Rex Robotic Legs Allow Paraplegics to Walk Again

We posted a story last February about the ReWalk system, a device invented by an Israeli company Argo Medical Technologies, Ltd. that enables paraplegics to walk again. When I was watching the Belgian news on the Internet yesterday, which I do occasionally to keep in touch with what’s going on in the country where I was born, another walking device for paraplegics was featured. Hayden Allen from New Zealand, a paraplegic as a result of a motorcycle accident, showed off a pair of robotic legs that help paraplegics walk again. It caught my attention and I decided to investigate the system some more. Read more

No Arms, No Legs, But One of the Happiest People in the World

What do you do when you have no arms and no legs? Your life may seem overwhelming because you may feel like you are missing out on so many things you are unable to do. Nothing is more untrue according to Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms and legs. It is all about attitude! If you concentrate on what you do have instead of what you don’t have, you are setting yourself up to become a happy person. Be thankful for what you have; don’t be bitter for what you don’t have! Read more

Wheelchair Accessibility at Environmentally Sustainable Tara Firma Farms

Recently we had the chance to visit a local, organic, and sustainable farm and want to share the amazing experience we had there learning about farm practices and how easy it can be to eat local and healthy. Read more

The Siyasizana Community Development Program Helps the Physically Challenged in South Africa

Understandably so, many of us would rather not want to deal with the challenges that come with a physical disability. But even though I am disabled as a C5/C6 quadriplegic and have to deal with a lot of those challenges, I consider myself lucky that I live in a country like the US where a lot of progress has been made during the past few decades to improve the quality of life of people with a physical disability. I often wonder what it must be like to live in a country where disability awareness is far behind compared to in the US and where social programs for the disabled are almost nonexistent. I have heard stories of children with a mobility disability living in developing countries that don’t even have access to a basic manual wheelchair. I cannot imagine what that would be like!

Therefore I have a lot of respect for the people who dedicate their lives to improve the situation in countries where the disability movement still has a long way to go. In that spirit I would like to dedicate this post to John Shelembe who recently got in touch with Disabled and Productive and who started an NGO in South Africa, the Siyasizana Community Development program, to help and motivate the physically disabled and other disadvantaged. While I checked out their website, I ran into an inspiring story about a woman living in South Africa who was told she would never be able to hold a job in the open market because of her severe disability and due to her determination proved everyone wrong. You can read the entire story at John’s site. Feel free to check it out.

Videos about Living with a Mobility Disability on DisabledAndProductive.com

Disabled And Productive has added a new category to their website for publishing videos about living with a mobility disability. We will start off with some videos of Luc, a C5/C6 quadriplegic, showing some of the things he does to make his life as normal as possible. But our long-term goal is to also feature videos of other persons living with a mobility disability showing some of their equipment, tips or whatever they do to make their lives more enjoyable. Please, don’t hesitate to let us know if you would like to contribute.

We just posted our first video: the benefits of a standing wheelchair.

Stay tuned for more videos!

Video on the Benefits of Using a Standing Wheelchair

Ever thought about the kind of difference a standing wheelchair could make in you life? Luc shows us some of the many benefits he has gotten out of his standing wheelchair and why he feels like he wouldn’t even want to do without one.

We also have a story on the use of a standing wheelchair, how to transition into one, and the benefits you can get from using one. Using a Standing Wheelchair as a Quadriplegic.

A Disability is Invisible in a Virtual Work Environment

Today’s technologies have definitely changed the landscape of employment opportunities for persons with a disability. A person with a disability can now be just as productive in several fields of employment as non-disabled persons. In many cases, being disabled has become a non-issue on the job. In fact, in a virtual work environment, you can actually completely hide your disability from your coworkers.  I came to that realization this week during an email conversation with one of my teammates: Read more

Life as a Quadriplegic Can Still Be Rewarding

Today is Memorial Day and for me, in some sense, it is kind of a personal memorial day because I became disabled as a C5/C6 quadriplegic as a result of a diving accident on Memorial Day in 1987. I have accepted my disability quite well, but for some reason I always feel the need on this day to have some time by myself to reminisce over how my life would have been if I hadn’t become disabled.

When I became disabled, I had just got married and my son was only two months old. At that time it looked as if I had a bright future without worries ahead of me. But my life changed in the blink of an eye when I dove in that swimming pool and broke my neck. You lose a tremendous amount of independence when you become disabled as a quadriplegic. The most frustrating part, I find, is the fact that you have to rely on another person to get you up out of bed in the morning and to help you get back in bed at night. You can never go to bed or get up when you feel like it. Sometimes I would want to pay someone $10,000 if I could have just one day again where I could roll over to my wife when I wake up in the morning and cuddle up with her instead of my wife having to roll over towards me. Then I would get up when I feel I am ready for it and groom and dress myself without the help of anyone else. Next I would go for a hike up in the hills around where I live when the morning is still fresh and later in the day I would go for a long bike ride which I used to love doing, get a beer out of the refrigerator when I come home, open it myself, and take a shower afterward. And in the evening I would want to surprise my wife with a nice meal which I prepared myself from scratch because I used to love to cook. I would also have paid someone a lot of money back when my son was still a kid to be able to take him on a camping trip in the back-country as a ‘normal’ non-disabled dad — just the two of us.

But that is not my life anymore – for 22 years as of today – and you can choose either to feel sorry for yourself and be continuously depressed or to move on with your life and make the best possible out of it despite of your disability. For the most part I feel like I have been on the latter path; though I can’t ignore that I have a bad day every now and then when I wish things would be different, but who doesn’t?

What has helped me the most is to stay busy and to remain productive even though that may be challenging at first when you are trying to adjust to your new life as a person with a disability. Being productive has allowed me to maintain a decent quality of life and has raised my self-esteem knowing that I am still able to provide for my family. I have a lot to be grateful for: I have a wonderful family with a supporting and totally committed wife and a great son and stepson. I have a job I like, I live in an accessible house in a beautiful area of the country with a climate I love, I still get to travel quite a bit, I have a converted van that I can drive, and I’m in pretty good health. I never could have thought 22 years ago that life could still be this good.

I do realize that life would be more of a struggle without the support of my wife who is always there for me when I need help. I may be a survivor and have a lot of determination to move on with my life after a disabling accident, but my life would never be as comfortable as it is now without her dedication and the sacrifices she constantly makes for me.

I am disabled and I cannot change that; I just have to accept it and live with it. But to some degree my disability also imposes many limitations on my wife, making her disabled also to some extent – she didn’t have to make this choice. She can’t go for a romantic stroll on the beach with her husband or we can’t jump out of bed in the spur of the moment to go for an early morning hike on a beautiful day because getting me up is a process. My first wife and I got married before my accident and she hadn’t signed up for the inconveniences of living with a quadriplegic. Though I have to thank her a lot too for all the support she gave me right after I became disabled, but after 10 years my first marriage turned into a divorce.

Sometimes I wonder why my current wife decided to marry me because living with a quadriplegic is not always easy. When I question her, she tells me that our bodily conditions are not that important because our bodies are just a vehicle to carry our soul. Our bodies are not who we are. I have always appreciated her perspective and the fact that she is able to look beyond my disability at the person who is inside my body. I love the bond and the partnership we have created even though I often feel I can never give back as much as she is giving me. But I do know that we have created something special together and sometimes I get reminded of that when my wife and I interact with other people who admire us for being able to live a fairly normal life despite of our challenges. Life is good!

Detoxifying a Disabled Body Through Juice Feasting

As part of our New Year’s resolution my wife and I decided to do a 60 day juice feast to cleanse our bodies from years of a build-up of toxins. You read that right; that is 60 days of only drinking fruit and vegetable juices. You might be surprised, but during the entire juice feast, I felt better and more energetic than I ever have since I was a kid.

What is juice feasting?

First of all, juice feasting is not to be confused with fasting where you ingest no food and starve the body of nutrients. On the contrary, during a juice feast you typically consume about 12 to 15 pounds of fruits and vegetables (preferably organic) each day. Your body actually gets many more nutrients through a juice feast than the average American diet. The 12 to 15 pounds of fruits and vegetables turns into an equivalent of four quarts of juice and you will not feel hungry. Read more

60 Days of Juice Feasting as a Quadriplegic

Some of you who have read my earlier story about my eating habits may think that I am a little bit extreme. My wife and I eat mostly raw vegan foods. That basically means no dairy, no bread, no meat and nothing heated above 117 F. The idea is that you kill the enzymes if you heat up anything higher than that and the nutritional value of the food diminishes. Well, if anybody would have told me ten years ago that they never cooked any of their food, I would have thought that person was nuts. However, somehow we got into this after – mainly my wife – doing a lot of research. And more and more people are starting to get into this as they learn that the standard American diet is the cause of most modern diseases such as diabetes, cancer, etc… Many people have actually been able to reverse their diseases by sticking to a raw vegan diet. And it certainly has helped me in getting me healthier, more energetic and more productive as a result of that.

Our latest adventure has been our completion of 60 days of only drinking fruit and vegetable juices. We just finished that a little while ago and I can hardly describe how good I feel and how much I am buzzing with energy these days. As a quadriplegic who had a hard time staying awake past 7PM ten years ago, that is quite remarkable.  Anyway I’m not going to give too much away yet, but I am writing a story about my 60 day juicing experience and will publish it soon under our Health category.

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