ProjectLifeFlight: Many things to be happy about.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Many things to be happy about.

The past week has been filled with happy moments. My handcycling has hit a new level. I am now able to go on solo rides again! Also I am able to climb some pretty long and steep hills now, witch has opened up a lot more ridding for me around the neighborhood. This week is when I will really start packing on the miles. I have put just over 200 miles on the bike in the last month, and this month I plan to at least double that. I cant wait until I start doing some 40 and 50 mile rides. Life just feels normal again.

This past week I had the pleasure of hanging out with my grandpa Woody and his wife Vivian. They drove all the way from Pennsylvania to see the family and to celebrate my birthday. They got a chance to see me do a little handcycling and later Woody made some of his famous pork, what a treat. Thanks Woody and Vivian for taking the time to come up and visit. Hopefully it wont be too long before we do it again.

On another note I have the opportunity to help with a walking study through the University of Minnesota. How this works is I will be wearing an exoskeleton from my chest to my feet. Between some electronic stimulation to my quads and the mechanics of the brace I should be able to walk at least a few steps with a walker. While doing this I will be working with my old therapist Brian. Working with Brian again will be a lot of fun seems that we worked so well together before. Not to mention that I might take a few steps again after ten months. Even it does make me the bionic man.

Life right now is truly amazing. I know for some people that is hard to believe but when you stop and reflect on everything there are too many positive things in my life to even focus on the negative. For example I am able to train and plan a trip back to Montana. Amy, PJ, and my parents all have new bikes now. Witch I love to see people finding new ways to be active in life. Also after about nine months of therapy I will be done on Thursday. My main goal with therapy from the beginning was that I wanted to look back and have zero regrets. I can honestly say that goal has been met. That is an amazing feeling. So my advise to everyone is to focus on the positive things in life, they keep you a float. The negatives only drag you under.

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My Story

My name is Joe Stone and my story starts on August 13th, 2010 when I was speed flying solo in the mountains of Montana. While having the time of my life about 200 to 300 feet above the earth, I unfortunately had complications in my canopy. This sent me spiraling down to the earth very fast until I crashed on my back onto the side of the mountain.

All the stars were aligned perfectly that day. There were only four people on the mountain and the man that was closest to me was the only one with a cell phone to call for a life flight, he was also a trained EMT. I owe my life to this man, if it wasn't for him I would have surely died that day on the mountain.

After waking up from a 3.5 weeklong induced coma, I quickly learned of the injuries I had suffered. Four broken ribs, a laceration to my liver, very badly bruised lungs, my heart had stopped twice, eight broken vertebrae throughout my neck and back, and spinal cord damage at the C7 level. Now I am diagnosed as an incomplete C7 quadriplegic.

I started my therapy at 128 pounds after losing about 35 pounds of pure muscle. You could imagine that I was so broken down that simply chewing my food was a very exhausting process, let alone feeding myself. I quickly made a decision in rehab that I was not going to let the diagnoses slow me down. The first step was for me to regain my independence. After accomplishing this in March, I decided it was time to set a new goal. A goal that would prove to be the most challenging endeavor of my life.

In May of 2011 I rented a hand cycle and set a goal to hand cycle the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. This is no ordinary road, it climbs approximately 2,500 feet over 18 miles until you reach Logan Pass. From there you get a very rewarding 10 or 12 mile decent down the mountain pass followed by another exhausting 25 miles of cranking until we reached our destination. When I finished this ride I not only realized that this was the biggest moment in my life, but I realized my life truly felt limitless again. We filmed the entire process and we are now creating a documentary titled "Wings to Wheels".

Now that this ride is in the past, and summer is quickly approaching, I need a new goal for myself. The goal is to run(push) in Grandmas marathon in June and then attempt a small sprint triathlon in July. If all goes well it will be time to start training for something I never thought I could commit to as an able bodied person. I will start pushing towards an Ironman Triathlon. An Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. All of this needs to be completed in 17 hours and will be done using nothing but pure arm power.

I have accomplished a lot of big goals in my life, but nothing will compare to the amount of work that I will have to put into making this goal a reality.

About Me

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Many things to be happy about.

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