I'm back update: UTIs, school, and keeping healthy.

It’s been a little over 4 months since I last had the time to write here. That’s not exactly true. I’ve had the time but my mind has been preoccupied with so many other things in the last few months that I lost track of this blog along with many other trivial and important things. For one, I was enrolled in the summer semester at my university and a combination of just being burned out after a 16 and 18 credit semesters made keeping up with a 14 credit summer a brutal task. If you don’t know what I’m talking about just imagine writing an essay every 3 days for the whole summer straight. I’m not talking just answer the question kind of essays, I’m talking 2000 word well researched papers with sources and my favorite: a 20 page masterpiece that I did get an A on. I killed it. Anyways, besides that I’ve just been dealing with a lot of personal problems and it’s been kind of hard because my grandmother and my aunt  aren’t feeling too well back home in Peru. I need to save up enough money to visit them again. They call me every week no matter what and I love them very much. I lost a lot of friends when I got injured and had to move away but my family was always there for me and these 2 are big part of my life.

 So yeah, there’s 1 million things I want to write about but I will get the main points 1^st. Not too long after my last entry on this blog I experienced what I hope no quadriplegic has to experience ever (fat chance). I got my 1^st urinary tract infection. If you’re not a quadriplegic and you’re reading this and asking yourself what’s the big deal? Let me tell you. The majority of quadriplegics have no control of their bladder function. Now there are many different ways to deal with this problem. You can hook yourself up with an indwelling catheter and then carry a bag with you to collect the urine. I believe this is the most popular method because you don’t have to worry about finding a bathroom or drinking too much. I made a personal choice to self-cath Which means that if I need to take a tinkle I have to find a bathroom and manually use a catheter to urinate.  I chose to do this because I have some sensation left below the injury level and it helps me know when I have to use the bathroom. The problem with a UTI is that I lose complete control of any kind of warning. It was the worst month of my life. If I didn’t use the Bathroom every 3 hours I would literally pee my pants. I actually stopped drinking water just to keep myself from peeing. Nothing. I mean nothing will ever be worse than having to deal with my 1^st urinary tract infection. Being a grown man having worked so hard to get your bladder back in some kind of order and then just having it ripped from you can be pretty demoralizing. No lie, I cried like a little baby. Self cathing and UTIs do not mix. The good news is that if you go to your family doctor he or she will happily prescribe you medication that will fix that problem up real fast. I know that there are cases much worse than mine and that usually quadriplegics get UTIs a lot more frequently than once every 3 years. Just remember to have patience I know that it’s not easy but there are some things that we just cannot control and the best way to deal with it is with a positive attitude. I however did not deal with it with a positive attitude so if you stumble upon this kind of problem yourself try to do a better job than me.

This is my old cathing video in case anyone needs it. 

 You can drink cranberry juice or take cranberry pills to avoid UTIs. I really wouldn’t wish what I had to go through on anyone. Though hopefully if it does happen again I will be more prepared. Some things just don’t fix them selves haha I need to stop being so stubborn sometimes. Besides that everything has been all right. I can’t believe I’m finally a senior. It seems unreal and even though I have more years of grad school to attend this is a big step in the right direction. A lot has happened this past few months that have made me question who I was and how I dealt with things. Sometimes you can get caught up in a problem and it can drag you down. Make you lose yourself. You think that after going through a spinal cord injury someone would be more emotionally prepared to deal with other hardships in life but the reality is that we are all human and emotions are part of life. I wouldn’t want it any other way but now I’m ready to tackle this new semester coming up and continued to work on my plans for the future. I say this every now and then but I wasn’t doing much with my life before my injury and while it is unfortunate that someone has to go through an experience such as mine I truly feel lucky to be where I am now. I have goals and a bright future if I work hard enough and that’s all I really need.

 I also started working out again. Before I go to school or whenever I have time I do what I can to stay fit. The ramp to get into my house is pretty decent in size so I used that in the mornings and do my version of stadiums by going up and down the ramp 60 times. I also use wrist weights and elastic bands to work my upper body. Every other day I’ll go for push (this is what I call a jog for a wheelchair) around the neighborhood. Since I’m not playing wheelchair rugby at the moment and just going to school I started feeling really lazy and everybody around me was working out so I thought that it would be a good idea and it’s really been helping a lot. I’m now able to reach every area of the school no matter how steep the hill is and my blood pressure has really improved. It’s been really low ever since I became a quadriplegic. Nothing serious because it never affected my life like making me lightheaded or anything like that but it was just always low When people would take it.I feel a lot stronger too. I looked in the mirror the other day (this is a little off-topic) and I noticed that I’m starting to look like my dad. I’m much handsomer version of course but I’m definitely seeing the resemblance a lot more nowadays. My birthday is coming up and I’m turning 25. What? What is going on?! How’d I get so old? I can’t believe how fast time is flying by but I’m definitely looking forward to the future. This summer was a little rough but I know things are about to pick up and it’ll just be a memory not too far from now.

 Allright, I feel like maybe this is getting a little lengthy so I’ll stop for now. I know I say this all the time but I want to start writing again in a more constant basis. I don’t want to make any more empty promises, Especially since it’s my senior year but I miss writing here. I hope everyone’s having a really good summer. I love the warm weather and would rather be hot any day rather than cold. I’m a total wuss when it comes to cold weather. Here are some pictures my gorgeous sister took this summer. I can’t believe I’m only getting a two-week vacation but it’s all worth it as long as I graduate early. Take it easy everyone.

I love this girl more than anything.