Dear Colin,

Thanks the web site. I have checked it out and is quite useful. So what's my story... Back in December 2003 I began an adventure traveling in Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand and Laos, with my girlfriend. If you send me your e-mail . I send you the whole story I wrote called Life As a Daring Adventure.

In a nutshell, after Thailand . my girlfriend headed back the United States, and I began a solo journey in India studying yoga and meditation. I was in Dharamsala, doing a 10-day silent meditation course in Buddhism. After the course ended, a group of us were hanging out having dinner on a patio rooftop at night. At some point, we are listening to music and people began dancing. I notice that there was No Guard Rail and decided it would be a good idea to Place a candle by the edge of the roof. As I walk towards the edge, the candlelight blinded me in the next thing I knew I was lying on my back staring up at the stars. I only fallen about 10 feet . but as you know, it doesn't take much for spinal cord injury to occur. I fractured C6 and C7.

I was sent to the Apollo hospital in New Delhi or I had spinal fusion surgery from C4 to T1. I was very blessed to have friends from the meditation course in my brother and father present with me during this very scary time. After two weeks . I flew back to the states and landed in Indianapolis, where was born and raised. I began 2 months of rehab at the rehabilitation hospital of Indianapolis. Unfortunately, I developed a bed sore from the first 24 hours of my fall . while in India. The best solution was to have a flap surgery so I spent the next two months and two surgeries getting my bed sore healed. Then I went back to RHI for another month of rehab before returning home to my brothers condo in Indianapolis. So I spent last winter in Indianapolis, primarily focusing on rehab.

Prior to traveling, I've been living in the San Francisco Bay area the last nine years and consider this my home. Most of my close friends and community live here. While I'm very appreciative of the support and love of my family, I couldn't wait to get back to the Bay Area. On March 10 I made the transition, and now living on my own with the assistance with several full-time caregivers.

I'm studying the majority of my time like you doing rehab of traditional physical and occupational therapy, as well as other alternative therapies, including scalpacupuncture, cranial sacral therapy, network chiropractic, Somatics.

While I was initially diagnosed as a complete injury, I'm beginning to feel deep muscle sensation in my lower back, pelvis and legs. I'm also very aware of my bladder and when I need to urinate. And just recently, I began to notice micro movements in my legs, which is very exciting!

I feel very confident that anything is possible, including walking again. I sense that you also share optimism about your recovery. It sounds like were both about the same place based on how long ago we were injured. If there's anything I can do to help support you, please let me know.

I highly recommend you check out:www.healingtherapies.info/
it is a great resource for alternative therapies for spinal cord recovery.

I also forward to continuing this conversation, and perhaps attracting other like-minded quadriplegics.

Many blessings,
Rafe