four come on come on no it's just
testing me I did nothing
hold it no hold it on the ground
I'm Sophia
hi cousins and I'm also her care we want
to show a light-hearted fun look into
living with a disability we covered sex
and relationships career housing and
Indie comes along for that
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one two
okay so so how's it been going good it's
been a while yeah it's been a while yeah
it's been a while since I've seen you
and it's been a while since I've worked
out okay I just wanted to actually ask
Indy how's it been going it's so bad
she's not worked out probably since she
last saw you oh that's not good so
mikhil is my personal trainer and he was
provided to me because I'm lazy how do
these exercises like help her in her
day-to-day life yeah like why do I need
to do it more than anyone for you it's
really important because we want to
stimulate muscle
we don't want atrophy to happen where
the muscle break down number two is to
support you in transferring your bed
transfers car transfers so we're going
to keep those muscles engaged and strong
to make your movement more efficient
sounds good cool I'm pretty sure he
knows that I don't work out outside of
seeing him how long has it been since
you've seen it oh maybe like two years
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oh goodness me let me help you
do you have some bug spray we don't need
bug spray
bravery
there you go okay stopping down okay ten
times
there you go two
three
four
sure
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that's tough hey it's tough too I'm kind
of strong no no no no no no nine one
more now we'll keep going oh it's a bit
of a competition I like it I like it
look I have four that is awful come on
come on in there if you still lose to
you right now wait
do we work out together
no have we ever
no
do I want to start no
no
tell me what's this it's really hot
nice
that's the one very good
well done
um good start again so yeah 2023
resolution more exercise more regular
yeah too many trains three is the year
that my weights see the light of day
yeah it's not fun and I don't understand
people that find it fun but also all I
can do is like my arms so it's not like
I can just change it up and go do League
day
so what are we doing this afternoon I
have an appointment with my neurophysio
Julie because she just makes sure I'm
doing well
generally I don't know she's like the
person that understands my injury the
most I don't know if you have any
questions about spinal cord and drizzle
she would be the person to ask
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what next call from what yeah
hello
good afternoon
from Eaton Park how are you going what's
up very very well you've got an idea hit
me with it and how would you like to go
and experience the sky sport rooftop
touring part
like as the first person in a wheelchair
to do it
Leo let's do it but how are we gonna do
it
I'm sure wait there's a wilderness
how like you can't just like Chuck a
disabled person on the roof if my
wheelchair doesn't fit
wheelbarrow
it's another option is like putting me
in a sleeping bag and pulling me across
put me in the back of like a hiking
backpack try a few options see what
works best because I'm Nick probably has
ideas as well okay
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been a long time
Julia is my Physio and she specializes
in neuro patients so I started seeing
her three months after I had my injury
how does breaking your neck then
translate into having paralyzed legs
when the nerves leave the back of our
head and go down for our spinal cord
then you break your back or your neck
then that can injure all those nerves
and because our nerves are the main
things that cause feeling and movement
if that communication Junction is broken
then that doesn't work so in Sophie's
case it's C5 from here downwards
everything can be altered that if I ask
Sophie to straighten out her hands then
she doesn't have that ability because
that set of muscles is actually
innervated from C7 so a lot of people on
social media comment and ask like is she
quadriplegic because she's moving her
arms like and a lot of people don't
understand the difference tetraplegic
and quadriplegic is the same thing
anyone who is basically damaged their
neck anything from T2 downwards we tend
to refer to as a paraplegic and it kind
of asked me why I have spasms but I
don't know how to
explain it because I actually don't know
yeah so spasms is basically
um muscle Contracting so for someone
who's not experienced a spasm it's like
a cramp and what it is it's a
hypersensitivity of the nervous system
you could be sat in this position three
or four hours and then you can imagine
then from being completely still to then
going to move all of a sudden everything
goes into these really strong spasms
because the nervous system has just gone
oh my God you know I've moved and
ultimately what we want to try and do in
therapy is decrease those spasms because
they can make things like transfers
really awkward and dangerous yeah one
thing that I really appreciate about
Julie in particular is that she
understands that there's a balance in
life and I have a lot of stuff going on
with studying one of the important
things I've established from catching up
today is Sophia is probably not doing as
much standing to maintain bone density
keep your joint range help with your
bladder and bowel maintain your spasms
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yeah you get news to people manhandling
you very fast
so be really careful skin is really
delicate
that's where it's good to
plant sets
that's not is it quite scary like this
position for you at the start go down
yeah
so does it feel like your top half is
like just hanging out yeah but that's
like yeah
but that's the same as what it's like in
my wheelchair as well because I can't
feel my wheelchair
Indy you want to stand next to you just
so you can compare height you see how
short you are I'm actually as tall as
you
you can't go from five one to five five
I will not be doing prone standing I
will drop her like 100 I know that Julie
said you can do it with people with any
like weight and size and sofas tiny but
there's no way one it's just not safe
for me to do well it's been awesome to
see you so I don't need the 18 months so
I next see you you know you're always an
inspiration to meet someone who is
embrace the situation they're in and you
know still doing great stuff so yeah I'm
gonna just encourage you guys to try and
get into that standing frame okay so we
can get that you know if we aim for
daily
we have no plans of continuing to work
out every week no I feel like my life is
hard enough physically that I just
exercise by getting out of bed
we need to figure out how you're going
to do the rooftop walk in Eden Park
that's a good point
uh we need something to get you up onto
the roof
and then yeah
to get you around the rooftop thing is a
whole nother
yeah okay should we look on trade me for
a tramping bag there's not much wiggle
room how do we decide how many liters
you are like I'm not a liquid I'm a
solid
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