SCI support group

    Prissy had a very good day. She has been in a "Funk" the past couple of days, so it was a great change of pace to see her a little fiesty today. I had the opportunity to go with her and her therapist to the Spartanburg Spinal Cord Injury Support Group meeting tonight. I really enjoyed meeting all of the really nice people and the group's leader, Dot, who visited Scilla at the RCP last week. Everyone there was so friendly and gave Priss some great advice and told her that everything she is worried about now will become second nature to her and that she is still "new" out. Once she get further out she will learn to adapt and find a way to do things.
 
    The group is really supportive and gave great advice on everything. One lady, Ms. Cynthia who has had her injury since birth is a fiesty little something and I absolutely loved talking to her. Both Cynthia and Dot gave Scilla some great advice and they even talked about how tasks such as grocery shopping by yourself requires adaptation. For example, Dot shops with a basket and just makes several trips to the front to drop off a basket and then fill another if she has a lot of shopping to do. You may ask why Dot doesn't get into a motorized cart and shop? The answer is simply that she doesn't want to run the risk of someone stealing or taking off with her $8,000.00 wheelchair! Ms. Cynthia, who is well over 50 drives a three wheeled motorized chair now and she takes produce bags, tie them together, then attached one end to the center of the shopping cart and the other to the back of her chair and pulls the cart behind her.

      Some other great advice was:

• From Ms. Cynthia: Don't be afraid to fall! You have already taken the big fall anyways; you fell 40 ft when you had your accident. Also make sure your wheelchair seat is snug to you and has sturdy arm handles.
• From Ms. Dot and Cynthia: Solid tires are better than air tires because you don't run the risk of getting a flat or puncturing a tire.

I noticed that almost everyone there did drive a van of some sort, which makes more sense to me if you are going to drive with hand controls because you have a better chance of successfully getting your chair into the car independently. I really enjoyed the meeting and look forward to meeting more new people and learning more.

"Walking in faith..."