About Me

I am my brother's keeper! I love him dearly and have many times put myself in harm's way to protect him...this was one time I couldn't! I am here to support my brother, Aaron. He made a foolish choice to jump off a cliff into the waters of The Lake of the Ozarks (August 25, 2007)and burst his T-12 into his spine. Currently he is an incomplete T-12 paraplegic. He has always looked to me for answers as we have grown up and I cannot provide him with the answers he now needs to feel complete and reassured. I do tell him each person is a snowflake and the levels of recovery do vary per person and injury regardless of whether the injury level is the same, that is the best I can do! My brother is a married father of two young children and had a career in flooring and enjoyed constantly creating his hot rod Nova before this accident. He is also a born again Christian with many fights against the Devil himself since this occurred! He does attend church nearly every Sunday when he isn't in pain or sick. He works out a few days a week but he has not re-attended therapy as his copay is more than he can afford at this time. But he is interested in any new and developing ideas and "cures" When they flew him to STL, MO from the lake it took 50 minutes where they didn't do anything for him but pain meds and strap him in! When he arrived at Barnes-Jewish he was given 48hrs. of Prednisone then they operated for four hours where they built a birdcage to house the T-12 and synthetic/recombinant stem cells. He stayed there for several days recovering then was sent over to The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis where they immediately started teaching him how to take care of some of the natural functions and began light therapy. He still has a back brace today because of the level of surgery and healing time (I assume) so there were many things they could not teach him. This month I am purchasing hand controls for him so that he may gain a little more independence. His wife pays his bills and barely offers any more support than that, so when you respond to me it is support for Aaron that he would otherwise only receive from me! Greatly Appreciated!