One of the first major changes was home modifications.  I needed hardwood floors, wider doors, a bigger room, drive-in shower, a specialized van, ramps, and the list goes on and on.

The first year I spent a great deal of time at the doctors. My most common problems were bladder infections & pressure sores.  Things got a lot more complicated since it became a lot more difficult to know when there was something wrong with me. And even when I knew "something" was wrong, it was sometimes very difficult to find out exactly what.

A little while after I returned home from the hospital, I got a computer with voice-activated software (my old high school raised the money for me. THANKS LYMAN!).  I'm able to do practically everything on a computer that anyone can do with their hands.  I also have a program that turns on lights, controls the TV, VCR, fan, garage, and more.  Gotta love that technology!!! :o)  I must also give credit to my brother that knows how to hook up all this stuff for me.  I don't know what I would do without you, Jon!!!

My very first year after my accident, I wasn't able to begin college at the University of Central Florida like I had planned before. Instead, I decided to enroll at Valencia Community College during the summer semester of 2001 (taking a couple classes). And after my summer classes, I took a couple more in the fall. You can read about what I did from there on my next update page since this page is only about my "first year."

Click to enlarge

.

Okay, here's something I had to learn to do that I know you'll probably find interesting.  If I can't move, how can I drive my wheelchair?  I have what is called a sip-n-puff wheelchair.  It basically looks like a straw that sets in front of my mouth (example picture on left, but you'll notice it in almost all of my pictures).  My chair is completely controlled by how I bring air in and out of the straw. It does not use lung power/breathing, just air pressure in my mouth.  Here are the controls:  

  puff hard = forward (faster)

sip hard = backward (stop)

puff soft = turn right

sip soft = turn left

Pretty simple, right?

Click to view my one and only 

"somewhat decent" painting.  

Painting was a new hobby I used to ATTEMPT to do right when I got out of rehab. I wasn't artistic at all before my accident, so you can imagine how bad my paintings were with my mouth. I painted by inserting a paintbrush on my mouthstick. (Picture on left.) I don't do this anymore because it's too much work for me and whoever helps me... and of course I'm not good at it =)

During the first year after my injury, obviously there were some "stresses" that I had to deal with. The number one most stressful thing I had to put up with regarded eating & my loss of appetite.  Yes, I know it sounds dumb, but I never fully got my appetite back. I rarely felt any hunger and would have probably forgotten to eat if it wasn't for people reminding me.  I tried so hard, but nothing tasted good.  For the whole first year I ate very little, sometimes nothing, despite everyone's pleading. I got down to about 90 pounds and finally started getting kinda scared when I became really pale and huge amounts of hair started to fall out. I looked just plain sick (you can tell in some of my early pictures). I will update on this problem on the next page. =) 

Nighttime was, at first, a pretty rough time for me too. I guess I might have had some sort of insomnia. I would take 3 or 4 different kinds of sleeping pills and would only sleep for one hour -- 3 or 4 if I was really lucky. I just stopped feeling sleepy and entered a whole new state of exhaustion. Combined with my lack of nutrition, I think that was about the worst I've ever felt. Luckily this didn't last an entire year. I found some medicine that seemed to finally work, so thankfully many of my nights were no longer spent in complete restlessness. =)

And for a somewhat silly bit of information regarding the new things I began to experience, I found that so much of the time I would be EXTREMELY COLD. I would shiver like crazy & my teeth would seriously chatter. But I think this is a normal effect of being a quadriplegic from what I've heard from others. I don't think it will change, so as you might guess, I love warm weather. =)