Tag: chronic-pain
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“One Construction Zone At a Time” // Who Knows What’s Next? for SCI Recovery | Nov 16 – 22 2025
Working On Left Hip – One Construction Zone At a Time
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“Don’t Die Today” – Ocean & Desert Exploration for SCI Recovery | Nov 2 – 8 2025
“Don’t Die Today” – getting back in the groove of daily work/ life routine after SCI and vacation
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Black Hooded Figure //Learning From Others, Social Engagement for SCI Rehab | Oct 19 – 25 2025
Externalization of our minds. Working through the black hooded figures inside ourselves. Learning about the natural frequencies in our bodies. Always something new to be learning.
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New Meaning of The Word ‘Understanding’ – We Only Have What We Remember / Pairing Excitation With Inhibition for SCI Recovery | Oct 12 – 18 2025
And fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach. Come on and see us together, we’re just some tattered rags stained forever, we only have what we remember. – Listener
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Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, Stabilizer Cascade Theory, & ‘Keeping Perspective’ for SCI Recovery | Oct 5 – 11 2025
What do the Uncertainty Principle & The Stabilizer Cascade Theory have in common? Let’s explore these thoughts in this week’s entry!
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The Astronaut On Earth
The reasons why I call myself an Astronaut On Earth, it turns out, have been growing as I have been learning more about astronauts, space, neuroscience, kinesiology, and continuing my rehabilitation from my Spinal Cord Injury. I want to take some time to help others understand why I’ve called myself this, and hopefully this will…
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T-Shirts, Fundraising, and Reciprocal Motion for SCI Rehab | July 6 – 12 2025
7/6 So I always liked mornings, but these days they’re really hard because I gotta wake up and I have such a giant urge to use the restroom. But I did something different this morning, and that was to grab the IdealKnee and start doing my 100’s! What’s interesting is how the sensation has all…
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“I’m Safe” – Mental Cues for SCI Recovery | June 1 – 7 2025
6/1 Had a good morning with Callie! Got in the pool today too!! I’m really excited to see where the pool work is headed!!! This was really cool, because Callie was helping me work on advancing my legs, one at a time! I was doing some sort of “walking” but was not fully getting my…
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“Maintaining Perspective” to support SCI Rehab | May 4 – 10 2025
5/4 What is it, about reading books? What is it about writing? I feel as though everything that I am learning, I am also able to consolidate in my brain so much better these days with the tool that writing is. Without it, I feel like I would be floundering with all the information floating…
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Neurological Thresholds & Brother’s Birthday Party for SCI Rehab & Recovery | Mar 30 – Apr 5 2025
3/30 You know, I’m thinking about dancing and how your entire body moves during it? To me, this was something I was feeling very different with last night?! I feel like there’s something there, I just don’t know what yet. Like holy crap, I wore the compression top yesterday, after being completely exhausted, and today,…
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Aug 25th – Aug 31st 2024: “Long Days Make Long Nights”
8/25 Wow. Talk about the feeling changes in my lower legs and feet! All morning I’ve been feeling the change in how much my tibialis anterior, gastroc’s, and soleus are kicking in!! My lower legs are trying! This is incredible! Wow, well. It’s hard when I’m this sad. It’s really hard. I am just getting…
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Aug 18th – Aug 24th 2024: “Backwards Crawl”
8/18 Okay, so I’m waking up, and feeling my left shoulder doesn’t quite like being laid on so much. I think it’s partially because I haven’t been to the gym very much last week! Need to step it back up! My left leg is making some rather huge movements these days, while I’m laying on…
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Aug 11th – Aug 17th 2024: “Quantity Over Quality, Practice Makes Perfect”
8/11 Okay, so I’m not really sure why I was so tired today, but boy was I. Goodness I’m glad to have a nice recovery day!! I’m brushing my teeth standing up in the standing frame, and it’s interesting because I haven’t brushed my teeth and spit in a cup in what feels like forever.…
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Aug 4th – Aug 10th 2024: “Memories Like This”
8/5 So, I’m crying right now. I’m at work, and I’m tearing up. It’s hard. A song came on that reminded me of a video I made like a month before the accident. “Teal” – by Wunderhorse, was the name of the song, I’m pretty sure I made and sent a Snapchat to the brothers of…
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June 16th – June 22nd 2024: “Linus The Lump is Gone!”
6/16 Okay so my legs are ready. They are ready to do some things today! I need to get moving so they don’t feel so restless today! It’s interesting how I can take a second and reflect and see all the changes happening in my body. See and feel the changes. It’s really been a…
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June 9th – June 15th 2024: “KNOULDERING!”
6/9 Wow, what a great day! Got to see my little pupper, that big ole floof! Did some crawling and laying in the sun! It was a really well spent day with the family, and just relaxing and enjoying everyone’s company. 6/10 Alright, so this morning I had one of the toughest goes I have…
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June 2nd – June 8th 2024: “Kneel Bouldering = Knouldering?”
6/2 Alright, so it happened!!! I made it over to Jake and Carley’s! It was so cool, I did so many firsts! It was also really emotional, driving over there from the freeway. I actually teared up on the way over there. While I got off the freeway, I noticed how much had changed off…
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May 26th – June 1st 2024: “One Day, One Day At a Time”
5/26 We made it to lake Geneva! This is a super cool little hotel! I’m glad we made it! It was really nice to be able to just relax down by the marina and just slow down and not have to do anything for once. It doesn’t happen very often. We had a couple minor…
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May 19th – May 25th 2024: “Afternoon Park Crawl”
5/20 I had probably one of the best therapy sessions in such a long while! I really got my legs worked today, it was incredible! I’m sitting here in a long sit, at 9:40PM and I crawled over here in my shoes! Which, has honestly been such a difficult thing for me to do up…
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May 12th – May 18th 2024: “Try and Fail, but Always Try!”
5/13 So, everytime I go to the gym after a longer break, I start to feel such different feelings from day to day. My lower back lately has been feeling so much! I can really feel him contracting! 5/14 It’s hard. Having to get up and try to do something, and then go at it…
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May 5th – May 11th 2024: “First Crawl at The Park!”
5/5 I woke up today feeling rather under the weather! I may have been a bit over served last night at the bar, and might potentially had a case of the brown bottle flu. I’m glad this is a very rare occurrence! 5/6 So I woke up with a lot of ideas throughout the night!…
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April 14th – April 20th: Co-Contractions
4/13 So, I learned two new things this morning. 1. That almost all our muscles besides our hands and face contract during the gait cycle, and 2. That co-contraction of muscles is actually a pretty normal and good thing! This is really fascinating to me, because of all the reasons that our muscles do this,…
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Mar 31st – Apr 6th 2024: I Got Some Walkin’ to Do!
3/31 Easter! Wow! Had to get up and get ready to go to church with mom and dad! We had a pretty alright time, really. It was an interesting time because I had to take a break and do my business in a public facility.. but public bathrooms are usually pretty good, and this was…
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Mar 24th – Mar 30th 2024: Gettin’ Ready to Rumble!
3/24 Wow, I had a wild day today!! Some exciting things happened today!! 3/25 Waking up is a tricky one sometimes. I usually wake up with this definite feeling of having “to go”. It isn’t like I have to try to get that feeling to go away, but it can be such a drag to…
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Mar 17th – Mar 23rd 2024: Hittin’ The Gym 5x a Week! Energy and Work
3/17 It’s so weird having to be “on my best behavior” when everything inside my body is ramping up and not feeling well. When I’m not feeling well, where my nose is clogged up and I’m super stiff, everything seems to bug me so much more than it usually would. I don’t think that’s abnormal,…
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Mar 10th – Mar 16th 2024: I’m On The Road Again!
Mar 10 I’m seriously feeling the most in my lower abdomen! Like, ever! This is insane! I can feel so much of the digestion process! My tummy is grumbling! Haha 😂 Mar 11 Wow! First Monday with the standing frame and I decided to stand in it for 2hrs right now!! And the sensations and…
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Mar 3rd – Mar 9th 2024: The Boys Are Back In Town!
Mar 3rd This was a bit of a rougher start to the day. I realized very quickly why I don’t drink…. turns out that I have some really hard things I have to do in the morning that require my body to not be in pain or hurtin’ in other ways. Just getting out of…
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February 11th -17th: Pain, Sex, Conversations, and Verizon
Feb 12th Had a day of working on the blog, and tight legs… Feb 13th So, it’s cool to know how much I woke up feeling this morning! The sensations were out of this world! Except, I must say, I had an extremely high amount of tightness…. Took a huge nap 😴 Did a chit…
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Jan 7th – Jan 13th 2024: Unpleasant Feelings; Expectations vs Reality
Jan 10th Goodness it’s been a few days! I just sent a letter to a Doctor about getting his mental training routine! Also got a theragun and have been loving to use it not only on my arms and back, but also my legs for sensation! The amount of mental rehearsal i do has been…
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Dec 24th – Dec 30th 2023: Another Christmas, Another UTI…
Dec 24th What’s crazy is going to church and seeing my mother. Seeing her hands, and thinking about what they signify. Like, I teared up just now just thinking about them. People go on a huge rant about god and what that means to them, but don’t see the amazing things that the ones around…
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Dec 17th – Dec 23rd 2023: I’ll Be Home For Christmas!
Dec 17th Yep, there is a lot going on. Butt, legs, left ankle! Holy smokes the feeling of a deep burning is there How can I improve the signal from my brain and my legs? This is the real question I’m asking and working on! Dec 18th How do you think of help differently? If…
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Dec 10th – Dec 16th: Asking For Help
Dec 11th What’s interesting, is the ability to ask for, and receive, help. This experience and this injury has given me the opportunity to truly understand what asking for help is like. By having to make yourself this vulnerable, it really forces us to acknowledge the fact that there are many things we can’t sometimes…
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Dec 3rd – Dec 9th: Pep Talk
Dec 5 What’s interesting is realizing that the doctors originally said you had 21 health conditions that you suffered. What’s also interesting is knowing that the internet doesn’t have hardly any information on the exact nature of your injuries. So what I’ve been given is one of the most difficult assignments ever to try and…
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Nov 26th – Dec 2nd 2023: First Week on My Own!
Nov 26th Definitely had some Mexican food!! Making chicken and dumplings tomorrow!! Nov 27th Wow, today I had both the new physical therapy and PM&R doctors appointments Nov 28th Woke up this morning feeling great! I got on my tum this morning and started to do some prone exercises! The are gonna be important for…
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Nov 12th – Nov 18th: Spicy Sensations
Nov 12th Well I woke up feeling really good this morning! Not a bunch of nonsense in my tum, so I need to make sure I get up at a reasonable time. I need to order my backpack and those handrails… Okay so those are ordered, I’ll look at backpacks later! No worries there. I’m…
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Nov 5th – Nov 11th 2023: The Black Cauldron
Nov 7th Well, how do you describe pain? Because that’s where I’m at right now…. Anyone I talk to in this household seriously has no understanding of pain or what I’m going thru. It’s extremely frustrating. This bed isn’t just “uncomfortable” but I laid awake for maybe 3hrs last night tossing and turning all spasmed…
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Oct 29th – Nov 4th 2023: UTI’s and Train Rides
Nov 1st Today I have been feeling a lot better. I think it probably was a UTI…… but lots to do and think about! It’s been an incredible time for me thus far, and I don’t want that to stop. Still feeling kinda wonky and this trip has me fairly stressed….. it wasn’t the most…
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October 12th 2023 – Reflections
Oct 12th So, this morning I had the opportunity to wake up extremely restful, and not in a ton of pain! I do always still feel my ribs, and yesterday I did need a pain pill to help manage that for me. I haven’t taken a pain pill in quite some time, so it’s good…
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Getting Weight Bearing for SCI Rehabilitation | Aug 27 – Sep 2 2023
Tall kneeling – new books – new ideas – my pup I miss so much. Simple joys in life help make it all worth living.
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More Tossing & Turning – Therapy for SCI Recovery | Aug 6 – 12 2023
Getting in the swing of PT & trying to figure it all out
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“We did it” Moving Forward from SCI Injury for Recovery | July 30 – Aug 5 2023
Better connections for Stim Pads? Getting outside? Try to do that more!
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Back In Therapy for Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation | July 23 – 29 2023
First week back in Michigan and started at The Recovery Project! What a great name for what I’m working on!
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Back In The Hospital | July 16 – 22 2023
Back in the hospital after only being home for 5 days.
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First Week Home | July 9 – 15 2023
Back in town, reunited with Max. Trying to figure it all out.
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Accident + ICU: Jessie’s Perspective
So I wanted to ask my siblings their perspective from this whole ordeal and accident. It’s been a lot to take in by myself, and what Jess has told me was definitely something to stir up quite the emotions. I love my family so much! I am glad to have gotten their accounts thru this…
The Astronaut on Earth 