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bigdan
Jan 28, 2003, 11:45 PM
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I'm curious if anybody knows anything about getting back to climbing after a spinal cord injury.
In December, a friend and I went down to Zion and made a six and a half hour ascent of Moonlight Buttress. The climb went great, but on the drive home, the other guy fell asleep and rolled my truck. I broke my neck, and have been in hospital rehab for the last 5 weeks. At first, I was paralyzed neck down, though much of that was spinal shock. My left side is coming back pretty well, almost normal, but my right is quite weak. Particularly my right hand, which I can't move yet.
The doctors tell me that there is a very good chance I'll have a close-to full recovery, but there's never guarantees with spinal cord damage. Recovery of movement and strength can take place for a year or two, so there's plenty of time left.
What I'm wondering is if anybody has heard of or knows someone who has recovered from a spinal cord injury and been able to return to climbing. I have no doubt that I'll be able to climb easy stuff, 5.8 or so. But if possible I want to return to hard bouldering, V and VI walls, 5.11 cracks, alpine routes - basically where I was before. Doing a pullup on jugs is one thing. I'm more concerned with the more subtle things, like foot strength, body tension, motor skills like placing gear, steep hiking, dynos, etc.
I know that with this kind of injury every case is different, and a lot of my potential for climbing will lie in my ability to be patient and my motivation to work hard. But any personal success stories would be great to hear, or any info at all really.
Thanks-
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spydermonkey
Jan 29, 2003, 8:40 PM
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Good to hear your okay!!!!!
spyder
What kind of injury was it exactly?
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jamison
Jan 29, 2003, 8:58 PM
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I have no good info. But best wishes on the recovery.
Jamison
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enigma
Jan 29, 2003, 9:13 PM
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It amazing what you can do with will and determination. Keep up the rehabilitation and hopefully you'll be able to try to climb again. Obviously check with the doctors before attempting.
Hey I saw a blind man leading at J.Tree 5.10's trad, so keep the optimism coming. Good Luck.
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bigdan
Jan 29, 2003, 9:58 PM
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i broke the c6 vertebrae, in the base of my neck. they fused c5, 6, and 7 together with some kind of plate. my spinal cord wasn't severed at all, but i guess the broken bone was pushed right against it so only time will tell what nerve damage was done exactly.
i feel pretty confident about my chances of a good recovery. but climbing has always been such a big part of my life, it would be really hard if i couldn't ever do it again. we'll see i guess...
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theaccountant
Jan 29, 2003, 10:09 PM
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One of my friends dad fell at the gunks a few years ago, breaking his back. He was paralyzed for a few months. He has since made a full recovery, and continues to climb.
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rprp
Jan 29, 2003, 11:28 PM
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I know two guys who have had broken backs both with nerve damage. One did have a very good recovery and climbs strong. The other can walk, but ended up giving up climbing to do other things instead.
You will need one of those light weight walking sticks with a sharp tip when you first go onto an approach. Relearning to scramble will be like learning to climb, but it is doable.
My advice would be to work like hell on your rehab. Make it your goal to get every bit of recovery that can and keep in mind that you might end up having to invent some new techniques to overcome what ever problems remain. Good luck!
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aimeerose
Feb 1, 2003, 9:56 PM
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I just watched the Mark Wellman video, No Limits, yesterday in my Neuroscience class. There was an amazing French climber, Yannick Lafargue, who is a hemipelagic (one side of his body is affected). He climbs with a hook-type glove on one hand and a brace on the leg on the same side of his body. Even if you still have long term disabilites, don't give up. I also had a friend with a prosthetic leg who used to climb. If you want to check out the Mark Wellman video, the link is: http://www.nolimitstahoe.com/products/VIDEO.HTM
Good luck. Therapy is extremely important. Make sure you're going to the best physical therapist you can find.
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fightlikeagirl
Feb 1, 2003, 11:09 PM
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My dad's in his late 40s, and has been climbing since climbing was discovered. He's had injuries from cracking his skull apart to breaking his back, and he's still intact. (mostly) Mostly you should just keep doing rehab, doing exersizes, stuff like that. eventually you'll be back on the wall.
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aimeerose
Feb 3, 2003, 3:36 AM
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I beg to differ with oozingpustle. Nerves can and do grow back. Even years after a spinal cord injury we're seeing reinervation and motor pathways reestablished. Look at Christopher Reeves. He's a C4 spinal cord injury, 7 years post and he moved his finger the other day. He's even managed to move his legs underwater! And he owes it all to his determination and help from his nurses and physical therapists. Never give up! You can climb again, especially if you are only affected on one side of your body.
[ This Message was edited by: aimeerose on 2003-02-02 19:54 ]
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aimeerose
Feb 3, 2003, 3:58 AM
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I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that therapy and determination can make a huge difference. I'm also saying that new research is making neuroscientists start changing their minds about neuronal regrowth. CR moving his index finger has nothing to do with God, sorry to burst your bubble. It has everything to do with the human body's capability to repair, which you may attribute to God, if you wish, but God did not just give that ability only to CR.
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bigdan
Feb 4, 2003, 1:12 AM
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thanks for the comments everybody, very encouraging. my physical therapist happens to be an avid climber and sees no reason why i won't climb again. actually, she plans to incorporate it into my therapy as soon as reasonable.
by the way... in my opinion, anything concerning human life has everything to do with God, i'm not sure how you can escape that.
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billcoe_
Feb 4, 2003, 3:22 AM
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Big Dan, did you have your safety belt on? Just curious.
In answer to you question:
I knew a fella who fell off Rooster Rock, 100+ feet, headfirst back in about 1971. Climbed to the top and untied. Opps. He doesn't remember how he pitched. Only the fact that the Columbia River was at the highest recorded flood stage and there was 2 picnickers where they normally wouldn't be saved Rodger Smiths life. They pulled his unconcious body out of the river. He had a lot more than a high up broken neck, and the recovery was long and painful.
The doctors told Roger he would live a painful disabeled existance. (OK, I'm saying what Roger said they said here). He would never be 100 percent, in fact, they basically prepared him to be in a wheelchair at age 35. And that was at the end of the recovery process.
You might not believe it but I saw with my own eyes how this came out. Not only did Roger become 100%, there was nobody who could keep up with him in the mountains, at high altitudes and with heavy packs. NOBODY. I was a guide then and in great shape, I couldn't do it. Nobody could. Rodger swears it was his diet. He had read a book that extolled the virtures of raw vegtables. ONLY. (OK, there was some other crap, like soybean stuff, but not even cooked nuts, raw nuts were OK). And Roger swam for exercise. The diet caused him to have brittle/lightweight bones, once Roger cracked a rib climbing over a chain link fence. But he was amazing nontheless, and the painful artritus stayed at bay as well.
I have not followed roger on his diet, despite the fact that I saw how effective it was.
Roger shot himself in the head a few years back, and I missed the memorial whereby his ashes were scattered up a high lonly ridge in the Columbia River Gorge called Angels Rest that Roger loved so much. Not far from his accident of years before in fact.
Hope that help you some, it's a true story. BTW, Roger did a lot of acid (LSD) in high school, I knew him then, and I believe that caused the weakness in his mind that lead to his suicide-just so you know. I do not think acid is bad for most folks (myself included), but for sure it was for Roger.
Good luck Dan:
Bill
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bigdan
Feb 5, 2003, 4:30 AM
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yeah, i had a belt on, i guess i should be grateful that the belt kept things from being worse, huh?
interesting story, whatever works, eh?
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azmonsoon
Feb 11, 2003, 1:42 AM
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I fell 28ft to dirt two summers ago. A human error, I didn't doubleback if you can believe it. My L2 burst, and L3 fractured. I had a bone fusion to fix L2 and two titanium rods, both 12 inches in length. I suffered from nerve damage in my right thigh, and it has been numb for the past 2 years. But its slowly making a comeback. I just spent the past 4 months backpacking and mountaineering in the Sierra and climbing in J. Tree. You can do anything with motivation. The doctors weren't sure I'd ever be able to walk without a cane, much less do all this. You can do, you just have to want it. Good LUCK!!!
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psalmadventurer
Feb 11, 2003, 2:27 AM
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Keep the faith dude! Best wishes for a fast and successful recovery. Here is an inspirational guy going for Everest this year:
http://www.teameverest03.org/summit_team/gguller.html
Pretty much all of the members on that team have cool stories, they are worth a read. =)
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lapistolle
Feb 11, 2003, 8:27 PM
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have you heard of feldenkrais method?
very helpful in many cases for people recovering from neurological injury.
check out this link
http://www.semiophysics.com/CaseHistory.htm
for a very nice article written by a Feldy practitioner about how she helped an athlete rehab after he was hit by a car going 40 MPH.
I'm a practitioner in Texas and if you need me to help you find someone in your area just email me. I'll look one up for you.
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bigdan
Feb 24, 2003, 7:14 PM
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interesting articles, thanks for the links...
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gretchino
Feb 24, 2003, 7:33 PM
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Depending on where you live, I can recommend a Climbing Chiropractor tht specializes in sports rehab...He knows his stuff and would love to swap climbing stories with you!
PM me if your interested! :)
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danskiz
Feb 24, 2003, 7:37 PM
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No personal experience, but my former ropegun did. He took a 20 foot groundfall and landed flat on his back, due to a unattentive belayer(not me!). Messed his back up bad. This happened about a year ago, and last I talked to him it was still messed up. Before it happened he was leading 5.12, and now he's lucky if he even makes it out climbing. I know he has tried climbing harder stuff since the accident, but his back just cant take it.
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bigdan
Dec 15, 2003, 10:13 PM
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Well, today marks one year since my accident. One year ago right now I was leading one of the upper pitches of Moonlight Buttress in Zion, unaware that I had a wonderful evening ahead with Utah's fine medical establishment. I still haven't been able to climb, but all in all my recovery has been good. I walk around fine, with just a small limp, and I get out with my climbing buddies shooting video or playing photographer. I can't use my right hand much, but I'm still hopeful that further strength and nerve innervation will come with time, but we'll see. Considering that I'm not in a wheelchair for life, I can hardly complain. Besides, not taking every other semester off from school to go climbing is making it seem likely that I'll finally graduate!
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overlord
Dec 16, 2003, 9:06 AM
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glad to hera youre improving. keep it up.
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rhyang
Jan 14, 2008, 8:42 PM
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How are you doing these days bigdan ? I hope you don't mind me using your thread to ask if there are any other stories people can share.
I had a similar accident about 5 months ago - rolled my car late at night on the way to Yosemite. 2 weeks & 2 neurosurgeries later I found myself in spinal cord injury rehab with a week left arm & leg and decreased sensation in my right leg (pain / temperature mostly gone). Broke C1, C5, C6 and C7. Neurosurgeon fused C5-C7 (both anterior and posterior instrumentation) and put me in a halo for 3 months. My doc in rehab classified my neuro injury as C4 asia D (incomplete).
To make a long story short, enough strength has come back so that I can hike and snowshoe (managed to ditch wheelchair, forearm crutches, leg brace). Neurosurgeon says no climbing for 1 year post injury, maybe cycling in another month. I will ask him in more detail when I see him then.
I am lucky that someone put me in touch with John Bachar about his rehab, and I'm inspired. Curious to know how others in (reasonably) similar situations are doing, climbing-wise. I know how lucky I am ...
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clintcummins
Jan 14, 2008, 9:55 PM
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RH,
It looks like Dan Russell hasn't posted in 3.5 years and his website is unregistered, so I doubt we will hear from him - but it would be cool if we did.
I found his initial post a bit sad, because he was hoping to get a full recovery, even though he had no movement in his hand after 5 weeks (while most other functions had returned). He did get a good recovery other than his hand.
I had a fracture and spinal cord bruise at T12 in 1978. It is a very different injury than yours, although it was similarly asymmetric and affected my left leg. I tried to keep conservative on my expectations for recovery. I knew I'd at least be able to get around in a wheelchair and walk with crutches if necessary. So my main goal was to be able to pee (fortunately that happened).
For quite awhile I was limited to walking and then eventually toproping. I didn't really expect to ever lead again, but I became solid enough and I try very hard to avoid falls.
My left foot is still weak; I can't lift it quite to 90 degrees. I can walk fairly normally and hike with an ankle brace. Rock climbing is not very high impact, so I can climb reasonably well (long free climbs, walls, etc.). I'm limited on some stuff that is foot intensive, like slab climbing, steep cracks under 2", fist and ow. But of course everyone has their limitations, whatever their source.
I think the key to having fun is to be able to surprise yourself sometimes, and enjoy the level you can achieve.
(This post was edited by clintcummins on Jan 14, 2008, 9:58 PM)
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rhyang
Jan 15, 2008, 5:27 PM
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Thanks Clint !
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bigdan
Feb 3, 2008, 6:20 AM
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clintcummins wrote: It looks like Dan Russell hasn't posted in 3.5 years and his website is unregistered, so I doubt we will hear from him - but it would be cool if we did. I found his initial post a bit sad, because he was hoping to get a full recovery, even though he had no movement in his hand after 5 weeks (while most other functions had returned). He did get a good recovery other than his hand. I had a fracture and spinal cord bruise at T12 in 1978. It is a very different injury than yours, although it was similarly asymmetric and affected my left leg. I tried to keep conservative on my expectations for recovery. I knew I'd at least be able to get around in a wheelchair and walk with crutches if necessary. So my main goal was to be able to pee (fortunately that happened). For quite awhile I was limited to walking and then eventually toproping. I didn't really expect to ever lead again, but I became solid enough and I try very hard to avoid falls. My left foot is still weak; I can't lift it quite to 90 degrees. I can walk fairly normally and hike with an ankle brace. Rock climbing is not very high impact, so I can climb reasonably well (long free climbs, walls, etc.). I'm limited on some stuff that is foot intensive, like slab climbing, steep cracks under 2", fist and ow. But of course everyone has their limitations, whatever their source. I think the key to having fun is to be able to surprise yourself sometimes, and enjoy the level you can achieve.
Wow, I haven't looked at this site in a few years. Tonight I do and am surprised to see my own thread on the second page!
I felt sad as well as I re-read my initial post. Sad because I'm still not climbing much and because I miss it so terribly sometimes. I never regained that deep strength, and spasticity affects my right hand such that climbing is extremely frustrating. I am hoping to do some aid climbing this spring though.
RH- how's it coming?
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rhyang
Apr 22, 2008, 3:50 AM
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I only just now looked back here ... Dan, I hope you've gotten out aid climbing !
I went to see my neurosurgeon 2 months ago - he advised me not to climb until August. OK fine.
I'm back to mountain-biking (carefully), long hikes and nontechnical mountaineering: spring ascents of Lassen and Shasta so far.
I'm lucky not to have spasticity or neuro pain, just weakness. The extensors on my left hand are weak, but the grip is ~75% of the right (as measured 2 months ago).
My gait is getting back to normal, though I tire more easily than before. I also seem to have problems with body temperature regulation on the left arm & leg. In colder weather I dress warmer and sometimes use chemical heat packs. We'll see what happens with warm weather ...
-Rob
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dlintz
Apr 22, 2008, 4:16 AM
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Bigdan and RH-
I hope both of you are making the best of your situations. A lot of people would just roll over and give up. Best of luck to both of you.
d.
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bigdan
Apr 22, 2008, 9:05 PM
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A buddy and I are planning a weekend to Moab next month so we'll see how things go. Sounds like you've had good progress. Way to go!
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maldaly
Apr 22, 2008, 9:36 PM
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Hey bigdan and ryang,
Check out our website at www.paradoxsports.org. We've been doing a lot of adaptive climbing programs for people with varying levels of gimpness. Log onto the forums and trade secrets/dreams and worries. Also log on over at supertopo.com. Steve Muse (museman) posts there. He's a para who is planning on climbing El Cap this year and has been practicing recently in JTree.
Keep it rolling,
Mal
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rhyang
Apr 23, 2008, 4:21 AM
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Thanks Mal, I went and registered over at paradoxsports.org.
btw Just to be picky, I've traded some email with Steve - he's actually an incomplete quad (the medical term now is 'tetraplegia'), as are Dan and I. A para is someone whose spinal cord is damaged at the thoracic level or below, a quad is a cervical injury. There is some more info on SCI here.
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rhyang
Oct 9, 2008, 4:17 AM
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Hope things have worked out for you so far !
I started rock climbing again about six weeks ago, after my neurosurgeon cleared me for toproping. I'd been doing yoga, balance exercises, core exercises, and working my left hand with gripmasters & therapy putty. And lots of cardio. I mostly went out and scrambled third class peaks in lieu of technical climbing this past summer.
I'm still a bit weaker in my left hand, moreso in my left leg. But it's been enough to start leading easy routes. I did my first trad lead on Labor Day, a nice 5.2  .. some bolted slab routes about a week later (5.4 - 5.7), and a couple of 5.6 trad pitches. Just led my first 5.7 trad route last weekend in Yosemite.
After a year off my footwork and endurance sort of went to crap, but I'll just keep working on it. Before my accident I was a 5.7 leader, and working on 5.8. I'm told neurological recovery will take years, but no worries, the rock will still be there long after I am gone.
All in all, can't complain. If anyone else out there is facing this -- don't give up !
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the_climber
Oct 14, 2008, 2:48 PM
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Great to hear you are making progress man!
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