I'm not sure if this posted the other day. I didn't know there were rules. My first message had images... Oops!
Hello all. I subscribed to this list a while back and very much enjoy getting the emails and reading the responses. I figured I better introduce myself instead of lurking in the darkness. First off my name is Erin Shackelford, I'm 29 years old, married to my wonderful husband Bret, we have an 18 month old daughter named Bria. I myself am not a quadriplegic, but I take care of my little brother who is a c4-c7, incomplete quad. Our journey: We had a pretty rough life growing up. I moved out on my own when I was 16, was homeless at times, slept in my car at times, have been working my ass off since I was 16 and dropped out of college after my freshman year to work even more so that I could get my own place and take care of my brother, who was 16 at the time. Ok, so I get him through high school, into college, and after two years, he decided college wasn't for him. He signed up for the Air Force in 2011, at the age of 21 and was waiting for his call, to go to boot camp. He went to a party on June 14th, 2011 and dove into a shallow swimming pool, almost drowned and was taken by ambulance to a hospital and treated for intoxication and fluid in his lungs. He was sedated and intubated. After 12 hours, they removed the tubes and asked him if he wanted a drink. The nurse became frustrated when he wouldn't grab a cup from her. He informed her that he couldn't move his hands and couldn't feel his legs. He was rushed off for an MRI... He fractured c4 & c7 and crushed c5 & c6. His spinal cord was only bruised. After being in the hospital for 2 weeks, he was transferred by an air ambulance to Craig Specialty Hospital in Denver, Colorado. While at Craig, Ryon had two surgeries on his neck, and rehabbed from June to October. We are forever thankful for the treatment we received at Craig and still go back yearly for re-evaluations. While I was in Denver with my brother, my husband worked his butt off making our home accessible for my brother. Ryon came home to an accessible home and still lives with me to this day. I wouldn't have it any other way. I am his only caretaker and it can be quite challenging at times. I no longer work outside of my home and even managed to care for him throughout my entire 9 months of pregnancy. In September of last year, when my daughter was 9 months old, we discovered that she was bilaterally, profoundly deaf. So for the past 9 months we have been very busy with her. She received bilateral cochlear implants in February and is now almost 3 months post activation. She is progressing leaps and bounds. Ryon has luckily remained healthy, for the most part since my daughter was born, but we have been struggling with a small issue, which isn't life threatening, but aggravating. He's taken a backseat during the past 9 months, but things have finally started to slow down and we have become accustomed to our hectic life. Ryon has been having a stomach pain for the past 2 years and it is getting progressively worse. He's had X-rays, ultrasounds, ct scans, and been treated for neurological nerve pain. To no avail. It is in his lower right abdomen, definitely not bladder or kidneys, all of his blood tests come back normal, he's not septic, his white blood count is normal, it doesn't correlate with eating, or bowl programs. We are at a complete loss for what it is. When I say that he's been dealing with this for two years, we have seen many doctors and specialist, a neurosurgeon, urologist, gi... Just about anyone you can think of. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Thank you all for letting me be apart of this group. Erin Shackelford
