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Comunidad de información y apoyo para las personas que viven con parálisis y sus cuidadores en español.
*Post Your WAGS of SCI Love Story HERE!*

Some ideas on what to post in your story:
- how and where you met
- what injury level your partner has
- what you have learned along this journey
- things that make your relationship special
- any advice you have for other WAGS of SCI
- photos of the two of you!
We cant wait to read all your amazing love stories!
- WAGS of SCI (Elena and Brooke)
(Elena and Brooke)
Comments
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Ill start this one(:
My name is Zack and I am a C4 incomplete quadriplegic. I have been dating my girlfriend Bree for a little over a year. I am 24 and she is 21. We met online and she messed me first. How awesome is that!? She drove an hour to meet me and pick me up from my house because I don't drive. Then we took off and had our first date together. We have been dating ever since. She is truly an answer to my prayers and makes my life better. We just moved in together and started a new chapter of our lives. Look forward to reading other stories.
Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be. -SONIA RICOTTI -
My name Is Ashley and my fiancé’s name is Kiel. We met over five years ago, over a date of pizza, and are now happily engaged and are going to be married November 2019! I fell in love with the man Kiel is, the strength and courage he portrays and to be honest, his perfect smile. Kiel is a C5 quadriplegic due to a football injury at the age of 14. He now uses a power chair to get around. Kiel’s disability does not keep us from going on adventures and living our life. Our “interabled” relationship is different in some ways, but at the end of the day, I see Kiel for Kiel. I don’t see the chair. I have learned many things about SCI, things I never would have thought of. From the moment I met Kiel, I forgot he was in a wheelchair. He often half teases and I’m sure is half annoyed but I truly do forget! He has never let anything in life stop him, and he pushes everything to the limits. I am proud of the man he is, and all he does.
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Hello! I am Brooke, one of the Content Creators here and Co-Founder of WAGS of SCI! Here is our Love Story:Evan and I met almost 10 years ago when we were both working at a restaurant - Evan was working as a bartender temporarily and I was paying my way through university. After about a year of being friends at work and occasionally hanging out outside of work, we suddenly became more over a few too many glasses of red wineAfter a few months of dating we decided to move to downtown Vancouver in order to pursue our dreams - Evan's goal was to eventually lead a construction team building environmentally friendly buildings; mine was to own my own marketing and design company serving lifestyle brands. During the next few years we moved around the city and both began our careers grinding and sacrificing to get where we wanted to go - we went through great times and some intense personal struggles, but kept the focus on our life together and eachother. We made a pact that we would always come out strong no matter what life through at us. Little did we know that it was this mentality that would prove to be extremely helpful when the biggest challenge we would face yet was thrown at us unexpectedly…In May of 2014 while working as a Construction Superintendent building a multi million dollar private school, Evan broke his neck when an improperly secured load of flooring weighing 3500lbs fell off of a delivery truck onto his head and neck. Evan was instantly paralyzed from the shoulders down, and was left without full use of his arms and no use of his hands or legs - he was categorized as a C4 Quadriplegic. After 5 months in the hospital and intensive rehabilitation, we began our new life together - although very very different, nothing changed our outlook on life or how much we love each other.
A year after his accident while we were in San Diego for Rehab, Evan proposed to me while we were dining at our favourite restaurant - and it took me completely by surprise! I am his sole caregiver and still didn't know he was planning this with the help of a friend and my mom. He even got the ring he designed sent to San Diego without me knowing! A year after that, we decided to fulfil our dream of getting married in Italy, and honeymooned in Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam and Nice France with his power chair and 6 bags! Since then we have travelled as much as possible, and consider ourselves "Wander Eaters" - people who base their travel itineraries around food and wineWe love to dine, watch movies, go to festivals and events, and work out together.
We both have always believed that everything happens for a greater reason, and regardless of the extremely hard times we have been through over the past few years, we refuse to NOT live every day to the fullest. There have been so many amazing things that have happened to us that we would never had experienced had this tragedy not occurred and THIS is why we proudly live our life to the fullest everyday.
As one of the WAGS of SCI Founders and Content Leader for Reeve, I am available anytime to chat! I have dedicated my life to spreading awareness for interABLED relationships and hope to break stigmas and create sisterhoods all over the world! - BrookeYour WAGS of SCI
(Elena and Brooke) -
Hey Guys & Gals,
My name is Elena Pauly, and I am the other half of WAG's OF SCI.
Dan and I have been dating for 6.5 years. We met through mutual friends who knew of my love for pizza, pasta and everything else Italian...aka. Dan. After about 1.5 years of dating, Dan and I moved in together into his townhouse in picturesque Chilliwack, British Colombia. Dan, who had missed 2 days of work in his entire life, was a home owner at 21 and worked very hard as a stone mason. When I moved to Chilliwack, I got a position at an inner city, elementary school, working for a program called 2nd Day. My background in Behavioral Therapy and working with children previously, landed me an amazing new position at Chilliwack Central Elementary. I was in charge of implementing a sustainable unite for 60-90 children, who were picked by their teacher's or social workers and needed extra support that they did not receive at home. We were able to use a near by garden plot from a homeless shelter called Ruth & Naomi's and the children and I would grow produce for the them in exchange for allowing us use their space to learn about sustainable living.
Ok, back to how we got here....
Each year Dan and I discussed taking a Christmas holiday but really couldn't afford to go away. Until, December 2015, when I surprised Dan with his first out of country trip to Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba. We celebrated 2016 New Year and made vows that this was going to be our BEST year yet! We had plans, BIG plans! However, our life took a bit of a detour....
On January 2nd, 2016..at around 6:30pm at our resort, while I was going to the restroom, Dan dove into the shallow end of the pool, broke his neck, became a C5 quadriplegic and began to drown. Our life was completely turned upside down as I navigated through what seemed like a never ended series of shock. I remember running back to our room and grabbing the travel pillow, travel blanket, paper work and running back to the ambulance that had just arrived. It was a long 5 hour car ride to the nearest hospital, across a 100km cossway (basically a very long bridge). You see, I didn't want to take Dan just to any vacation. I wanted to most remote part of the island, where he could experience being away from everyone else. It was a very long night, many phone calls home, to the embassy, to insurance; Thank God for insurance. I slept in a chair beside Dan for about a week, began to clean the entire Neuroward of the Cuban hospital and a coupe day's later he had his surgery in Cuba. It was a long battle to have the Dr's let us return home safely, and my text msgs to Canada couldn't have gone through fast enough with all of the MRI's. You see, Cuba, doesn't really have a way to communicate with rest of the world. I lived on my cellphone while we fought to get home, my $6,000 phone bill later reflected that. After about a week of fighting to get out of the country, we were on a flight home to Vancouver, B.C!
Dan's family and I packed up his home, and put it up for sale at Dan's request. A life that we had built was suddenly coming down one picture frame at a time, one folder hockey jersey and folder sweatshirt at a time. We spend a year watching the grass grown in the back yard after we dug up the entire thing. How could this life be coming apart I thought?
Dan and I were both realists from the get go. We were having conversations about never returning to Chilliwack; where Dan's family still lives. We stayed in Vancouver to be closer to accessibility, and he spent the next 4 months in rehabilitation. We spent most of our days talking about what life was trying to teach us. There was much uncertainty, as most of you reading this will know. We were technically homeless, and had to find somewhere to rent before he came out of rehab. We would go for "wheels" around the park, plan his next meals and watch a lot of movies in his single, hospital bed. At night, after I would shower him, he would tell me to go home and get some rest. But, I would grocery shop and make him meals to bring back the following day (we all know how great the hospital food is), and I would find myself sitting in my car crying. Crying for the sake of missing my partner, and having to lay in bed alone and nobody to really feel open enough to spill the beans and waves of emotions to. I won't lie, it wasn't always easy.
Ok, enough with the sad stuff....
It was 4 months later, that Dan and I found a rental in Vancouver, sure it was double our mortgage but we saved all of our favorite things from our 3 story townhouse and made it feel just like home. It has been 3 years now- since Dan had his accident. We have created a "new normal" so to speak. Our apartment isn't adapted, but it works. Dan participates in multiple research studies at the Blusson Center for SCI, here in Vancouver, had now gone back to University, cooks many of our meals and runs a hobby cooking account on social media called "QuadChef".
So, how did I begin this group with Brooke?
Social Media!!!
Brooke and I came together after social media connect us through our mutual likes or hashtags such as #Quadwife, #Quadreplegic and #Kitsilano, an area of Vancouver that we both live in. Our mutual love for coffee and yoga classes and being able to discuss many, sticky situations around Spinal Cord Injury and being a partner, demonstrated to us the need to begin a group like this. We could laugh and cry over the "shitty" situations that happened the night before and show up for yoga- in a zombie state. Thus, our discussions and love for our men created a sisterhood of TWO- Brooke and I. It wasn't long until we decided that we were going to challenge the break-up statistics after SCI and do our best to encourage and support other Wives and Girlfriends in OUR shoes!
Your WAGS of SCI
(Elena and Brooke) -
Hello, I'm Ashley. My husband is Jacob. He is a T11/T12 incomplete whose missing a partial limb. We will have been married two years this April but our love story began in April 2016 on the online dating site, Plenty of Fish.
We had our first date a local (to me) sushi restaurant and the rest is pretty much history. But, I'm sure ya'll want more details then that. Hehe.
I was doing a lot of dating around the time I met Jake and the guys were being given code names because anyone who's dating knows how exhausting it is to tell friends and family about someone only to have it not go anywhere. Jake's code name was "crazy dog man". It was our love of dogs that brought us together as I had four dogs and he had three. And that's how we became the Brady Bunch of Dogs and collectively became known as the Crazy Dog Couple in our communities.
Our second date took place at a local park (near him) and we each brought one of our dogs. We spent hours walking, talking, had a picnic, and just thoroughly enjoyed each others company. It was this date where Jake point blank told me to go ahead and ask, "does it work - go ahead - its literally the number one question everyone wants to know. The answer is Yes. Yes, my wiener works" It was also this date where he introduced me to his "leg bag" and explained how it worked. He figured if his paralysis was gonna scare me off, he'd best get it out of the way I suppose.
Our third date was at his home where we watched movies. He only owned recliners. He immediately went out after that date and bought a loveseat so we could sit next to each other.
Our fourth date was at the zoo and that's where he officially asked me to be his girlfriend.
We were married on April 8, 2017 after a year of dating. When ya know, ya know.
We're currently traveling and living our best life while also trying to start a family of our own.
This certainly isn't the life either of us thought we'd be living but we honestly wouldn't change it for the world.
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Hi! I am Abby, and my fiance's name is Kolton. We met when I was in 8th grade, and he was a freshman in high school. I was visiting his hometown (about 20 minutes from mine) to watch some of my friends play basketball. I hung around people from his school, so he added me on Facebook that night and we were friends from that point on. I considered Kolton my best guy friend for the next year and a half. While he consistently tried to talk me into going on a date, I insisted that our friendship was fine just the way it was, and to be honest I did not yet have romantic feelings for this rowdy farm kid. While we were still good friends we both dated other people for a while, and then finally the timing was right and we were both single. We had been hanging out more frequently in a group of guys and girls at this point. I developed a crush on him and it must not have been hard to see, because a few weeks later we started dating on September 1st, 2013. For the next two months we were a pretty average high school couple, and then everything changed.
In November of 2013 Kolton was in a farming accident while working with his two best friends. He was crushed by the loader of a skid steer, leaving him a T9-T10 complete paraplegic. At the time I was hours away visiting a friend, and got a text from one of the friends he was with that day saying something along the lines of, "There was an accident and Kolton is hurt bad." I immediately packed my stuff and made the 3 hour trip home to the hospital he was at. I remember getting text and calls that whole time asking where I was and why I wasn't there yet, which broke my heart because I could only get there so quickly. I walked into the hospital room and he smiled his big goofy smile, and proceeded to ask me how my drive was...coming from the kid in the hospital bed. He told me that night that this was my chance to get out and that he would not judge me if I left him, and I had to remind him that I did not date him for his ability to walk AND that he could not get rid of me that easily. After this he did two different rounds of rehab at Craig Hospital in Denver, which is about an 8 hour drive from our home. I spent every weekend I could making trip one of his parents or my mom to see him. Once he was home for good we found our own kind of normal. We did everything most other couple our age did, we went to concerts, road around in his sand dune buggy, went on dates, and went to all our school dances.
Fast forward nearly 6 years and we are still going strong. We spend any time we get outside of college traveling and trying new things together. We have been all over the states together for his wheelchair basketball and softball tournaments, and love the network we have built through adaptive sports. My friends adore Kolton and he is usually the life of the party. If there a few things we love they are ; Kansas City Chiefs Football, a cold cider beer, making food on the grill, and traveling any chance we get. On one of our recent trips to Indy Kolt asked me to marry him, and I of course said yes. On September 5th, 2020 we will get married surrounded by all our favorite people. While our relationship is slightly different from those around us, I would not have it any other way. Everyone who meets Kolt can easily see his charism, drive, and ability to make everyone love his happy go lucky attitude. He ALWAYS sees the positive in things, and worries about nearly nothing. I admire these things about him above all else, but it helps that he is handsome too! He really does balance me out perfectly! -
Hi everyone,
I’m Mélanie (25) and I’m gonna introduce you all to my love story with Ismael (27).
I first knew him by his Instagram profile (@ismaeelcapa_mlg) where he is very active and posts many content of his daily life, thoughts and about prejudices of society about disabilities.
He is paraplegic, T9 complete due to a motorbike accident on 2013 at the age of 21.
I found him very positive and after a few weeks I decide to write him a direct message to just thank him about that positive attitude he provides. It was on April 2016. He answered me, very natural and friendly.
At that time I lived in Switzerland but my family is from Spain and I used to go every summer to the city where he lives. So we start talking about that, the city, some stuff we have in common like our passion for football and the city team of Malaga CF. We start like that, like to person who doesn’t know anything about each other but something did that we talk more and more, like daily.
He was like a best friend, I could talk to him about everything and he do the same with me. So we tried to meet on summer 2016 when I can to Malaga on holydays. I bring some Swiss chocolate to him but we couldn’t met that year… It was because of personal issues of him. So I was a bit disappointed because I thought at this point that if we didn’t meet that year we would have to wait to the next summer. We never stop talking, on instagram, sharing stories etc, on whatsapp and start doing some video calls but just a few, not more.
On 2017, I go back to Malaga but on February, and for me it was like the now or never to meet him face to face. And the day comes! We get to a beautiful bar with view on the sea, he brings me there because he already knew that it was like my favorite place of Malaga. He came in his car to take me there and it was like we knew each other for years! We didn’t stop talking, laughing and so on… It was like a perfect date. This night we couldn’t stop talking, 1 am, 2am, and so on!
We met again two days later, I was looking for some piercings stuff and he knew (and knows!) the best places so he was like my guide. We go through the entire city till the night and stop to eat something in a beautiful and tiny place. The next day I had to go back to Switzerland with my family and both knew that so we go to a tout hand different places because we wanted to stop time that was just flying… We stop the car next to my parent’s house and never stop talking, I didn’t want to let him go and he didn’t want it too… We started a photoshoot, like two kids just having fun and he just kissed me! That was exactly what I wanted to but my first reaction was saying « why did you do that? And now what are we going to do if I live 2000kms away ?! » He just laugh and I just kissed him back, again and again…
After this we start doing daily video calls sometimes just to say « good night » but we needed it.
A month later I took another plane and met him again for the weekend.
And the next month again till summer comes and I was able to stay with him more than just a few days.
On January 2018, he came to Switzerland to celebrate my birthday and after that, I decide to quit everything, university and a stable life to live fully my love story with him. So I moved to Malaga on 30 January 2018.
Now we live together, we have a baby pit-bull of 2 years old and we just celebrate our 2 years as a couple. But things get harder and harder… I can’t find a stable job and our economic situation isn’t very good to say the truth. With my family things aren't easy too as they did not understand my decision to quit everything that way. We try to get over all of it and always find a way to get and go better.
The only good think is that we still kiss and love each other like that first day !
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I am very thankful that my girlfriend co-founded this inspirational "support" group, with someone she can call one of her best friends. WAGs of SCI is not only a support group but also acts as to create awareness and empowerment for our partners who literally stand by us and life us up. WAGs of SCI has created a unique and safe space for all of us. Bravo.
Dan Duffy (QuadChef) -
Hello Ladies AND Gents!
One of our lovely fellow WAGs of SCI wrote this piece in 2012 and we think it is 100% accurate and really feel every word of it. Dana has given us permission to share this on her behalf. Have a read and maybe get to know Dana Brown Ritter.
Elena (WAGs of SCI)
We are the wives of quads.We may have taken the biggest risk of our lives, much to the dismay or hesitance of our family and friends.Or, we may have survived the scariest thing of our lives – almost losing the men we love, but getting them back this way.We prop legs up on pillows, turn them, stretch them, and straighten them out in our sleep.We may or may not also put our hot or cold feet on those hot or cold legs in order to warm up, or cool off.We pull our husbands around on pads in the bed.We snuggle up in their armpits and rest our heads on their chest.
We love to hear their hearts beating.We may or may not put our husbands arms around ourselves, if we have to.So we can be held.Because the very beginning of the day, and the very end of the day, that’s the only chance we have to be really close.Without any titanium or rubber or aluminum between us.Without getting run over by little wheels or big wheels or power wheels.We have toe calluses. And amazingly quick feet, like the feet of running backs when those wheels take a turn towards our toes.We slip forks and spoons into straps so our husbands can feed themselves.We feed them sometimes to be sweet, or to just hurry things along.We may or may not occasionally bend up restaurant silverware.Or, maybe we travel with our own bent-up silverware in our purses.Our purses.Oh, our purses.Yes, they hold our keys, our wallets, and our iPhones.But our purses are like a stash of secret weapons.Mothers – sorry to tell you this, but your diaper bags – they have nothing on our purses.We have straps and straws and pills and catheters.And bottles of water and sanitary wipes and allen wrenches.We have our husbands’ wallets, phones, and sunglasses.We don’t always have to carry those purses, though.We almost always have a handlebar to hang those on.Or a lap to sit them on.Oh, that lap.That is our favorite place.We have a built in seat when we are waiting in line at a restaurant or at a concert or waiting for the train.Did you know that that lap is dancing headquarters?No, not in that kind of lap-dance kind of way.Well, maybe sometimes.That’s the best place for a lot of things.We don’t get to walk hand in hand with our husbands on the beach.Or sit on their shoulders in the pool.Some of us don’t even get to ride beside them in the car.Sometimes we cry.We are held.Sometimes we hold our husbands while they cry.Sometimes we laugh so hard our stomachs hurt.Because if we didn’t, we’d just cry again.We are weightlifters.We lift grown men into beds and wheelchairs, onto chairs and couches , into and out of pools, and into cars and SUVs.We lift them over curbs, push them up hills, brace them down hills, and we can even lift them on to those really tall examination tables at doctor’s offices.Why are those so tall?Geez!We are masters at dressing.Anyone can dress themselves.They may or may not do that well, that’s on them.But, we can dress a body that is not our own, that has almost no control of itself, and make it look good.We put jeans and khakis and shorts on man, all while he is laying down. We push and pull that body side to side and tuck pockets in and make sure leg bags are straight (and closed!) and button buttons and snap snaps, and buckle belts and tuck things in and pull them out just enough so that it’s comfortable and doesn’t cause a pressure sore.We do this with impeccable strength and grace day in and day out and we nail it.It is a science.It is not easy.Because if you screw up, your man can end up looking like a saggy bag of potatoes in a cart.But if you tug and push and pull, and align those jeans and that shirt just the right way, he is comfortable, and he looks good and he has that confidence that he looks good.And we like that confidence.So, no matter how tired we are, or how much our backs already hurt, we do this dressing dance every morning. Then, we make the bed and make breakfast. And probably lunch. And eventually, dinner.We can clean up any type of bodily produce imaginable.Without breathing.We do more laundry than anyone else you know.We multitask.We are landscapers, maids, and mechanics.We are drivers and nurses and wheelchair repairmen.In fact, we can drive, talk on the phone, eat fast food and feed french fries to our passengers, simultaneously. That “mom hand” that goes out when you’re braking hard, so that your passenger doesn’t end up on the dash board? We have that. We use it all the time. Even when we’re told we don’t need to.We have strange encounters with strangers.We’re either stared at or ignored, or looked like someone is saying with their eyes, “bless her heart.”We roll our eyes. We smile with forgiveness.Because we are taken care of too.We are deeply loved.We get massages with pointy elbows and soft, warm hands.We get the BEST kissers in the world.We are appreciated.We are honored.
We are a part of a team.We are bonded to our husbands in such a deep, intimate way.And sometimes, despite the hard work and frustrations, we are thankful that we are forced to love this way, because we are also loved this way.Just as fiercely.Just as consistently.Just as sacrificially.We are.-Dana Brown Ritter (2012)Your WAGS of SCI
(Elena and Brooke) -
I love a good love story, so this thread is giving me heart eyes!!!
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One day I'll be posting my story here!
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Hi Everyone! My name is Vasso and I wanted to share our love storyOur story was decades in the making I guess you can say. Dimitri and I grew up just a couple of blocks away from each other. Our families knew each other because he did martial arts with my brother's for many years during his youth. Being that I am six years younger than him, he didn't even know my brothers had a sister because we weren't in the same karate class together. I always knew who he was because of pictures and because his parents always said hello to my mother and I when I'd go to the grocery store with her.Flash forward to April 2014, we met by chance at church the night before Orthodox Easter. He came to say hello to my brothers who he hadn't seen in years and that's when he introduced himself to me. There were sparks and a connection instantly. We went our separate ways and all I could do was hope that we'd happen to run into each other again (he tells me to this day, he was thinking the same exact thing)
. My one brother helped me out by making himself a LinkedIn account so that it wouldn't be weird if I randomly requested Dimitri myself (lol). We connected through there and went back and forth for awhile before he gave me his number and we went on a close to 8 hour first date. That was in September of 2014.
For months, he had on again, off again back pain that didn't seem any different then what someone might feel if they had a knot in their back. The night before the injury, we were out to dinner and enjoying a beautiful Saturday summer night. We went back to his place and I rubbed his back where it was hurting with some tiger balm and then I left to head home at around 1am. By 8 the next morning I had missed 7 of his phone calls, which was completely unlike him. I kept calling him back until finally, his sister answered his phone and told me they were in the hospital because his back had been hurting so badly that he fell to the floor of his living room and said that he couldn't move his legs or get up. EMT's and the NYPD had to be called in order to carry him down the long flight of stairs of his apartment building. We had to have him transferred to a hospital in Manhattan because the one in our neighborhood didn't have anyone working the MRI machine that day. When he got there, they found a mass in the imaging that turned out to be a hemorrhage/clot of some sort that had filled his entire spine and compressed his spinal cord. They performed surgery right away, which took nearly 8 hours. The date was August 14th, 2016. The next 72 hours were the longest ever, as we waited and watching neurologists coming in and out and doing tests to see if he regained any movement or sensation below the T4 level and if he lost any strength in his arms and hands. I clearly remember speaking to his neurosurgeon the next day after his post-surgical MRI and asking her if he'd regain his movement and function. She looked me square in the eyes and said "let's be realistic" and then turned and walked away.It's been a little over 2 and a 1/2 years since the injury and we still don't have an answer as to why Dimitri became T4 complete SCI to begin with. After all the tests that have been run and every possible blood work that exists in the medical field, everything has come back normal. Doctors don't have an answer and say that they've never seen something like this happen before.
Living with a partner with a SCI teaches you a lot about being patient. As a high school teacher, I already had patience, but after the injury, I've really realized how patient I have to be with myself and with us. We've learned a lot about each other since the injury that we may have not learned if it hadn't happened. We've learned that some days are going to be much easier than others (both physically and mentally) and that the need to socialize and be involved in the SCI community is absolutely necessary. Yes, we have our friends that we see and spend time with, but it is almost more comforting to be around our friends who are too an interabled couple. We found the importance of getting outside as much as possible because being stuck indoors all day is very detrimental to Dimitri's mental state, especially during the cold NYC winter months.
As a WAG, I definitely recommend that all WAGS take time to do things that THEY want and NEED to do. If you don't take care of yourself, you will only grow to resent the situation.
Communicate with your partners about how you are feeling and what you need to maintain a healthy state of mind and it will make the relationship happier.
All we can do now is try and live day-by-day dealing with on going issues that continue to be unsolved. This injury made our relationship and love grow beyond what I ever thought possible and I couldn't imagine a life without my superman by my side. -
Hi everyone! I am Diana and I am the girlfriend to an amazing man, Alberto. He has a C-6 Incomplete spinal cord injury so we are always faithful and hopeful that he will gain more and more function.
Alberto had his accident in August of 2014, at the time he was my best friend. We were with friends and family at a man-made water park and he suffered a freak accident. He went head first down a water slide and hit the bottom of the lake. If you ask him, he swears he tried to move but nothing happened. He told himself, "Hold you breath" and that is the last thing he remembers. I was the one who noticed him floating in the water face down, his 9 yr old nephew was the one who pulled him up, and his sister did CPR to save his life. Funny thing is, as I was moving out the way for the EMT's to bring him up the sandy hill, I somehow managed to break my leg. As he was being life flighted to a hospital, I was begging an ambulance to take me to the same one. From that day on, I did not spend more than 1 day apart from him. I was there for surgeries, consultations, therapy, wound management, many sleepless nights, and some good days.
As he was finishing his first inpatient stay at a hospital for rehabilitation, he asked me to be his girlfriend. The day he was released from the hospital, we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment, no wheelchair accessibility and our four kids sharing the second bedroom. We somehow made it work. Our little family made the best of it. There have been so many days that I sit back and think of how different our live's would be if it wasn't for the accident, and in the same sense, I am thankful for everything we have been through. Four years later and we are in a much bigger space, we have an accessible van, and our kids are older.
I work a full time job, have four kids between the two of us, have two dogs, and I volunteer for a baseball little league. What I have learned through my experience is that some days are really hard, like really really hard, but that is okay because I know that those times are just a moment in my life and they will pass. I learned that I need to take care of myself and it is okay to have me time. At the beginning I was always there and I lost myself in his injury. I would never go anywhere and I was always trying to help. He finally convinced me to venture out and convinced me that he will be okay. Some days it is hard for me to see him struggle to hold something or open something, it is hard to watch him have such a hard time with things that seem so trivial but I learned that I need to back off because how is he supposed to live independent if I am always hovering over waiting to come to his rescue.
The advice I can give other WAGS is self help and self care. You are no good to anyone if you are not good with yourself. As much as I have helped Alberto, he has helped me understand that.
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Hi! My name is Jaimee and I met my husband, Gabriel, in high school. We became fast best friends. Gabe was in husband accident shortly after entering college; March 2007. He fell from a top bunk bed with no railing in his sleep and broke his neck (C5/C6). The paramedics said it was like he won the lottery in hell. That same year we reconnected and have been together ever since. We were married in 2012. In June of 2017, we started the IUI process. I was pregnant after two rounds and had our baby in May 2018. Out of all the struggles that come with being a quadriplegic and being a quad wife, our hardest year was this last one. Gabe fell ill August 2018 and after multiple misdiagnosis, he was diagnosed with MRSA. As a new mom and a caregiver, I felt hopeless, angry, and like a failure. But with the support of my husband, WAGs of SCI and proper treatment of MRSA and my PPD, we overcame. I have no doubt that we will have more obstacles to overcome, but I’m thankful that this is the man I get to walk and roll beside for the rest of our lives.
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Danny and I attended the same high school and even worked together at Starbucks without ever officially meeting one another. Danny graduated in 2007, I graduated in 2008, and in 2009 Danny was involved in a car accident that left him a quadriplegic. Shortly thereafter, our mutual friends began to flood social media with news of the accident, pictures of Danny, and inspirational messages. Then, in December 2010, I stumbled upon a blog Danny’s uncle started shortly after his accident. I was intrigued by Danny’s last post, in which he listed his new phone number and mentioned he was learning to drive with hand controls. Seeing as how he hadn’t posted in nearly a year, I used the holidays as an excuse to text Danny to say “Merry Christmas” and tell him how inspirational he is. Rather than saying “thank you” and leaving it at that, Danny insisted I reveal my identity. I told him my name but reminded him that he didn’t know who I was. This began a series of non-stop texts and 48 hours later we went on our first date to watch a matinee showing of Tangled. Throughout the movie, I quipped about the fantasy fairytale love and insisted that “true love doesn’t exist.” We spent over 8 hours together that day, grabbing lunch after the movie and continuing to get to know one another over drinks. Our nonstop texting continued and, 2 months later, their whirlwind romance took Danny on his first flight as a quadriplegic to visit me in New York City on Valentine’s Day. From that day on, we were two peas in a pod. We’ve since kayaked, snorkeled, ziplined, traveled nationally and internationally, attended numerous wheelchair rugby tournaments, and celebrated every major milestone together, which includes our wedding and the birth of our son, Joseph. Currently, we run Accessible Vacations where we hope to inspire the differently-abled community to get out and see the world in spite of their limitations.
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Hi lovely community!
My name is Jeannette Krikorian, I'm one of the Los Angeles Ambassadors for WAGS of SCI!
My husband, Apkar, and I met (believe it or not!) at a nightclub in Hollywood! It was summer and humid night in LA and I swore I was having a bad hair day because I actually was lol. My single girlfriends and I were hanging out when this strikingly tanned, handsome, Hugo Boss-cologned guy comes over to compliment my hair and begins chatting with me. Three minutes into our conversation, I was laughing and the rest was history! Apkar and I spent the next 4 years dancing and laughing our lives away. We attended a ton of music festivals, concerts, went on vacations, and just started building the beginning of a beautiful life together.
It was the Summer of 2016 when I had just completed my first year at UCLA for my Master's of Public Health and my summer internship. I decided a nice getaway right before starting my last year would be perfect so we planned a vacation to Maui. Our plan was to stay in Maui for 4 days. On the 2nd day, to my SURPRISE, Apkar popped the question and asked me to marry him!!!! We were both sooo high on life that day and could not wait to get back home to start our life together. The next day, we decided to celebrate our engagement by staying at our resort since we had been taking day trips. It was a gloomy and rainy day in Maui that day, unlike any of the other days, so we decided to set fort at the pool. Apkar took a dip in the pool but decided he wanted to take a dip in the beach and told me he would be right back. I remember keeping my eye on him but losing sight and before I knew it, they were pulling Apkar out of the water. He was unconscious and I had no idea he had take a shallow wave and broken his neck and that our lives were changed forever. We spent the next 5 weeks in the ICU at Maui Memorial Medical Center before we took an air ambulance back to California.
After arriving in California, we spent the next 2.5 months in rehab and I never left his side. Hospital days were the hardest. They're almost a blur now but I remember telling him at the hospital that we can still have the life we dreamed of and talked about. Even though I really didn't know what to expect with this injury at the time, I was right. Fast forward 2.5 years later to today and we are happily married and are continuing to build the life we always talked about. Though this injury brought on the hardest/darkest times, God brought us to the light and we truly feel blessed to be doing this life together with such an amazing community and God at the center of it all.
With much love,
Jeannette