Don't Worry. Do Wheelies!

Lorie and Abbie trace how a spinal cord injury went from a near-certain death sentence to something people live full, active lives with. They cover the turning points: understanding infection, the wave of injuries after World War II, pioneers like Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, and the realization that getting people moving helps them recover. They also tell the story of Washington Roebling, who finished the Brooklyn Bridge from his apartment window after a spinal injury while his wife Emily ran the site, and look ahead to the next big leap in SCI care.Want to work with us? Start here: https://form.typeform.com/to/Xytkc1qVDon't Worry. Do Wheelies!

Briefly, Abbie and Lorie touch on the fact that there are so many different devices out in the spinal cord injury industry that it's hard to keep track of them, as you see so much on social media. And there are so many regulations with medical devices. The goal of this episode is to help people understand what it means for them to get a device with or without an FDA certification.

Abbie and Lori discuss four major innovations that the VA is experimenting with in their current pilot program of bringing AI and autonomous learning and machines to improve their neurological care systems. This isn't meant to be an episode repeat of the Terminator. There is technology out there that can be helpful and give people better and faster access.

Abbie just got back from the PVA conference, and this is the first of several episodes unpacking what she learned there.First up: a VA pilot program delivering hospital-level care in the home. Not a single home-health visit, but a full interdisciplinary team: physician, nurse, PT, OT, SLP who actually know each other and coordinate.List to learn more with Abbie and Lorie!

Abbie told a client of more than 20 years that spinal cord injury is a full-time job, and the client wrote back to thank her because in two decades, nobody had ever said it out loud. This episode is about what that sentence does for people. Lorie and Abbie talk through why existing itself becomes the workload, why naming that isn't a pity party, and why falling behind on chores and appointments is the expected outcome rather than proof you're failing. Lorie is honest that she hits this wall every single day, not once. Plus a candid stretch for the clinicians listening: when the system measures units and cancellations instead of whether anyone felt heard, it gets easy to say "I hear you" and move on and it takes about two seconds to say it differently.

Almost everyone starts with the same goal: I want to walk like I did before the injury. This episode is about why that framing quietly sets people up to feel like they failed and what a more useful picture looks like. After a spinal cord injury, walking is your running and wheeling is your walking. Lorie describes the first months back on her feet, when ten minutes of walking bought her three hours flat on the couch, and the constant calculation she still runs today: when is pushing productive, and when is it doing damage you'll pay for later? Abbie offers the clinical test for that line: did you lose function the next day?

People send Abbie their injury level, their scans, sometimes the doctor's notes and ask what's going to happen. When she asks whether knowing would change anything, they say yes: they want to know the outcome before deciding how hard to work. This episode is about why that's a bad trade.Lorie's surgeon told her it was one of the worst spines he'd ever operated on, and that he didn't expect her to feel or move anything. She internalized it, expected a bad outcome, and did every single thing her PT asked of her anyway including a paraplegic obstacle course she mostly did because it looked fun. She walks now, and she's clear that she can't tell you what made that happen.In this episode:- Why "will I walk again?" is the wrong question to gate your effort on- What an ASIA score actually tells you — and what it doesn't- Lorie's rehab ward: obstacle courses, transfer competitions, and why a room full of 16-to-24-year-olds changed everything- The health problems that arrive WITH walking, not instead of it- Rehab regret, and the difference between "I tried and it didn't happen" and "I gave up"- Why a successful rehab is defined by what you gave, not what you got

Lorie's doctors spent weeks waiting for her to break down after her spinal cord injury. She never did. This episode is about grief that doesn't look like grief, why there's no correct way to process a life-changing injury, and what actually goes wrong when you fake someone else's process.

Everyone says the goal after spinal cord injury is walking. It isn't. In this episode we make the case for independence as the real goal, the highest level you can personally reach, and push back on the idea that not walking means rehab failed.