About three weeks after high school graduation (1992), I experienced a car accident that left me paralyzed from the neck-down. At first, Doctors and Therapists gave me no hope of any recovery. I refused to accept their grim predictions! Now, 18 years later, I have normal feeling throughout my body.
I have full use of my right arm and leg and partial, but improving use of my left side. I am able to transfer myself from my electric wheelchair into the drivers seat of a van, where I can drive using a knob on the steering wheel that allows me to steer with just one hand. I operate the gas and brake with my right foot, as anyone else would.
I do self-directed therapy on exercise machines at L.A. Fitness. At Superstition Springs Mall, I practice walking, while holding onto the railing along the center of the 2nd floor, for balance. Here's my story.
On June 13, 1992, after graduating from Mountain View Highschool in Mesa Arizona a few weeks earlier, I was driving home from a trip to West Valley, Utah. I drove for a few hours with everything running smoothly.
As I approached the barren area outside of Beaver, Utah, I remember there being no sign of civilization anywhere. The opposing lanes of freeway were separated by about a football field's width of grass. My tire blew and the car rolled several times. I had my seatbelt on, but being 6’2 and in a small car, my head was already almost touching the roof, before the roll-over.
My head was thrust into the roof of the car, causing a c3/c4 spinal cord injury, and a closed-head injury. My heart stopped beating and I stopped breathing. I was clinically dead, laying in the middle of nowhere.
Two passing paramedics witnessed the accident and rushed to the car to administer cpr. They were able to revive my vital signs, but I was in a coma. They rushed me to the Beaver Valley Hospital.
My parents were contacted and hurried to my side. I was transferred to the better equipped LDS hospital, in Salt Lake City. For the next three weeks, my family watched as I lay motionless in a coma.
The doctors gave them little hope. They said that I had no brain activity and that I was basically a vegetable without hope for recovery. If I ever did wake up, which was almost impossible, I would be paralyzed from the neck-down and be retarded and unable to talk or breath on my own, for the rest of my life. They hinted that the best option may be to let me go, mercifully.
Approaching the three week mark following the accident, after much praying and fasting by my family and friends, I awoke from the coma. When I awoke, I was paralyzed from the neck down, mute and unable to breathe without a respirator. I was transferred to the Good Samaritan Rehab Clinic Hospital in Phoenix.
The first wheelchair I remember was operated by a mechanism called ‘sip and puff.' I referred to it as, ‘suck and blow.’ To maneuver it, I would suck or blow into a long straw.
To prevent me from falling forward onto my lap, my shoulders had to be strapped to the wheelchair. I could talk, in very broken form, after being weaned off of the respirator. I had to take a breath between each word.
The first therapy I remember was with an OT (occupational therapist). She would put a long stick in my mouth (a mouth wand) and ask me to touch different pictures on an easel with it. I was confused, because I didn’t know why she wasn’t helping me regain use of my arm and hand. I asked her why we weren’t working on regaining function in my hands.
The first time I asked, she didn’t respond. So, I asked her again. This time she said, "You’ll never use your hands again." That made me mad! She wasn't even going to help me try to use my hands, before assuming that it was impossible!?
In my extreme frustration, I spit the mouth wand onto the ground. She picked it up and put it back in my mouth. I spit it out again. Every time she put it in my mouth, I spit it out. Eventually, that therapy session ended.
The next day I got a new OT, Lisa. Lisa would put my arm in a deltoid aid (a machine that helped me elevate my arm) and have me practice trying to type on a typewriter. It was very difficult. It was almost impossible, at first.
With perseverance, I got so I could type a word, then two, then a sentence, etc. Lisa also came to my room during lunch and helped me try to feed myself. When I left the hospital, I had function with my right hand. I could drive my wheelchair with my hand!
After I was released from in-patient therapy, Arizona Long Term Care provided me with a personal care attendant. Mike Thomas (my first attendant and good friend) would help me get ready for the day and then take me to the Health Improvement Center (HIC) at Mesa Community College. I still had no use of my legs, so I would have Mike lay me in the leg press and strap my feet to the plate at the end, with ace bandages.
Then, I would have him pull my body up and down on the leg press, forcing me to bear the weight. He was doing all the work. I had no intentional use of my leg muscles, but I would concentrate and try to help with the pressing, as he pulled me and pushed me. I believed that if he moved them for me, while I tried to, mentally, that I’d regain the ability to use them intentionally.
I was right! Over months and years, I regained mobility and strength in my legs. Years later, at my strongest point yet, I pressed 160lbs on the leg press, with no help. I did exercises with my dominant side (my right side) for a number of years, until I had regained normal use of my entire right side.
Not long after I began doing therapy at MCC, I started to attend classes there, also. I took classes for a couple of years and then decided to get a job (doing therapy with my attendant the whole time). In 1998, I was hired as a Reservation Sales Agent at Southwest Airlines, in Phoenix.
I worked at Southwest for a few years and then was hired as a tele-sales agent for Direct Alliance Corporation (DAC). I worked at DAC for about 5 years, when I started to have major pains in my abdominal area. My doctor believed that gall stones were causing the pain.
I had my gall bladder removed, but the pain didn't go away. I started having after effects from the surgery that made it very hard for me to work. Other health problems continued until I had exhausted all of my FMLA hours and was forced to resign.
For years, the pain made it difficult to perform daily tasks and I continued on Prescription Narcotics, as nothing else helped me to manage the pain. Eventually I realized that unless I found some other way to treat this pain, the RX Narcotics were going to lead to my death.
The pain meds would provide temporary relief, but when they'd wear off, the agonizing pain returned, full-force. One day, I came accross aloe vera juice. I remembered how well the aloe vera plant had helped heal my skin, when I was a kid, when my mom applied it to burns and other sores.
I started buying aloe vera juice at Walmart and at Trader Joe's, by the gallon. I started drinking between one water bottle full and half a gallon throughout each day. When I would drink a water bottle filled with aloe vera juice and wait 30 minutes, my pain would be gone. It's effect was equal to swallowing a whole dose of narcotics!
Not only that, but after drinking this stuff heavily for weeks, my pain was reduced majorly, all the time! Now, I was finally off of the prescription narcotics, but still dealing with their side effects. I had never had a seizure prior to taking pain meds, but started having one every month or two during my sleep, while taking rx narcotics.
Since I've been off of the RX narcotics, my seizures have decreased in severity and frequency, but still happen from time to time. I sometimes wonder that if I had never taken so many prescription narcotics, for so long, if I never would have had a seizure. On the bright side though, at least I was a able to find a natural remedy to my debilitating pain and now I can hope for a time when I have no seizures.
Not long after my 1992 car accident, I discovered a new hobby of writing original lyrics. I have never been a musical person, but after much reflection, I came to a concluson. I might not be able to compose or perform music, but I can sure write words for others to add music to and sing.
In or around 1994, I sat down (well, actually I was already sitting) and wrote my first lyric, TODAY. At the time, I was a student at Mesa Community College. I asked a friend at Institute, Gina Woods (who was a music student) if she would put music to my words.
Gina put a melody to the verse right away, but then she got tied up in school work and dating her future husband, so time passed without her finishing, TODAY. I asked Gina if she wanted to keep working our song, or if I should take what she had done and have someone else finish it. She said she wouldn't have time to work on it for a while, so it would be fine if I had someone else finish it.
Gina sang what she had composed onto a cassette tape. I decided to go to one of my most musically talented friends, Marc Denton and ask him to take what Gina had begun and finish it. I knew that Marc had made new piano/vocal arrangements of other peoples' compositions in the past, so I asked him if he had ever composed a song before. He said that he had not.
Marc agreed to take my words and the melody that Gina had composed to the verse and finish the song. Shortly, Marc presented me with a vocal performance by one of his top vocal students, Lori Lyman, along with piano accompaniment, performed by himself, of our song, TODAY. Lori's performance was amazing!
Since then, I have composed many original lyrics. Most of them have been turned into songs, by talented musical composers. Linda Leavitt Hartman (I'LL FIND YOU MY FRIEND), songwriter and marketing director for Arizona newspaper, THE BEEHIVE, has added music to two of my original lyrics.
She is currently helping me to create an album of songs that all contain my words, titled TODAY. Linda has put me in touch with Mark Baker of LUCKY BLUE and NLIGHTN. Mark is acting as Executive Producer for this album. Mark is also using his recording studio to record songs for the album. He has added music to several of my lyrics for the album.
Many people are working tirelessly to help me fulfill my dream of creating music. I have only included a few of them in this post or on this site. Soon I will attempt to give them all the thanks and recognition that they deserve. Our project TODAY should be ready for sale sometime in 2011. This site will keep you updated on the progress of the album.
I am on the road to leaving my wheelchair behind. For so many years I have been close and then not. Now I am making significant, daily progress and my full recovery is on the horizon. I decided 18 years ago that being in a wheelchair wasn't for me.
I decided that I was not going to settle with 'living with my disability.' I have proven doctors and therapists wrong time and time again. (Not all of my doctors and therapists have needed to be proven wrong, as I have had some which have believed in my potential to completely overcome). Likewise, multiple doctors and therapists of mine have helped me get closer to fulfilling my goals.
I am going to show the world, that no matter how big your obstacle, if you decide that no matter what, you are going to overcome, with God's help and a spirit that says, "Oh, yes I can," you can accomplish anything. I also decided long ago, that I would be finished with my recovery once I was ambulatory and once I had finished running a marathon.
Now, I am closer to running that race, than ever before. God lets us experience trials and provides a way, that thru Faith and an unconquerable spirit, we, as His children, can accomplish anything. Just like one of my heros has proven, Glen Cunningham.
Glen's legs were so badly burned at eight years old, that doctors wanted to amputate, but his mother refused. Glen later became an olympic champion, who set a world record for running the mile in the early 1900's. As a child, I listened to his biography, entitled, "Little Bad Legs," but I had no idea, how similar my trials would be.
I am one of the luckiest guys alive! I have two awesome kids who are both extremely talented, who call me dad. I love to watch my son Kyran play basketball, baseball, football, hockey, diving, or any sport. He is learning to play guitar and shows much promise! He is very athletic and good at anything he tries!
My daughter Karli is very good at dancing and is extremely elegant. She is great at synchronized swimming! She is soon going to start gymnastics, where we have no doubt, she'll shine! She loves to play the piano!
I love to go on walks with my kids. Karli rides on my lap and I speed up really quickly, which makes me do a wheely. The kids and I love to go to the park with Karli on my lap and Kyran standing on the back of my wheelchair. My kids and I have a lot of fun whenever we are together.
One of my best friends, Corey Baumgartner, spent many years helping me with everything from my daily , personal -care needs, to my self-directed therapy. Many members of my family have helped me with many things. They include Kyran Drysdale (my son), Karli Drysdale (my girl), Gary Drysdale (my dad), Cathy Drysdale (my mom), Chris and Jeremy Drysdale (my brothers), Kurt Basset and Elliot Ulrich (my brothers in law), David Shull (my cousin in-law).
Some others are Nanci Lawson, Mike Thomas, Bryan Young, Dan Gomez, Mori Paredes, Dustin Ambrose, Mike Douglas, Mike Brandt, Philip Peruzzo, Brian Thomas, Karen Thomas, Jake Gabel and Tom Montague.
The most recent and a very significant helper and friend is Steve Hugo. Steve is a true friend and continues to help me today. At this time, I cannot recall other people who have helped through the years, but as I recall them, I will add them. Thanks to all who have given me assistance of any kind! Without all of you, I could not be where I am today!
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