Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Craig DeMartino
Series Code: CLR
Program Code: CLR00069B
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00:15 Welcome back, I'm going to go ahead and do the roll in
00:17 and then we will come back 00:18 and see what else happened with 00:19 Craig and his life. 00:21 I don't know about you, but I can hardly breath, 00:23 so I have to hear the rest of the story. 00:29 A couple hours after his 90 foot 00:30 fall Craig DeMartino arrived at 00:31 Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. 00:33 His condition appeared stable, 00:35 but his fate remained uncertain. 00:37 You are probably looking at a 90% mortality 00:39 with a straight fall, falls from a lot lower heights, 00:42 they come in body bags all time. 00:46 Back in Pennsylvania Craig's parents got the call. 00:48 As a parent it is a phone call you never want to get. 00:52 At the time it was pretty grim. 00:54 They weren't sure if he would make it. 00:57 I mean really the thing is chasing around in my head 01:00 was Dr. Turner, because he came into the intensive care 01:04 and was saying, well we really didn't expect him 01:07 to make it an hour. 01:12 The violent impact shattered both of Craig's feet 01:14 and compressed his spine essentially causing one of 01:17 his lower vertebrate to explode. 01:20 Neuro surgeon Donald Turner, assessed the damage. 01:23 Normally the spinal canal should be like this. 01:26 You can tell at this bone has been pushed backward 01:30 into the ventral aspect of the spinal canal. 01:34 So now the diameter of the spine here is very small, 01:37 right there. 01:39 To repair the vertebrae, Dr. Turner had to open the 01:42 spine and move the pieces into place. 01:44 Then he used titanium plates and screws to attach the 01:48 damaged vertebrae to be intact ones above and below it. 01:51 The body easy tolerates the light weight titanium metal. 01:54 But working in the tiny confines of the spine 01:57 leaves no room for error. 01:59 The one thing that makes neuro surgery difficult is that 02:03 if you do make a mistake, it is probably permanent. 02:06 With no guarantees, Dr. Turner did all he could. 02:12 It was very grim, you know he was very serious, 02:16 and it was really scary. 02:22 They would have to wait for the results of the spinal 02:24 operation, meanwhile orthopedic trauma surgeon, 02:27 Dr. Lundy, reconstructed Craig's ankles and heel bones 02:30 known medically as Calcaneus. 02:32 This is his left calcaneus, this belongs under here. 02:38 His calcaneus which was here, came out over this way, 02:42 and his whole foot went with the calcaneus. 02:44 His right foot did the same thing but because his right 02:47 calcaneus was so severely fractured as you can see the 02:50 formity is less than on it is on his dislocated side. 02:54 With wire pins and bone cement, Dr. Lundy rebuilt the 02:58 damaged bones and tissues as best 02:59 as medical science allowed. 03:01 The doctors at Poudre Valley Hospital had done 03:03 everything they could, and the rest was up to Craig. 03:06 I walked into the room and he opened his eyes, 03:10 and he saw me and reached up his hand. 03:16 Craig had survived the critical first few days in the 03:19 hospital and he would live. 03:20 But what would his life be like? 03:22 They are fairly certain he is going to be a paraplegic. 03:25 Knowing that he fell 100 feet, you don't have to be a 03:29 doctor to figure that out, that is a good possibility. 03:32 Unable to talk with a breather, Craig found a way to 03:36 communicate and the news he received wasn't good. 03:38 There was a nurse there and she is looking at me, 03:41 and I'm looking at her and pointed at my feet. 03:43 She said your feet are broken really bad. 03:46 Then I pointed at my back, 03:47 she said your back is broken really bad. 03:49 So I thought well I will see what she says if I do this. 03:51 So like will I walk? 03:54 She looked at me and started to cry and, 03:57 said we don't know. 03:58 It was like somebody hit me with a bat. 04:00 I was thinking I have two kids and a wife. 04:03 I'm 36 years old, I cannot do this. 04:05 Man, you know watching that? 04:08 I'm not even sure how I can watch it. 04:10 How do you watch it? Do you re-live it? 04:12 That whole series, that whole video series was from 04:16 something the Discovery Channel did on a show called 04:19 Vital Scans that highlighted heavy trauma survivors. 04:22 The first time I saw it, they asked me if I wanted to 04:25 come and watch the reenactment and I was like no, 04:28 I'm good. 04:29 Watching it the first time I was like, oh my gosh, 04:33 I almost threw up, now that I have seen it enough, 04:35 I go, okay, I can detach from it and say wow he really 04:39 hit the ground hard. 04:40 I'm not as tied to it as much now and I have seen enough 04:43 times I'm desensitized to it. 04:45 It literally showed that this was what shattered or broke. 04:48 They dropped, they had a climber fall a couple times to 04:52 take some 50 foot falls and they filmed that. 04:54 Then they dropped a dummy 100 feet just see how it hit 04:57 and see what it did when it hit the ground. 04:59 Even dropped through a tree to see 05:01 how that affected its fall. 05:02 So I was used to seeing that and it doesn't make it 05:07 easier but it gave me actually some good insight as far as 05:10 okay, that is how I broke this, that's how this broke and to 05:13 hear the doctors say, this is how this all works. 05:15 It makes me go, oh, okay. 05:17 It actually makes me go wow what an amazing miracle to me 05:22 even bigger, I think that word miracle gets overused. 05:25 Whereas I look at it and go man, my spine is that thick 05:29 and I am walking. 05:32 And you are moving your arms. 05:33 My arms, my hands, now that doesn't mean there 05:38 wasn't a lot of injury. 05:39 When I hit the ground the next thing I remember is that 05:43 I wake up in the hospital and I am looking at the doctor. 05:45 Dr. Turner, and he said your back is broken really bad. 05:49 Your feet are broken really bad and we are just going 05:52 to take this day by day. 05:53 I had a ventilator and could not breathe. 05:54 So that was my world for about five days. 05:57 They had me tied down so I couldn't move it all. 06:00 The nurse had shown how bad I was hurt and I didn't 06:06 really understand that at all. 06:07 As they slowly started to unplug things, 06:10 and I started to move I realized how badly I was hurt. 06:14 My back was broken so bad and my neck was broken so bad 06:17 that they had me in a full case like Velcro thing 06:20 that held me solid. 06:21 So just to keep me out of bed they had to bring a crane in. 06:24 They would crane my whole body up and swing me out to 06:27 change my sheets, and big crane me back and put me in bed. 06:29 You had to stay one place? 06:31 I couldn't move, the infusions in my back had all set up. 06:34 All the hardware has to settle into place. 06:36 My neck was in a collar so I couldn't move my neck at all. 06:39 That was my life for about a month. 06:42 I don't know if anybody else is interested in this but I 06:46 relied on, even when I was on the streets, 06:48 I really relied on what I could to physically 06:51 that I could always take care of myself. 06:53 You are laying there saying, fully aware that a big change 06:57 has happened, my life is not going to be the same. 07:01 Right, realizing that, mine and hers and our families 07:06 life is totally different. 07:08 What does that mean now? 07:10 In laying there, prior to the accident if I wanted to do 07:13 a particular climb, a boulder, or whatever, 07:16 I could train for it and I could do it. 07:18 It would take me a couple months, one problem took me 07:20 a year to figure out how to do it. 07:22 I could train hard enough and get it done. 07:24 Exactly I am capable. 07:26 I am capable of solving these problems. 07:28 Well now I am laying there, literally cannot even get 07:32 food I had to push a button and somebody would come 07:36 and asked me what I needed. 07:37 So going from complete dependency on myself, 07:39 not God, me, to all of a sudden nothing. 07:44 I can't even reach over and touch her leg, nothing. 07:48 So I am laying there and the biggest wake-up call, 07:51 at that point I was really just confused. 07:53 I was listening to doctors and 07:55 I am a very task oriented person. 07:56 If you say to me do this, this, and this, 07:58 that's what I'll do. 08:00 Today this is what we're going to do. 08:02 Today we are going to focus on his left foot Craig. 08:04 We're going to roll this prickly thing up it and 08:06 see if you can feel it. 08:07 Because remember I broke my spine really badly. 08:10 They had re-build L2 with a bone, so for me that means 08:14 a spinal cord injury from my waist down, 08:16 L2 is basically right through your belly button. 08:18 I have really limited feeling as far as what I can feel. 08:20 Still? Absolutely! 08:22 The sensory off my exterior part of my legs I can feel 08:25 heavy pressure, so if you push on the hard I can feel it, 08:27 but if you just brush me I can feel it at all. 08:29 Same with my back, like going up my back. 08:31 My arms, from where I broke my neck, this arm is numb on 08:35 the insides my fingers tips are numb. 08:37 My lips are numb up here in this part of my face. 08:39 It's amazing because when I look at you, 08:41 I would not guess all that. 08:42 Right, and that unrolls slowly because you do not know 08:47 what is going to work and what isn't going to work. 08:49 They slowly work on pieces. 08:51 They would work on my legs and my back mostly, 08:52 but then they would leave. 08:54 So we would do that and then I would be alone in my room. 08:57 My family would come in the afternoons. 08:59 Cindy would bring every day the kids will come and sit 09:01 on the bed with me and we would hang out and talk 09:03 and try to keep it as normal as it we could. 09:07 But when I was alone I would be laying there. 09:09 Up to that point I wasn't angry, how did this happen? 09:13 Yada, Yada, Yada, why did this happen? 09:16 I want to ask that too, because like you said you have 09:18 your Christianity and everything was going well and 09:20 plateaued out, but laying there, didn't you say, 09:24 God what's up, where were You? 09:26 I did, I probably said what's up, where were You? 09:31 What were You doing? 09:32 But I wasn't angry, I was more curious so 09:35 I would sit there and pray and talk to God. 09:38 What I was realizing was that my faith walk, 09:41 up to that point, was one of convenience. 09:43 When it was convenient for me to bring God into my life, 09:46 I would bring Him in. 09:47 I would embrace Him wholeheartedly, 09:48 but I would bring Him 09:49 in and go, OK, we're done now. 09:51 I've got some stuff to do and I would go to it. 09:54 I didn't see anything wrong with that. 09:56 Now all of a sudden I am going, wow, that was screwed up. 10:02 I'm really sorry about that. 10:04 The only thing that I could reach was the bedside table 10:09 that you eat one in the hospital that swings. 10:10 I could reach that and all that table was a book. 10:13 It was a book that a friend had sent me. 10:15 He was a daily devotional book, which at that part of my 10:18 life, those are dumb, I don't like them. 10:21 I don't read them, I thought they were hokey. 10:23 This one was from a Max Lucado that I had never read before. 10:26 I thought well, I can reach it, so I reached it and 10:30 pulled it over and flipped to the day, the devotion of 10:34 that day and I flipped to July 21. 10:36 The heading is, the title is, 10:39 How Far Does God Have To Go to Get Your Attention? 10:41 And it's hello, it felt like somebody slapped me. 10:46 If felt like the room got small. 10:48 I felt embarrassed, I felt cheated, I felt all these 10:53 emotions that I had never felt towards God before. 10:56 I never felt like I had to be embarrassed. 10:58 I felt like oh my gosh You are looking at me 11:00 and going get it? Do you understand what's happening now? 11:04 I read it and the Scriptures were in there to back up 11:07 where is God in your life? 11:08 Is He number one, number four, number two? 11:11 I was guilty of all those things that were in this devotion. 11:14 I read it and closed the book and said okay. 11:17 You know what I do not know why this happened. 11:19 I know that You could have stopped it, but obviously this 11:22 is part of a plan that I do not understand. 11:24 I don't want to understand it, but please make it clear 11:28 to me what You want me to do in this scheme of the events. 11:32 What do You want me to do with this accident? 11:34 Where do You want me to go with this? 11:36 Can You please heal me because I don't want to be a 11:39 paraplegic, I haven't moved my legs up unto that point. 11:43 I'm just thinking please heal me so that I can 11:46 get out of here, and play with my kids, 11:48 and hug my wife again. 11:50 All of a sudden things started to clarify for me. 11:56 That is the strange part for me when I listen to your 12:01 story and when I have followed you for little while is the fact 12:03 that in the bed, during that time, God and you really 12:09 became, that became very real to you? 12:14 Very tangible even that, who are You? 12:18 Who am I? What is today going to hold? 12:21 How is this going to unfold? 12:23 That really surprised me, that part of it, 12:25 instead of anger it was like what's going on 12:29 and what You want? 12:31 How am I going to respond to that? 12:33 Who am I now? 12:36 Before I got hurt I was a photographer, 12:38 I was a climber, 12:39 I was a dad, I was a husband. 12:40 But a lot of it I was a climber. 12:42 I'm laying there going, who am I now? 12:46 I was a Christian but I wasn't the best Christian, 12:50 so who am I now? 12:51 Who do You want me to be? 12:53 What should I do with all this information that I'm getting? 12:56 I actually miss those times now, because it was unfiltered 13:00 time with God, it was undisturbed. 13:03 It was me laying there just going I have nowhere else to go. 13:07 I have nowhere to go so what do You want? 13:10 And God shows up talking to me and it started to become 13:13 very apparent where He wanted me to go. 13:15 My recovery went slow and 13:18 it doesn't happen overnight obviously. 13:19 The nerve disorders I developed from all the injuries, 13:23 that all came and the doctors came to me and said, 13:27 18 months after I get out of the hospital. 13:29 18 months after my foot is still in a cast. 13:32 Still limping terribly. 13:35 Because they can't fix it? 13:38 They did 11 different operations on my foot. 13:42 I had so many screws and plates in there that they just said, 13:46 here is the thing, if you weight bear on it, and hit it hard 13:50 you will break your ankle again. 13:51 So you have to wear a cast and we will make you a cool cast. 13:54 We did that, but a cool cast is still a cast on your foot. 13:59 It came up to about my knee. 14:00 So they said you are not going to be able to climb anymore. 14:04 No more mountain biking and no more skiing. 14:05 I just thought, I can't even chase my kids. 14:09 I can't do anything so I've started to pray about that. 14:12 I think, who am I now? 14:15 What am I going to do here? 14:16 God put it on my heart, it's going to be fine. 14:19 Just keep going, just keep moving. 14:22 I like to move so God made it apparent to keep moving. 14:28 Move forward, forward. 14:29 You talk about the numbness, I had this numbness in 14:32 different parts of my body, but I know that you also have 14:35 pain in different parts of your body, dealing with that, 14:39 so it not you just got out and did your recovery and healed 14:43 some and am done other than this foot? 14:46 That was something that slowly opened up, because I kept 14:51 thinking all this pain that I am feeling in my body 14:54 from compression, from falling that far. 14:55 Every doctor says you can't fix that kind of compression. 14:59 You smoosh everything together, it's not like an accordion 15:03 that we can pull it apart and fix. 15:04 It's damaged, you've wrecked it. 15:06 What do you do with all that? 15:08 I kept thinking the pain I am feeling, I have a lot 15:11 of pain in my back and a lot of pain in my other ankle. 15:14 My left ankle because they pulled it back in and screwed it 15:16 Then they figured they would see what happens to it. 15:20 The elbow I broke, you have these sacks in here that have 15:24 fluid that lubricate your joint. 15:25 Well I broke all that stuff so I don't have that anymore. 15:28 So my elbow if I talk on the phone long, it's hard for 15:31 me to put my arm back down. 15:32 Just lots of different things that are chronic pain 15:36 that goes on. 15:37 I kept thinking well that is all going to get better, 15:39 but at that point I was focused on my right foot. 15:41 What am I going to do with this thing? 15:43 They said you can amputate it. 15:45 I thought that's absurd, why on earth would I do that? 15:49 I kept thinking and praying and started to talk with 15:54 people who had done it. 15:55 What I realized was they were as active as I was before. 15:58 I thought well they do not have the list of the injuries 16:01 I have, but they did do that and seem fine. 16:04 Much prayer and much thought, Cindy and I talked and I 16:08 thought I am going to do it. 16:09 I went into my doctor, and again God's hand was totally 16:13 on the whole situation. 16:14 My orthopedic surgeon was a very strong Christian guy. 16:16 I went into his office and said look Doug, 16:18 I don't like this. 16:20 I can't do anything and I want to cut my leg off. 16:22 He was, yeah that's right. 16:24 He was let you do it? 16:26 Right, you needed to decide that on your own. 16:28 I could never say to you, Craig cut your leg off. 16:30 It's going to be the best thing. 16:31 You would not listen to me, but it's best thing, trust me. 16:34 He went out to his appointment book and flipped it open. 16:38 The next month on Tuesday, December 2, we will do it then. 16:41 I don't even know how I would do that? 16:43 My head was like, oh, but that's a month away. 16:46 Should we go for longer, further out? 16:47 He was no, you do not want to think about it more than 16:49 a month do you? 16:50 I'm thinking maybe I do, I don't know. 16:54 Have I done everything I could? 16:55 Is maybe the 12 surgery the one that fix it? 16:59 He said, you have no foot left, 17:00 you can't even move your toes. 17:02 I couldn't even wiggle them, couldn't feel them. 17:04 Nothing worked, so December 2, I went back in 18 months 17:08 later and laid there trying to get my head around the fact 17:11 that day was going to cut my leg off. 17:13 The rest of the stuff that was screwed up in my body was 17:15 not paying attention to it as much. 17:17 I guess not? 17:23 It's weird, you are laying there and they give you these 17:25 sedatives to take on your way in there. 17:27 You have to show up early in the morning. 17:29 So driving there, Cindy is driving and I am looking 17:31 out the window watching the ground go by. 17:34 I'm freaking out in my head and going this is wrong. 17:37 This is wrong I shouldn't do this. 17:38 I get there and somehow I get up and walk in and sign 17:42 the paperwork and laying there in the gown. 17:45 Laying on the gurney and waiting, and waiting and Cindy 17:48 is right here and I'm saying, this is not right, 17:50 it's not right and I turn around and look up here 17:53 and here is my pastor. 17:54 I'm like what are you doing here? 17:56 He said I just knew that today was the day and I thought 17:59 I will come in and support you, do you want to pray? 18:02 Pray, yeah we should be praying right now. 18:03 So we held hands and we all prayed. 18:06 As soon as we get done praying the curtain opens over here. 18:10 Here is Doug Mundy, my surgeon, saying, Craig how are you doing? 18:13 How am I doing? Terrible! 18:15 I'm freaking out, he said okay look at me. 18:18 You are doing the right thing. 18:20 That thing is junk and you are not going 18:23 to do anything with it. 18:24 You have to get rid of this. 18:25 The nurse came in and you have to do this fun thing where 18:27 you sign your name on the limb because they do not want to 18:30 cut the wrong one off. 18:31 But you have to sign your name and that is freaky. 18:35 Sharpie marker, you put the x, and I put cut here. 18:44 So we prayed and then they gave me something to really 18:47 chill me out and they took me into the operating room. 18:49 I remember going into the operating room and had been 18:52 through so many surgeries you have to be awake to go in, 18:54 not while they did it. 18:55 I wanted to be awake because they knew a lot of the people. 18:57 So I'm going in saying hey, how's it going? 19:00 We're here again. 19:01 It was neat to go in and see the people there too because 19:05 we have been through so much with you. 19:07 To them it is a failure because they don't save the limb. 19:10 To me it was like, we are moving forward now. 19:12 This is not the end, and now we are just getting started. 19:16 I woke up and they had a spinal block on me. 19:19 So I woke up I felt great and I looked down 19:23 and there's nothing there. 19:24 And the pain is gone, I feel great. 19:25 Let's go home tonight, he was let's stay over night. 19:29 We will see how you are doing. 19:30 Around 11 o'clock that night that wore off and then all 19:33 of the sudden you realize it hurts to cut your leg off. 19:36 That next five days was terrible. 19:39 Pain you had never felt? 19:42 Just throwing up because it hurt so bad. 19:44 I had been taking anti-inflammatory's and some 19:47 narcotics during that year to try and control pain. 19:50 To get a handle on my pain, overall pain. 19:52 So I had a certain level in me so when they start giving me 19:56 morphine again it wasn't working. 19:59 They had gone through three bags of morphine, 20:01 and they couldn't give me anymore morphine and so they had 20:05 to bring the guy in and give me another block and 20:08 tapered me out of it instead of just turning it off. 20:10 They just let me wean off it slowly. 20:12 That obviously worked my way through. 20:15 Then the process again starts learning to walk again. 20:19 All those things, where is my body now? 20:21 My hips were all out of alignment. 20:24 They had to fix all that stuff again. 20:27 You really do have to figure out who am I now. 20:31 Another thing that I realize just from watching and 20:37 listening to you come is that 20:39 you had never changed persons. 20:41 You are the same person through this whole thing. 20:44 But you have to every day change, I'm going to stand 20:46 differently, I'm going to move differently, 20:49 people are going to approach me differently, 20:51 so all that changes for you, but your head is the same. 20:54 I'm the same person looking out. Exactly! 20:56 You are realizing that people are 20:57 looking at you differently. 20:58 For me the prosthetic was a big deal. 21:01 At first I thought you put the prosthetic on and you walk. 21:06 Everything is fine and everyone leaves you alone. 21:09 It's not that, it's basically a beacon that says, 21:12 look at me I'm different. 21:13 It was weird at first, and at first I was put back by it. 21:17 Why are they staring, I don't understand that? 21:20 What I realized was I probably did the same thing. 21:22 If I saw someone missing a leg, 21:23 I would be oh that guy is missing a leg. 21:25 I wouldn't know what to do, so what I realized was 21:29 I have each do things differently now. 21:30 They are looking at me, they don't know my story. 21:34 They do not know what is going on. 21:35 Early on some guy asked about praying over me to see 21:39 if they can heal my leg. 21:40 At first I was put back and said no go ahead and do that. 21:45 They did it and they said how do you feel? 21:48 Here is the thing, it was right before the surgery, 21:50 I said God I fell 96 feet and landed standing. 21:54 I shattered, I mean just name it and I broke it. 21:59 I should be a paraplegic I should be dead. 22:02 I should be at a paraplegic, quadriplegic, multiple, 22:04 multiple things. 22:05 But I am not, I am walking, I fully intended on going 22:07 back to the life I had. 22:09 I'm going to climb again, I want to bike again, 22:10 I want to ski again, and I want to be my kids dad. 22:12 I want all those things and I just can't do with this 22:15 body right now, so this is going to help me. 22:17 If they healed me, and I put pants on nobody would 22:21 know anything was different about me. 22:23 If I was walking down the street they wouldn't know. 22:25 But when you say if anything is different about you 22:26 because you had a profound growth in your 22:30 relationship with God. 22:32 What you and God did during that whole rehab time 22:34 was absolutely huge. 22:36 What you are saying it is, I know that He had His hand 22:40 on all of this. 22:41 Right, but I do not know if I would have had the 22:43 courage to step out and go talk to someone and say, 22:45 let me tell you what happened to me, 22:46 let me tell you how God moved in my life. 22:48 I do not know if I would have had that courage. 22:51 I said to them with my leg, if they see my leg, 22:54 they talk to me usually. 22:57 Now in retrospect, I look at it and what it does, 23:00 when people see my leg they ask me about my leg. 23:03 They want to know what happened, so I tell them my story. 23:05 Well my story, is God's story. 23:07 It is wrapped up in God. 23:09 God makes my story and so I sit there and say this is 23:12 what happened to me. 23:13 They can't sit there and say this is ridiculous, 23:15 that's not true, well yeah it is, it is my story. 23:17 This is what God did in my life and I'm telling you, 23:20 I'm telling you guys this is what happened. 23:23 This isn't a fairytale. 23:24 I'm a walking, talking, miracle. 23:26 You read about stuff in the Bible, I look at this and say 23:29 that this is the biggest anything I read in the Bible. 23:32 I was completely saved from crashing and burning, 23:35 both physically and emotionally. 23:37 And you plateaued spiritually, it was like God came in 23:42 and woke all that stuff up. 23:44 Took me from that plateau and said, 23:45 this is not where you can stay, 23:47 it is not a good place for you to stay. 23:49 If you stay here the growth is over. 23:52 That is not what I want for you right now. 23:56 You need to go here, now that I have your attention again. 23:59 Now you are going to go like this and take off. 24:02 That is what happened, my faith in God grew so much. 24:05 It grew exponentially, my marriage grew exponentially. 24:08 Cindy and I learned that this other person is 24:10 the Person we depend on the most 24:12 I learned how compassionate she can be and 24:15 she learned how compassionate I could be 24:18 and your strength. 24:19 I think that comes from God though, that strength that 24:22 I have is all God pumping stuff into me. 24:26 When I look at God's grace in my life, 24:29 and the miracles in my life, 24:31 that gives me so much motivation to go to something. 24:35 We have so run out of time and I hate that. 24:39 What we are talking about on this program is when is 24:42 recovery over and for you when is your rehab over? 24:47 Ever? No! That is the thing that I realize is that 24:51 the pain is never going to go away. 24:53 The chronic injuries that I have they are always there. 24:56 The back is always achy, the neck always hurts. 24:59 The spinal cord injury doesn't get better. 25:01 I learned to deal with those things and learned to deal 25:05 with them and go okay now what can I do with them 25:07 to move forward, and still do what I want to do. 25:10 Because you're climbing again? 25:12 Yes I've been climbing about six months after I amputated. 25:16 I look at things and I go that looks really cool. 25:19 I want to do that. 25:20 I want to go climb, I want to go mountain biking, 25:22 I want to do whatever. 25:23 I don't want to think about it. 25:25 I get annoyed with my body, it doesn't mean I just go do it. 25:29 I get really annoyed with my body and get mad at God 25:32 some days, I think just make this work. 25:36 Please! And some days it doesn't, so those days are when 25:40 I just chill out and get back to God and talk to Him. 25:44 And you get through them! 25:45 I get through them and I realize that those are days, 25:48 those are not the rest of my life. 25:50 I think that some people go I got wrecked in this accident. 25:54 We are all sitting here and mine is really obvious. 25:57 Everyone sitting here is going to go through something. 26:00 Multiple times possibly where they are just as emotionally 26:03 wrecked as I was. 26:04 We are going to take a break and come back. 26:06 I want you to say what do you do to stay grounded with 26:12 all the junk that is on your plate? 26:15 We will end the program with that. 26:17 I'm going to tell you to come back because I think this is 26:21 a big thing that none of us are going to just escape and 26:25 not deal with something. 26:27 Even as we age, car accident, medical thing, the relapse 26:34 thing and all that, so what do you do? 26:36 Is the relapse, or is the pain the worst thing? 26:38 I don't think so, I think not giving up is the worst thing. 26:41 We will be right back stay with us. |
Revised 2014-12-17