The early days of having a spinal cord injury and realizing it are hard.
You feel like you've lost a big part of who you were. So in the beginning, I was so
feeling like this is the end, life is over, there's no need to care about what
I look like, no need to care about what anybody puts on me.
I mean, they had me looking tacky.
They weren't combing my hair
because I didn't care.
I really am a believer that how you dress can
elevate your mood. If I leave the house looking like garbage, I kind of feel like
garbage, and if I haven't dressed up and look good and feel good, I kind of project that.
I definitely don't let hospital life bleed over into what I want
to wear just because of comfort and things like that, and what's easiest to do my care
I still like to wear the same clothes, jeans, shirts.
I want to be able to go out with my friends and shop in
the same locations that they do.
Because I'm not a fashionista, typically when I come across something I love and
I know that it's gonna inspire me to wear it, I just buy it. With that, I do
have to have some things that are altered or tailored or something like
that, so trying to buy something that, you know, fits my waist or my hips won't
always fit my thighs or my calf muscles so having jeans altered to fit me in the
way that I would like them to look.
I wear everything if I can that's sort of large
and particularly my shirts that come down that
cover the bulk
I don't try on pants, I take them home to try on, because being
paralyzed from the waist down, it's somewhat difficult, but I try my shirts
while I'm there, and usually Tom will go into the
dressing room with me. They're very understanding everywhere I've ever been.
I am almost 5'10" and I wore 3 to 6 inch heels every day
I referred to myself as Blonde-zilla
because I was big and loud and a force to be reckoned with.
After my injury for those first six months I had the tennis shoes I could wear and I
found one pair of boots that I could fit the afo in, and so it was a complete
overhaul of my wardrobe.
I have two really good girlfriends that are both in
wheelchairs and they've borrowed dresses from me for weddings, and yeah, we have to
do a little fashion show, like what does it look like standing, and what does it
look like sitting with your legs on two foot pedals.
I have a very weird way
I pull it really tight and then I spin the laces and I tuck them down the
side cause they had all these gadgets, you know, in the hospital, they're like this
thing will tie your shoe you just have to like strap it, loop it, hoop it, no, no.
No thanks, pass, I'll figure this out.
For me, I wear
anything that has stretch in the waistband or yoga pants I have found
those work just as well, same thing as leggings for getting those on, and I
don't have to buy adaptive clothes.
I do still wear my
short blue jean skirts, but I now put shorts underneath them
but on those
special occasions when I want to fancy up, I go to the extreme I put on my
cowgirl boots and my dresses and fold them across my lap because I've lost a
couple of dresses getting caught in here when I ride and so I fold them across my lap
and I'm good to go.
I decided to get the Mitrofanoff procedure
done, which allows me to self-cath through my belly button.
That changes everything because now dresses are almost out of
the picture, especially a fitted dress. A dress like I have on today I can you
know maneuver it the materials loose enough that I can get in there and cath
and still put my alphabet together but I do a lot of two pieces now.
Just got my mani-pedi just in time for this, because the camera
is obviously gonna zero in on my hands!
I do get my nails done
pedicures, manicures, I go to the hair salon and transfer up into the chair
just like anyone else.
When I'm at the nail salon before I stick my feet in the
water to get a pedicure, I always feel the water with my hand
first to make sure it's not too hot that way it doesn't burn my feet or legs.
The first couple times can be a little nerve-wracking I think. As a new injury I
kind of struggled with not wanting to inconvenience anybody or be more
high-maintenance than other customers in the store and so I think I didn't
always advocate for myself and so I had to learn early on after a few incidents
of maybe clipping the skin or burning like a hand or something like that of
just really asking for what I need.
I think you have to use the same approach
that you use like with the doctor's office and call ahead tell them what's
going on and actually if you're just looking at a new salon or wanting to try
a place out, probably best to just go up there before you set up an appointment
check it out because you can tell them. Doctor's offices are a little gonna
be more easy for them, because they have some health knowledge.
A hair salon don't know anything about a spinal cord injury.
I had a really crazy
situation when they try to put me in the the hairdryer seat under the hairdryer
I was able, again I'm pretty good transfers, I was able to go down, but getting back
up it was a lot harder because it's going uphill, and I don't know what it is,
and this goes back to somebody talks about with people's instinct on wanting
to help you and how you have to advocate for yourself, when you sometimes need
assistance with the transfer, I don't know why people's natural
instinct when they see you bracing with your arms is to grab your
upper body. And you know, I ended up splat on the floor in the middle of the
hairdresser, and he's like 'I got you,' I'm like, no really
you don't, you know, and another guy had to rush over and lift me into the chair
which by that point my pants are coming down and my butt's all out you know
everybody in the salon's like trying not to look and I'm like I'm ready to go
I've pretty much
figured everything out from like blow-drying my hair to putting it up in
some sort of ponytail
I know I put myself probably through more
trouble than I need to because I do care so much about fashion and let's be real
I'm always being stared at in public, I might as well have two heads, everyone's
staring at me, so, you know, stare away. I look really cute today.