“There’s no place like home.” I left for the Army right after the 2012 holidays. I rang in the new year (2013) and shipped off to Georgia for basic training. I was so grateful that my ship-off date gave me the chance to celebrate one more holiday season back home. Nothing really compares to being home with family and loved ones after all, right?  I was fortunate enough to be able to come home for the majority of the Christmases while I was away. It always worked out that I had leave days saved up and had the opportunity to come back to New Hampshire. Sometimes it took hinting to my parents that I would need help paying for a plane ticket because I was “Army broke” but we made it work. Dating Kass long distance gave me a new found longing for coming home for the holidays and it was now a necessity. Facebook’s memories always remind me of each year’s holidays because my social media runs rampant this time of year. I came home in 2016 and spent my vacation learning Kass’s family tradi...

It’s not really a secret that winter and I have never really been best friends. Probably a bit of a shock since I grew up in NH where you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a few annual snow storms and a freezing winter season. I was too clumsy for skiing and snowboarding so I stuck to basketball and swimming for winter sports. Mostly to keep indoors, but regardless I’ve generally disliked being cold.   My disdain for the cold has definitely amplified since becoming paralyzed. I’ve hit on temperature regulation in past blog posts but in case you’re new to my blog, a fairly common secondary condition to having a spinal cord injury is difficulty in temperature regulation. My body can no longer sweat or shiver and my blood pressure runs much lower now so I naturally feel cold, especially in my extremities. On top of that, nerve pain and AD can often be mistaken for a cold feeling. If something is aggravating a part of my body that I can’t feel, then my body has a natural response of go...

  Giving Tuesday - a global generosity movement. If you are ever looking to donate our volunteer, please continue in this post to read about some of the non profits that went above and beyond to improve my life.  As a veteran or an active-duty service member it can be very hard to accept help or admit that you may need some assistance with something. It’s also a very present human attribute. Accepting help is hard. This was a huge hurdle for me because of my stubborn attitude and fierce independence. It is very important to remember that people want to help. There are so many nonprofits that were started to help others and it’s as simple as reaching out when you need it. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride. I am a living testament to this. The Fisher House was a get-away for me while I was inpatient at the hospital but it was so much more than a tranquil place to go. It was a home for my family and a small light in a very dark time. The VA campus in West Roxbury was...

Life is nothing but highs and lows. In the words of Ol’ Blue Eyes “you’re flying high in April, and you’re shot down in May”. But hey, that’s life. And if you don’t know Frank Sinatra then I suggest you listen to his classics. My point is that everybody goes through the ebbs and flows of life. Some Monday’s are great and some absolutely suck... much like today did for me. Kass and I made lodging arrangements for the week so that I could go to a drivers rehab program at the VA to learn how to use hand controls to drive again. We (mostly my hardworking girlfriend) loaded up into the van with a week’s worth of stuff to prep for our hotel stay only to get all the way to the VA and find out that the van is broken down and the rehab was canceled. Typical VA bull shit... but what nobody ever seems to think about is how complex it is for me to stay somewhere outside the comfort of home. The logistics that are required are very stressful, luckily I have a very persistent woman in my life. ❤️ Th...

On February 11th, 2017 Kass got an open invite into the club that no one ever wants to join. She didn’t know it, but she became a WAG of SCI (Wives and Girlfriends of Spinal Cord Injury) the second that .45 hollow point met that bony son-of-a-bitch known as my spine.  I’ve already talked in length about my recovery in the hospital so I won’t hit on everything that Kass and I went through while I was in-patient. What I will talk about is how much we learned and grew during that time. It was extremely trying, especially on Kass who now faced the prospect of redefining her life to help me with mine. What Kass found while in the hospital was a community of extremely helpful, loving and quite frankly, bad-ass women to help her grieve, learn and grow. The importance of a community formed to educate & empower others who have been sucked into a situation as overwhelming as SCI is unrivaled. When Kass & I meet others facing the task of navigating an inter-abled relationship, the f...

“Let me tell ya ‘bout my best friend” Seriously though, what would life be like without dogs? And to appease any of my followers who are cat lovers I’ll say cats too... really just pets in general. I am here to tell you about the benefits of pet therapy. Before my injury, I saw pets as something to cuddle and play with. Growing up, I always had cats (thanks mom). Then in the army, I stayed with my friend who had a beautiful yellow lab / husky mix named Dixie. I would crash on the couch all the time and she would always sleep with me the whole night while I rubbed her tummy. That is where my love for dogs flourished.  While Kass and I were doing long-distance, we would discuss different breeds of dogs and talk about getting one when we lived together. We both agreed that we loved Australian Shepherd‘s and we picked  the name Kona based off of my favorite beer. I wasn’t sure when it would happen, but planning for the future was fun while I prepare to get out of the military. The...

Do you want to know what is incredibly boring? Sitting in a hospital room for a year and a half, that’s what. The first thing that I got back into to kill time in the hospital was gaming on my iPad. It all started years ago. Before I left for the Army, this little mobile game called Clash of Clans came out. I enjoyed it for the fact that I was broke and on my own so I could game on my phone. iPad / iPhone (mobile gaming): My Army buddies gave me hell, and rightfully so. I was too impatient with the app and would actually spend money on it. No F2P here… My Ranger Platoon had a “clan” together. At first it was a cool little way to build some camaraderie and it broke up some of the monotony of the slow days. We would mess around with it during down time but it quickly died off like most apps. But I still play to this day. Supercell created the game and my interests in mobile gaming really caught wind through them. My iPad was a godsend when I was bored in the hospital. It took a lot of...

If there is one thing that I hope you take away from my journey, it is that there is always something to strive for. Complacency can seem easy to embrace, especially after such a life changing injury. It would be too easy for me to sit around and mope about how I’ll never be strong enough to push myself in a wheelchair or that I’ll never be able to drive my own vehicle, etc. Well guess what... Here I am pushing myself in a chair. In a few weeks, I start driving rehab to get my van setup so I can drive again. I’m looking into college courses that interest me, after telling myself that I would never pursue a life that wasn’t based around the automotive industry.  When I first realized that my injuries weren’t going away, I made a mental list of short term, intermediate term and long term goals. Exactly how I did with my Squad Leader in Ranger Battalion. I was proud of myself for finding that real-world application for an Army skill. Something that I never knew would be so pivotal in ...

SCI Awareness Month This month is represented by a green ribbon similar to the pink cancer ribbons and yellow “support our troops” ribbons. I remember making a similar post last year when it felt like I knew all that there was to know about spinal cord injuries. Making this one just goes to show how much there actually is to learn about this SCI life. I am certainly curious to see what my take on spinal cord injury will be next September. I am a naturally inquisitive person so I definitely cast no shade towards someone that may want to know more about my life and everything that being paralyzed comes with. Saying that there is a lot behind the scenes and past the lenses of what you see through me physically is certainly an understatement. This will be my attempt at educating on what spinal cord injuries can entail. First, I want to state that no two injuries are the same. The slightest differences in the injuries can change the outcomes and functions of the individual in crazy ways. Fo...