Hi, welcome to my first "wheelchair access blog".  The idea of this blog is to share stories, ideas, news or anything  that will inform everybody on topics relevant to living with a spinal chord injury or living with somebody with a SCI. 

I hope to give and receive any information regarding health, travel, home modifications, accessible public toilets in your area, accessible restaurants, all sorts of topics.  So please add any info you have that could help anyone going through the process of a new life in a wheelchair. 

I had an SCI injury in 2001 while on holiday in Samoa on a surfing trip.  On the seventh day of an eight day trip, a Sunday, we couldn't go surfing.  The Pacific islands are very traditional and there is no sport or work on a Sunday so instead we did a tour of the island we were on, Savai'i, west of the main island of Upolu.  About mid afternoon we arrived at a beautiful waterfall and the only way to get to the pond at the bottom of it was to climb down a bamboo ladder about ten meters long or jump down next to the waterfall, about an eighteen meter drop.  I jumped.  And landed in a wheelchair.  I hit the water flat footed with my feet together forcing me to stop for the splittest of seconds but enough time for my upper body weight to crush the L1 vertabrae.  Ouch.  Big time.  Four days getting home via ferry to the main island, 1986 Commadore station wagon to the Samoa airport, private jet to New Zealand, 747 jumbo back to Melbourne then the OH&S compliant ambulance to the Austin hospital spinal unit.  Some quite serious surgery then three months of healing and rehab.  Then back to the real world. 

 

Now ten years later, a blog....