comeback from rock bottom, because that's where I am right now. The low point in my 35 years is now. I've survived an abusive marriage and a ton of money problems, and I gotta believe I'll survive this too. But MAN am I tired of being strong! Give me weak and easy, I'd be cool with that for now!

Bono's Birthday is today! My favorite band. This is my favorite song from them; if I had to pick a song that accurately represents me, this is it.
It's called Summer Rain.

It's not this bad, I just really really love this blog and she's just gone through some bad times: MAKE SURE you read at least one other thing besides the "Adventures in Depression" posts! I like the Dog one. Hyperbole and a Half

This has been a crazy week. Lots of good, one really bad. In that I lost my job. I don't really get the details, basically they waited until I was no longer on FMLA even though I tried to get back to work before it was out, and then said since I was no longer on FMLA they were letting me go. My therapists and doctors filled out a lot of paperwork for them, all saying I can go back. HR kept coming up with weird next steps that I had to do, which I now see were probably stalling tactics. YES I'm confident I can do the job now, I honestly don't know what the problem is. I'm healed enough that I'm confident that I could even do surgery. I wish I had the opportunity to show them I'm okay now, I miss it. But I don't know where to go from here.

SO what to do?? Honestly, I'm scared, and hurt, and incredibly sad. It's the icing on the cake for me, everything I built has come crashing down. I wanted to be a vet all my life - since I was seven years old - and I can't even afford working in private practice because of my mega student loans. Can't leave the state easily because I have a kid with aforementioned ex-husband, and of course I'm still healing from this broken neck business.
I read something on Facebook recently that said something to the effect of if you don't believe it will be okay, you don't trust life enough. It's true, I don't, and I have a hard time trusting it will be okay.
Nic said if it's not working to trust God right now, trust in how strong I am. That helps.
My awesomest friend Jess said there are 2 type of people, those that are good at adapting and blending in and going along with things, and those that are determined to get what they want. The world needs both types. Her analogy was that if we were stranded on a desert island she would be the type that blends in with the natives and became part of their culture, and I would be the type to build a boat and find a way to get back where I wanted to be. That's how she knows I'm going to be okay. I think Nic is the 1st type too, along with her. It works. My life is still together because of him.

Jess & Me

So I need a job. For reals this time. Even if it's a new profession. I want to work.

ON to the good things!!!

I'm 99% walking with a cane now! It doesn't help me walk correctly but it does help with my balance. And is sooo much more easy to carry around! And hug people! And shoo away pets and children and things! Hooray!
500y swimming this week! If ya think that's tough, try doing it as a paraplegic! Gogglesss! ;) (I forgot them)
Follow my progress! NOLA RnR 2014 Training Log

I attended the 1st time trial of the season by Precision Bikes. I sucked at cycling when I started racing, but this was always a fun time even though I came in last! It Was Great; I met quite a few people there. The awesome chiropractor Keith Terro, Ruud Vuijsters the PT, badass Jamie Scott whom came to visit me in the hospital (I don't really remember!,) and equally badass Aimee Copeland that had done my x-rays (I also don't remember). Also there was Stanley Lerille (vote for him HERE to go to Kona!) and Scott Coco that I met when I was still in a wheelchair, and Amanda Cole whom I just bought some cycling stuff from the day before, my first since getting mashed up, Mark Miller of course,and a TON of other people.You should come out next time - the Corner Bar ya'll!

Nic's sister Laura Zaunbrecher & her boyfriend Charles Garabedian went to see Frank Shorter talk. They got him to sign this great picture of us at the finish line! Frank Shorter had cheered us on and handed me my walker. SO stoked about it!!

BikeLafayette's Jen Steele and I were on KATC promoting  the "Ride of Silence,"  a world-wide event that honors cyclists that were hit or killed on roadways. I'm one of the honorees this year, along with other really great people. May 15th 7PM at the Mickey Shunick Ghost Bike memorial!!

Have a happy weekend! Go listen to some U2!

Friday's Update Spectacular!

Me: I'm soooo sensitive to ambient temperature! I wonder what people did a long time ago before air conditioning when they broke their necks. Oh, that's right, they died!

Nic: Yeah, life was much simpler back then.

Me: Sigh. Things are quite complicated in this day and age.

In the news:

Drugs-down to 25mg baclofen a day, and that does it for prescriptions! I was on 7+ types of meds so this is fantastic. Baclofen is an anti-spasmodic that I'm slowly weaning down. Spasms, by true definition, are created by disruptions in the spinal cord. Related to the hypertonicity of my leg, it happens when the muscle tries to talk to the brain via the spinal cord, and the message is all garbled, making  the muscle twitch or contract in various ways. There's a possibility I'll need it long-term, but it's really a small possibility, and way more likely I never needed it in the first place! Baclofen just never seemed to work for me. It doesn't cause any side effects really, I just don't want to be on meds if I don't need them. My spasms are considerably better; now they're tiny and just a bit annoying every once in a while.
Spasms are hard for me to talk about because they can be debilitating, they can progressively get worse, and many people have them and they never ever ever go away. I'm just hopeful mine will since I'm so highly functioning. But I'm getting sad and fearful just typing about it.
Luckily I haven't had ANY pain since the first few weeks of hospitalization, and I haven't needed pain meds at all this year!

Work-well...this week? The only thing holding me up is honestly redundant superfluous paperwork. Incredibly frustrating. I'm losing hundreds of dollars a day because of it.

Taxes-done! almost ;)

Bike court-I was all prepared to defend myself, it was a no-brainer really and after reading  the laws it was very clear to me that I was in no way in the wrong. THEN I happened to know a lawyer who was there for other cases, who is also a runner/triathlete, who discussed my case with the judge and had my tickets cleared! Woohoo! Not that I wouldn't have won it on my own but it was a big weight off my shoulders. Also there was Ben Broussard, who's family, if you remember, took the video of Nic and me crossing the finish line. Completely ran into him by chance. I love this place!

This is the video, how awesome Ben & Family! Whoa, Really loud!

Driving-soon I hope!

Therapy-FaBuLoUs!! Finally got to try the e-stim machine that would help my hams overcome my quads, but it didn't work very well for me after all. MAINLY because I've improved so much over the last couple of weeks that it was obsolete! It's not perfect, but my quads are really starting to calm down. Things are looking totally up! No One Knows, I may never get better past this point, but I'm expected to make a 95%+ recovery. I say 100%.
My hand is also getting better! I can shake hands again now - this is big! - and my strength and function is returning. SLOW but definite progress. I get frustrated but Simonne my OT can always show me where I've made progress even if I can't see it myself.

Geaux Run rocks. You should check them out.

Geaux Run Link

FestiVELO-Laffy's 1st Bike Festival was last Sunday, and a huge success! It's "Bike To Work" week this week. I'm incredibly hopeful for the cycling future here!

Lastly, I'm part of another blog if you haven't checked it out already, with two other women that battle life-threatening lifestyle changes. We're all the same age, all are mothers, and all stay healthy despite our challenges! Here's the link:

Cajun Titanium

Frrrrryyyyyddddaaaayyyyy!!!!

Maybe I'll fry something today? Maybe there are baby fish today?

I changed the blog title! And some other stuff! Still a bit more work to do! I don't like the background color. Comments/suggestions appreciated!

So we DID get to go to the Holi Festival last weekend, yay!!! I didn't realize how tired I must look all the time. or how bad my posture has become, until I saw the pictures. BUT, I'm working on it!!

Snakebyte, Nic, and Ji. Liam HAD to show you his shoes!

Matt & Emily

Silly! Oh, man, I love this guy!

We gave a talk to the Rotary Club of Lafayette North this week. It was a great honor because they organized a blood drive to help pay for my medical bills. These are Wonderful people and they do So Much for the community. Besides for being HUGE advocates for the cycling community, they're also working hard for polio eradication. I'll post more on that later.I was incredibly happy to meet them.

Awesome!

I also went Swimming this week! At Chris Pool. This is a program run by the Lafayette paralympics coordinator, and they meet twice a week. And I Could Freestyle!! My core is still weak, my right knee won't bend as much as it should, and my hands won't listen, but I could totally do it. SO stoked!

Earl J Chris Pool

PS: I HAVE BIKE COURT NEXT WEEK!

This is for the tickets I received. I pleaded Not Guilty. Wednesday, 8:30a.

Dr. Terro (chiropractor) is continuing to work with me, and PT/OT is getting harder it seems because I can actually work at it, which is rockin'. I can bend my knee even more now and I'm remaining hopeful it will be normal soon. This is big news. My hands are Definitely coming along, definite improvement, just soo slowly!

Me, I'm Exhausted. I've been sick, and all my muscles are achy. Therapy is *finally* where I can build a lot of muscle & it's tiring (in a good way.) Swimming is awesome & also wears me out. At home I'm doing Pilates on my own every day and yoga through the guidance of my friend Julie.
There's also arguing with social security now which is draining. They denied my claim from over 5 months ago. I hope to be able to go back to work for good, but I don't know if my fingers will ever get back to normal. If I go back to work they probably will deny my appeal. If I don't, my leave will run out & I'll start losing money.

Sheesh. I want to just give in & learn to live with my lot in life, but I figure, once you really really realize that life's unfair, you have no choice but to continue to work hard to get to being happy. It's tough, but ain't nothing more to livin than tryin!

If you're in Laffy, go to FestiVÉLO de Lafayette in Parc Sans Souci this Sunday! April is Bike Month in Lafayette and FestiVÉLO is the kickoff party. I'll be there!!!

Did I mentioned I was stoked about swimming???? :)

Have an awesome weekend!!

F.U.!! (Is that a good acronym for "Friday Update"?)

It's been an exciting week! Rebel turned 13 (here's my post about it) and Snakebyte lost his first tooth!

Kinda love these  guys                                            

 Speeches & press & another article oh my! Twitter has been fun this week! There has been a request not to call it my "broken neck," but something better. "Healing neck," "better than new neck," "knitting neck," "neckofsteel," "neckwreck," "neck nouveau," heck I even got called "Moneck" ;) Ya'll got anything? My only request, it must be a grammar gimmick! Big thanks to @PitchingtheWoo & the fabulous Rev Ev!


MONDAY I was given the opportunity by Matt Massey to speak with the Tri-Cajuns about my struggle, and it was an incredibly emotional time for me. NOT because of the broken-neck thing, but because I was personally able to thank people for the incredible support, and some of it I didn't even know or remember. The sweetness of people never stops amazing me, I never get used to the feeling. I had *heard* about a triathlete that stayed with Eric and me the whole time (Koby, I got to meet him!,) and I didn't know about what Ashley Delaune went through to find me and to make sure someone was there to take care of the kid and me...it was sooo heartwarming, I had only known her a small time before. She is the proud new owner of the Smoothie Factory in Laffy off of Johnston...if you ever go there you are supporting really loving people! One of my best friends in Laffy Town (Annette) came to the meeting to watch my talk too, I don't know if I'd have made it through without her. Also speaking was Dr. Keith Terro, a chiropractor & triathlete, about stretching for runners, and John Hebert, the Tri-Cajuns president, about the work his rotary club has done for cycling signage.

TUESDAY BikeLafayette is an organization I'm getting involved in that advocates building a bicycling community as part of Lafayette's growth. I joined them at the Lafayette Consolidated Government to hear the City-parish Council (as the Metropolitan Planning Organization) proclaim April as Bike Month, and then supported them to vote to use 10% of annual Urban Systems funding for Bike/Pedestrian improvements in the greater Lafayette area. Through a misunderstanding I was called up to speak at the vote, which seemed to turn out fine, as it was supported by a unanimous decision!

WEDNESDAY Yesterday's speaking mishap landed us on the front page of The Advertiser with me all up in it (here: Cyclists encourage sharing the road) which is awesome because I love being part of this group. Also, I had my first session with the world-renowned chiropractor Keith A. Terro II, D.C., C.C.S.P.! Well, Lafayette-renowned at the very least! After we spoke for the Tri-Cajuns Monday, I asked him if he had any ideas about the co-contraction of my right quads/hams. We all remember there is nothing proven to fix this, but he's got a few methods to try! Also there are some things to improve my proprioception. Today, we utrasounded my quads and hamstrings, and then he massaged my quads. I don't know what You'r experience has been, but mine is that there are NO comfortable massages in therapy, sheesh!! It was incredibly worth it. I have kinesio tape on my quads and hams now. I'll keep you updated!

Kinesio taping! Or, my version of the Facebook "=" ;)

THURSDAY I'm going to mention another business run by good-hearted people, T-Coon's. Today I needed to go to therapy and T-Coon himself brought me. I have so much more to say about the family that owns this place, but I'll save it for another day! Wulf was out this week, but his used-to-be partner Kristen was there, and we practiced walking with a cane quite a bit this week. Also tons of exercise for my hip. I did a lot of back strengthening this week too! I'm incredibly thankful that I can start building muscle again instead of just struggling to even stand! I've started walking wrong, compensating, which I can't do if I'm going to get back to normal, so I had to break all  these bad habits, which makes me walk tons slower. Dang!

FRIDAY Today! Seems like it should go pretty well considering the rest of the week. I'm sad because Liam won't be here due too visitation, and we have a fun weekend planned - the Holi Festival for one! Plus it's been stressful on the pick-up/drop-off,  and then there's everything else with this situation....too much to think about. This is MY situation where I have to remember not to stress abut what I cannot control!

Happiness is this right here

Have A Fantastic Weekend My Friends!!!

BE YOU!

If you don't know +aileen bennett  you should! She's an amazing writer and a gifted motivational speaker. There's no escaping her English accent and quirky ways but despite of that, or even because of it, she's a key part of Acadiana.
And this article starring me ;) PROVES this, because she wanted to do this before the race, heck even before I got smacked by a car! Now That's good taste, HA! So here am I pre-media hype, in the awesome BE YOU column!

PS I'm SO dry, sheesh!! I find myself quite uninteresting. But that's cool, love you guys!
PPS This ends the media hype, at least what I know about. Great way to end it! Click on the BE YOU link!

BE YOU: Monique Koll

You can find Aileen Bennett here:
Creating Clever
That Speaker

Paratriathlon...the Beginning

I'm not happy about this. I want to be, I'm trying, but I'm still pretty newly "disabled" and there's something to being called a "paratriathlete" that I'm not ready to label myself with yet. I really feel that I won't be in that category forever, or even for a long time. I'm INCREDIBLY lucky, I've met so many great people who have way worse injuries than me that might not have the support and opportunities I do. But I can't focus on them and they can't focus on me. We're All at different points at our lives, what good does comparing ourselves do?

I contacted Paralympics NOT to train, but only to get information. Spinal cord injuries can manifest a multitude of problems, and one of them is "anhidrosis," which is an inability to sweat. My skin can't sweat or produce oil below the level of my lesion (neck.) Also, I might not be able to get my heart rate up enough to do cardio. This may all heal, but it may not. I couldn't find good information on how to work with this, so I contacted them for resources.

When USA Paratriathlon contacted me back, I deleted the message, only to days later recover it and file it away.  Then after this mess with the half marathon craziness I decided to contact them back. I mean, this could be a good stepping stone to get back to triathlon training, right? Plus, it would be cool to have a coach; I never had one.

I talked to them today. They were excited to share that paratriathlon will debut in the Paralympics in Rio 2016. They're going to try to set me up with some local parathlete coaches, who will work closely with my therapists and doctor. I need to find a place to start swimming again, and I'm going start being more active with cycling on the trainer - I've been on it but my body's still so messed up! I don't know where all this is going to take me and I'm hella scared to see what my limitations are. But I have no choice; basically either go for my goals or not! I wouldn't know how to define myself if I didn't try. No matter how hard the struggle is I still have things I have to accomplish, and worrying about how painful the journey will be is a complete waste of time.

IN OTHER NEWS! Filming for the local channel KATC was incredibly fun! Here's Nic & Me: VIDEO

Spontaneous Thoughts On Instafame

The Stuff We Didn't Know:

Whoa! We knew this would be cool for US, but we had no idea the inspiration people would take from it. And, Awesome. Keep an eye on your goals! Life sucks, and it isn't fair, but if you stop trying you get nowhere.

The media is first-come-first-serve. The Today Show got us first, so even though a day later we were contacted by Ellen and The Insider and others, as soon as it aired they backed off. Should we have waited? Meh, I don't think it would have made a difference. At first I thought it would have, but I don't know if it would have been any better than it was!

Fame doesn't equal money! We received: free entry to R'n'R next year because they're Great, and ruts in our yard from the camera crew! Locally people have been Awesome, but this is not a surprise, we're a great community in Lafayette. But fame doesn't pay medical bills if you're hit by someone without insurance, or give you a possible change in life direction even if you wanted to be a vet ALL your life and now you may never be one at the capacity you were before because your hands are messed up.

The Stuff We Did Know:

Holy Cow, We're Amazing!! And so are you! :)

Lafayette Rocks. The community here is unbelievable. We love it here.

We keep fabulous people around us. This is always a great idea!

Our world is fantastic! People are beautiful, we all want about the same thing - love and caring and trust. I love all of you!

Busy Day Today...

Today Show airs this morning, but I'll be in bike court so I'll miss it! Then there's therapy and interviewing with the amazing Aileen Bennett...still need to sleep! LZ has a new blog post that I have an honorable mention in about the half marathon we did together last week! It was her boyfriend Charles Garabedian who gave me the free entry that was sponsored by Gatorade. Laura Zaunbrecher is Nic's sister, and we had a really great time with them last weekend!

I'm so incredibly overwhelmed and I'm forgetting to say many of the important things that I want to when they're interviewing us. That it was a lucky shot that I was upset that they even caught me crying, that being in such a severe accident changes your relationship that's hard to learn to deal with sometimes, how important it is that Acadiana has trails off the road for bikes so that this doesn't even happen and better education about the laws out there...so much! Hopefully I'll get better at this!

Brand New Blog

SO, this is a blog. Well, exciting! Nic and I have an interview with the Today Show in a bit, it will be airing tomorrow. I guess I should start with where I started, which is here.

Well, if you tell me what you want to hear about, I'll probably write about it. I am still wondering where my veterinary career is going to go after all this, so I can keep you updated on that. There's also training to race again with USA Paratriathlon, plus I'm doing some writing. Adios!