T.C. – The Comeback

Howdy. How are you? Good? Great? Okay? Terrible? Equal parts? I hope it is more the former 2 rather the latter. Though, it is all kind of fluid ain’t it? Hmm, too much caffeine sans food for me today, got me typing like Jayden Smith.

TL/DR: I graduated with an MBA from the University of Minnesota in May and took a job on the corporate strategy team at Kaiser Permanente (large non-profit national health insurer/provider) in Oakland, CA. I moved here 2 weeks ago after an epic trip west including stops in Utah’s southern National Parks and begin work next week. I am genuinely excited with some room left for nervous. Nervous about living alone, being productive, and staying committed to what I am pretty sure is my driving motivation of helping deliver a therapy to restore function to people with paralysis. I can do it though. I know this because I just ate a gyro covered in two kinds of sauce while sitting on my new couch and didn’t spill. Peace and Love.

First Half – Wandering Intro

I am writing you today to provide an update. A bookend of an update actually. I find myself at what can only be considered a milestone – moving cross country to start working and living on my own again. This juncture, at least observed whilst sitting on my new purple velvet couch (I love this couch) not having started work yet, represents the culmination of all my, and your, efforts in regaining what I consider to be a normal life.  I know I have written that sentence before “…represents the culmination of la de da da”, but I think that concept describes my current time and place better than any before. For instance; I learned how to fold down my backseats and lift a heavyassed rugby chair into my trunk (which takes a refined technique without functioning fingers and limited triceps) during my first season playing quad rugby in Minneapolis. This skill proved adaptable when loading and unloading the multiple cumbersome items from my recent and requisite just-moved-into-an-apartment shopping sprees. When living in Stockholm last Winter (know that I studied abroad in Scandinavia during Winter for 2 very good reasons) I logged enough shower chair transfers under wet circumstances knowing I had no one to pick my glistening body up if I went cheeks to floor that I can now shower safely and confidently in my Coakland abode. Probably 80% of my activities I can associate to a specific and intentional learning experience, which I imagine is the same for all you ABs too, my timeline is just much shorter (6 years) so I can more easily recall them. What I am trying to show rather than say, because you know…writing, is that this is no accident. It is strange to rewind back to my perspective those first weeks I was injured, a lot of it is fuzzy (there were many smoothies and a nurse playing either Nelly or Wiz Khalifa on her phone while buzzing my head (breaking your neck sucks but it does provide a great cover in accepting one’s baldness)) but I explicitly remember picturing myself living in a cool city, living and working all by myself… Eating a gyro. Granted, in my dream/vision I wasn’t still a quad, and Eva Mendez and I had been on three dates, the most recent of which was at a kitschy mac & cheese place where we had a genuine moment while talking about her personal goals, but the broad strokes of my early ambitions have been met, and that is pretty satisfying. And scary. Yes, I am doing what I want to be doing but I still can’t provide a firm handshake or get dressed in under 10mins (unless I am rocking California InformalàCalinformal). I am not regaining any function without an intervention of some kind. This intervention will most likely be a combo of a neurological stimulating device (think pacemaker for the brain/spinal system), drugs, and physical therapy. I want to help make such an intervention available to those that want it (one that restores meaningful function, in my case bowel/bladder or full wrist and finger function. In other cases that means improving shoulder or biceps, or regaining full lung function. Meaningful return of function doesn’t just mean walking, in many people’s lives regaining the function derived from just one level of vertebrae lower is the difference between independence and dependence, general health and chronic illness, interacting in the world as you wish or not. As you can tell, that word MEANINGFUL is important to me. Just wanted to make sure I conveyed that to you dear reader). I did this with GUSU (Get Up Stand Up to Cure Paralysis Foundation www.gusu2cure.org), and many other super committed people continue to do great work there. Now I am wheeling down another path which I believe/hope will enhance my ability to deliver a therapy to restore function and positively impact people’s lives while doing so. At least I hope I can maintain or increase my efforts towards that goal. That mission sounds great on a cover letter and when I introduce myself to your parents, but staying committed is daunting when staring down such a long timeline. But others have and are doing it, so I certainly can’t stray. Plus, though I would never, ever, in any version of a universe where I have an SCI, say I am happy I broke my neck, I do find comfort in having at least one absolute in my life – I need to do whatever I can to create my own solution.

Phew, that last part really came out of nowhere, right? Let’s just smile, nod, and shuffle past that onto the next section.

Bottom of the Ninth – Straightforward Status Update

Being the observant and attentive reader that your mother and I know you are, you remember that I will start working on Kaiser Permanente’s Corporate Strategy team as a Strategy Consultant in 2 days. I am super pumped about the job for many reasons. The two you care most about are; that I will be aiding in decisions to impact and improve healthcare for millions of people (an area of business and people’s lives about which I care deeply) and that the job opportunity brought me out to the Bay Area (Oakland floats between 40-70 degrees year round – aka TomTom’s ideal climate. And the region is happenin AF). I rented a studio apartment on the Northside of DT Oakland which is within two blocks of coffee shops (one owned by an Argentinian who sells medialunas and yerba matte), bars, bakery, whole foods (half paycheck) and, most time-savingly, my office. I won’t have to drive to work, in fact, with a stop at the café included, it will only be a 10min push to work. Money. Another game-changing improvement is the recent purchase of a Batec Mobility Scooter. Check out this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24PSI1gG9o – to get an idea. The device is a motorized front wheel with handlebars that attaches and lifts my chair allowing me to go up to 18km/hr (if a 5k is 3.1 miles, then…) and uses disc brakes so I can manage descents without shredding my hands. It is by far the most game-changing and enabling device I have used. I jetted up and down dirt hills at Bryce Canyon and have covered distances in the city that would have traditionally taken 2 hours of strenuous pushing in 15 enjoyable minutes. It is amazing.  And durable. To test the device’s resilience, I wisely decided to take a corner hot at the A’s game on Monday. The scooter was okay and my elbow will heal.

So, as an excel cell could very well say, that pretty much sums it up. Life is happening and I am excited. There are a whole heap of new experiences (some good, some bad, most delicious) waiting for me down this trail. I just hope I don’t get a flat…Tire…I use a wheelchair.

I also can’t write about my ~successful~ journey thus far without thanking my mom (Terri), dad (Cokely), and sister (Elizabeth). Without their time consuming and steadfast help I would still be in bed most of the day watching NCIS feeling sorry for myself. No question. You put me into a position to regain my life, no one else could have done that. Thank you for everything (Mark Harmon is disappointed though).

And thank you. Be it directly or indirectly, you have helped me reach this milestone I marked over 6 years ago. Thank you for that help. And heck, if I can make it to Woakland with a job I like after quadding myself, so can you. Make it to Oakland I mean. As you already know, I have a great couch on which you can sleep.

Peace and Love

Thomas