Shelley, Paralyzed and Recovering

A former co-worker of mine, Shelley, was involved in an accident that left her a paraplegic. You can read some more of the details of that here. I've been receiving updates and contacting her dad to offer my prayers and thoughts, as well as learn of Shelley's progress first hand.

When I talked to Shelley's dad today I learned she had just finished her first day in the gym and that things were going well. Shelley is in good spirits and things are good.

Also, today I received this email from a mutual former co-worker and friend of Shelley which was encouraging:

Shelley called me this afternoon. She started with her usual, "Hey" and followed that with " I don't think I will be making it in to work tonight".

As far as her spirits go; I considered the conversation remarkable. She spoke as if she wasn't laying in a hospital bed half-paralyzed with a halo on her head. I did tell her that if she wanted a halo that bad I would have loaned her one of mine. Just a little angel humor there.

I am going to try and get over there and see her soon. She said she got your book. She also said that one of the people who she works with at the "granola" store said everybody there would be praying for her if the weren't all atheist's and pagans; then she admitted that she had prayed for her anyway. I thought that was interesting.

After talking to Shelley I am really amazed that she is even alive. I was thinking the trestle she jumped off of was in the 20-25 foot high range. I considered her lucky to be alive because it is my understanding that about 50% of falls from 15 feet are fatal. She told me that what she jumped from was in the 40-60 range. I think I might have to go out there and check it out for myself.

She sounded very upbeat about therapy. It has to be painful getting twisted up like a pretzel for 6-8 hours every day though. It sounds like she still has quite a bit of pain in her neck yet. She also has phantom sensations in her legs as her brain isn't quite ready to deal with legs not responding.

She does understand her situation. You can tell that she has had great support throughout all of this and I think that is helping. As I said before I am more worried about what happens when everything goes back to normal for everyone else and she is left with mapping out her new normal. I made sure she understood that I am around during that time. I'll let you know more when I know more.

It sounds as though Shelley is in remarkable good spirits and has a great support system around her. She received my book and I hope it will help as well.

Another thing to note is that already this unfortnate set of circumstances did cause an atheist to pray!