My Unexpected Journey

Another step towards independence is re-learning how to cook. Now with these new obstacles in the way, I needed to find a way to overcome them. My lovely cousin Heather came over to supervise my cooking. She pretty much was only going to help me if I caught on fire… but her strict discipline helped me achieve my goal. The first meal I made was taco salad. Heather put all the groceries in their designated spots, I got them out while maneuvering around my disabilities, opened them when needed, and cooked away. The hardest thing to do was cook the meat because it took a lot more endurance than expected. After I was done cooking the meat all I had to do was add a little seasoning. Then on my plate I added salad, corn chips, and the appropriate toppings (sour cream, salsa, cheese, and Catalina dressing). I was able to get everything out of their packages and onto the plate without assistance. WITHOUT ANY HELP. It was perrrfectooo!!! And most importantly I was very proud of myself for b...

I’m FINALLY getting a puppy! I’ve been waiting for this moment for quite some time!!! My family use to have a dog named Ruby. She was a beautiful, perfect yellow lab. She was so smart and so loving so this next dog has some pretty big “paws” to fill. But don’t think it was easy finding this puppy, mom was very specific with what she wanted; no shedding, not too big, not too small (she thinks I’ll run over it, but give me some credit mom… I’ve only put like 20 marks on our walls (that was facetious)), preferably a yellow/gold color, and it has to be a girl so I don’t have a tally-whacker rubbing all over me. The search was on!!!! Multiple Google searches and craigslist searches to find this “perfect breed” and I finally stumbled upon a mini golden doodle litter that would be ready to sell/pick up in the middle of July. We have already met the puppies and put a deposit on my favorite one so I cannot wait till we meet again in two weeks!!!! I feel like I’m about explode, I’m too a...

I’m sorry for not posting anything last week, I’ve just been really busy! I didn’t forget to, I just haven’t had the time. I just started an online course which pretty much took up my free time and on top of that, I’ve been sucked into a black hole called the television. But don’t worry, I haven’t been watching junk, I’ve been watching the world cup!!:) I played soccer my whole life so when my accident happened it was quite devastating being told I would “never walk again.”   Man, did that suck. I miss it sooooooo much BUT for the time being, I’ll just watch the world cup here on my t.v. I kinda get over it and suck it up when I'm told something like that. I’m not going to sit here and pout, ya it sucks but I need to move on. Ya, I miss it but now it’s just become a part of my life. Plus, there are adapted sports made for people like me! I went to a sporting event in Louisville, Kentucky last year with a good friend who is also a quadriplegic. It was called quad rugby or wh...

Now that all the schools are out and it’s summertime I wanted to remind all of my readers how fragile life can be and to not make stupid decisions. One of the things that frustrates me the most and is very hard to watch is when I see people on their phone and driving at the same time. Sometimes I will honk at them to make them stop but most of time they don’t even care or they don’t understand what they are putting at risk. Once you’ve been through something that can change your life forever, then you’ll understand the risk, but by that time it will be too late. So that’s is why my goal is to change how people view life and understand how precious and fragile life really is before they’re in a position like mine or worse, DEAD. To be quite honest, there are times I get very pissed off (pardon my french, but it’s true) when I see people put their life on the line for one little text that’s probably saying, ”hey man, want to hang out tonight?” Well it will be kind of hard to hang...

Even before my accident I was always an adventurous, nature loving girl. Thanks to growing up in the country, I had the opportunity to go in the woods and hike whenever I wanted too.  I went hiking ALL the time with whoever wanted to join me, even in the winter time! (It also helped that my family loved doing it too) But now that I'm stuck in this new, unwanted, chapter of my life how can I still experience hiking in a wheelchair meant for a sidewalk? I mean my power chair can go through a lot, but it could never go off-roading.   Thankfully, we live in the 21st century and we have the right technology available to create a wheelchair that is powerful enough to go through anything. And I am so grateful that I own that certain all-terrain wheelchair called the "Action Tracker". And trust me it is all-terrain. For example, I had to cross over this little creek and it had no problem at a...

Now that my schedule has settled down and I’m not as busy, I’ve decided to start blogging again!   When I had my accident, my family started a blog called March For Marsh that kept everyone in touch with my recovery.   Now I’ve decided to personally keep you up to date with my life, therapy, and my road to independence. If you don’t know my story, I will give you a quick summary, but If you want to learn more you can visit my old blog www.marchformarsh.blogspot.com . Exactly 2 years ago, on May 21 st , 2012, I was involved in an automobile accident with 3 other friends.     I was the only one that sustained permanent injuries.   I broke my fifth cervical vertebrae which pinched my spinal cord against my sixth cervical vertebrae.   I had to undergo an 11 hour surgery to reconstruct my neck. They fused the fourth, fifth, and sixth cervical vertebrae together using titanium rods and plates and a cadaver bone. After the surgery, the rest was up t...