Don't Worry. Do Wheelies!

Pain is a constant companion in early rehabilitation, but not all pain means progress. In this episode, Lorie shares a story about being forced to stay upright when her body simply could not tolerate it and the moment she took matters into her own hands.Abbie and Lorie unpack the fine line between pushing for recovery and listening to the body’s limits. This conversation offers clarity about pain, patience, and why honoring individual experience is one of the most hopeful paths toward long-term recovery.

After a spinal cord injury, some dreams feel too risky to revisit. In this episode, Lorie tells the story of how her lifelong love of horses became one of her greatest motivators in recovery. From the first cautious ride to rebuilding core strength through equine therapy, this conversation explores how passion can drive healing. Together, Abbie and Lorie reflect on courage, adaptation, and why returning to what you love, even if differently, can restore both body and spirit.

In this episode, Lorie shares a story from early rehabilitation that begins with snow, mischief, and a group of teenagers in wheelchairs — and ends with a powerful lesson about healing. What starts as a simple snowball fight becomes a reminder that laughter, play, and connection are not distractions from recovery, but essential parts of it. Abbie and Lorie reflect on how moments of joy can exist alongside grief, and how rebuilding a life after spinal cord injury often begins with the smallest, most human experiences.

In Part Two of our conversation with Kelley Simoneaux, we widen the lens beyond pressure sores to explore the legal and systemic issues that shape daily life after spinal cord injury.Kelley shares what she sees in cases involving medical negligence, durable medical equipment delays, airline travel, and institutional care, and how small failures can quietly create lifelong consequences.We talk about when to speak up, how to document your care, where community data can create change, and why lived experience matters in reshaping policy and practice.This episode is about clarity. About knowing your rights, understanding the systems around you, and learning how individual voices can come together to protect the life you are building. If you need to know more about your rights, find Kelley on Instagram as @pushylawyer for more information.

In this episode, we talk with Kelley Simoneaux, a lawyer and spinal cord injury advocate who has dedicated her work to preventing pressure sores and changing how hospitals care for people after SCI.Kelley shares how the Stop Pressuring Us campaign began, why pressure sores should never be considered a normal part of life after injury, and what early prevention truly looks like in the hospital and rehab setting.Together, we talk about the patterns that lead to long term complications, the quiet assumptions that allow preventable injuries to happen, and how individuals and families can begin advocating for better care from the very beginning.This is a conversation about reclaiming what is possible, building systems that protect people, and remembering that a better outcome is not luck. It is something we can plan for.

In this episode of Don’t Worry, Do Wheelies, Abbie and Lorie sit down with Kelley Simoneaux, a spinal cord–injured attorney and founder of a nationwide spinal cord injury law firm. Injured in a car accident at just 16 years old due to a defective seatbelt design, Kelley shares how her personal injury case helped change vehicle safety standards—and ultimately shaped her career path.Kelley walks listeners through her journey from patient to plaintiff, law school to law firm owner, and explains why lived experience matters when navigating legal claims after a spinal cord injury. This conversation highlights product liability, patient advocacy, and why sometimes it takes legal action to force systemic change. An empowering episode for anyone living with a spinal cord injury or supporting someone who is.

If you’re tired of being seen only through the lens of your spinal cord injury, this episode is for you. Jerod, Lorie, and Abbie talk about the invisible weight that comes with SCI—the invasion of privacy for information about your injury, representing the disability community as a whole, and having to be an advocate for the needs that exist as a person living with quadriplegia or paraplegia.They open up about self-imposed limits, the emotional toll of feeling like a spokesperson for the entire wheelchair community, and how they set boundaries on who gets access to their story. Most importantly, they explore what it means to take back your identity, stop apologizing for where you are, and start living for yourself again.This isn’t about giving up—it’s about redefining freedom on your terms.

Jerod never set out to start a movement—he just wanted to stay in touch with people back home. But after joining an epidural stimulation study and launching Positively Paralyzed, Jerod’s mission quickly evolved into something much bigger.In this episode, he shares how he transformed the most devastating moment of his life into a growing business and a powerful platform for connection, consulting, and community. From teaching adaptive fitness classes to advising major pharmaceutical companies and universities, Jerod is focused on shaping a better future for those living with spinal cord injuries.His message? You can’t always choose what happens to you—but you can choose what you build from it.

What if growth meant choosing discomfort—on purpose? In this deeply personal episode, Yaz shares what it was like to start life over in a new body after his spinal cord injury. From not laughing for four months to feeling like SCI rehab brought him to the edge of survival, Yaz doesn’t hold back.But in that darkness, he found something powerful: the ability to connect more deeply with people who had been through something life-altering too. He talks about what changed when he stopped avoiding hard situations, and how other people with SCI helped him feel seen, strong, and capable again.This episode is raw, real, and ultimately hopeful—for anyone learning to live again after everything has changed.