Re: [QUAD-L] wheelchair cushion

2015-09-21 Thread Erin Shackelford
Glenn,

My brother (we read these emails together, 4 years post, c4 quad) just ordered 
a Custom Ride Cushion. NuMotion is our provider and they sent a seating 
technician to our house and did a mold of his bottom. They sat him in the foam 
that they use for floral arrangements. The process has taken a few months. It 
is being made right now and then should be here within the next few weeks. 

He's been using a J2 since his injury. He has multiple wedges in the cushion he 
is in now. He is mapped once a year during his re-evaluation at Craig Specialty 
Hospital. They map and then put them where needed. I know for sure he has one 
large one across the front (about an 1.5 in rise) and a smaller one to keep his 
knees from coming together.  He also uses a layover of blue foam (not memory 
foam, but it's real soft) and it has a small cut out to keep his ischiums 
elevated, to prevent sores.

We've been trying to get something done about his j2 for 2 years now. His right 
butt cheek has been on the verge of a sore for over 2 years. He tried a Roho, 
for a few days, but the maps were still bad. Not as bad as the j2, but not good 
enough to prevent a sore. 

Hope this helps. 

Erin Shackelford

> On Sep 21, 2015, at 3:13 PM, gah17...@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I would like to hear from anyone about what kind of wheelchair cushion you 
> may use, Roho users please don’t respond as I have used the roho and it does 
> not work for me.
> 
> Question two, does anybody use memory foam or T foam?  If you do use either, 
> does anybody ever cut a hole in the foam to relieve pressure?
> 
> Question three, if anyone has ever had seat mapping, do you have any type of 
> a wedge placed under your cushion to shift weight differently?
> 
> Am a 49 year post Sci C5-6.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Glenn


Re: [QUAD-L] Oops, trying again (new here)

2015-06-02 Thread Erin Shackelford
Thank you so much everyone. 

Ryon is pretty sure that it is not neurological pain... But I'm not convinced 
it isn't. He always shows the doctors where the pain is and how it feels. I try 
my best to allow him to speak for himself at the doctor, but I always clarify 
to the doctor that we don't know for sure if he is really feeling the pain 
where he thinks he is, because his injury level is c4. 

He has been being treated for neurological pain for over a year now. First 
gabapentin, then slowly increased the dose, then lyrica and then that dosage 
maxed out as well. We stayed on the lyrica for over a year, but I finally asked 
the doctor to take him off of it, because I was paying $75/month for it. 

The spasticity does increase when the pain increases. The pain never worsens or 
betters when eating or drinking more or less. The types of food he eats doesn't 
have any effect. 

We are from a small town in the northeast corner of Kansas, called Elwood. We 
are about 40 minutes north of Kansas City. We are right on the Missouri River 
and receive all of our medical care in St. Joseph, MO. This has just recently 
caused us problems. When Kansas Medicaid changed a couple years ago... All of 
the specialist we previously saw in St. Joseph are no longer covered by our new 
insurance. Medicaid is Ryons secondary, blue cross blue shield primary, but 
it's easier for the doctors to accept both insurances. 

We are currently trying to form a new team of doctors at KU med, but the 
problem with that is that it is an hour south of us and we don't have the most 
reliable van to get there. But we will make do. 

We go back to Craig July 10th. Hopefully we can get some help this year. They 
weren't helpful last year, they acted like it wasn't a big deal, but now it's 
been 2 years of pain and I have got to get something figured out for him. 

Whoever asked about my parents being alive... They both are still. I think my 
dad is anyway, I haven't seen her for 4 years or so. Remember... I moved out 
when I was 16 and never looked back. 

 On Jun 2, 2015, at 12:28 AM, Erin Shackelford erin...@me.com wrote:
 
 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

Re: [QUAD-L] Oops, trying again (new here)

2015-06-02 Thread Erin Shackelford
Just to clarify... The lyrica or gabapentin did nothing for his pain. If it 
did... I would have paid any amount of money. 

Erin Shackelford

 On Jun 2, 2015, at 5:19 PM, Erin Shackelford erin...@me.com wrote:
 
 Thank you so much everyone. 
 
 Ryon is pretty sure that it is not neurological pain... But I'm not convinced 
 it isn't. He always shows the doctors where the pain is and how it feels. I 
 try my best to allow him to speak for himself at the doctor, but I always 
 clarify to the doctor that we don't know for sure if he is really feeling the 
 pain where he thinks he is, because his injury level is c4. 
 
 He has been being treated for neurological pain for over a year now. First 
 gabapentin, then slowly increased the dose, then lyrica and then that dosage 
 maxed out as well. We stayed on the lyrica for over a year, but I finally 
 asked the doctor to take him off of it, because I was paying $75/month for 
 it. 
 
 The spasticity does increase when the pain increases. The pain never worsens 
 or betters when eating or drinking more or less. The types of food he eats 
 doesn't have any effect. 
 
 We are from a small town in the northeast corner of Kansas, called Elwood. We 
 are about 40 minutes north of Kansas City. We are right on the Missouri River 
 and receive all of our medical care in St. Joseph, MO. This has just recently 
 caused us problems. When Kansas Medicaid changed a couple years ago... All of 
 the specialist we previously saw in St. Joseph are no longer covered by our 
 new insurance. Medicaid is Ryons secondary, blue cross blue shield primary, 
 but it's easier for the doctors to accept both insurances. 
 
 We are currently trying to form a new team of doctors at KU med, but the 
 problem with that is that it is an hour south of us and we don't have the 
 most reliable van to get there. But we will make do. 
 
 We go back to Craig July 10th. Hopefully we can get some help this year. They 
 weren't helpful last year, they acted like it wasn't a big deal, but now it's 
 been 2 years of pain and I have got to get something figured out for him. 
 
 Whoever asked about my parents being alive... They both are still. I think my 
 dad is anyway, I haven't seen her for 4 years or so. Remember... I moved out 
 when I was 16 and never looked back. 
 
 On Jun 2, 2015, at 12:28 AM, Erin Shackelford erin...@me.com wrote:
 
 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

[QUAD-L] Oops, trying again (new here)

2015-06-01 Thread Erin Shackelford
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


Re: [QUAD-L] Online Community for Disabled

2006-01-11 Thread Erin



To W and All,
I hear your concerns. I was alsoskeptical at first about sharing 
things about myself.First of allthere is a legal privacy agreement 
given by the website. Second of all, you are not required to give any 
information other than your email address, which you are giving by being part of 
this list-serve as well. We all must just use our best judgement, just like in 
the real world. Maybe it can be of help to someone.It can't hurt to check 
it out. 
Thanks for your imput.
Erin