Chapter 1
Understanding the Invincible, Total You
My body is paralyzed, but what I am is not. That was the realization that allowed me to transcend limitations and enter a state of consciousness where I knew how to heal myself. In the spring of 2016, I was diagnosed with spinal subdural Staphylococcus aureus abscess, a lethal infection that compressed my spine and permanently paralyzed my body from the chest down. At the time, there were only sixty-five reported cases of this condition, and nobody who’d had it had regained full mobility and nearly all had died. I was also diagnosed by the hospital’s endocrinologist with type 1 diabetes, pancreatitis, Hashimoto’s autoimmune disease, and hypothyroidism. I also experienced a condition called autonomic dysreflexia (AD), which is something that occurs most commonly with people who have a spinal cord injury above the sixth thoracic vertebra. My symptoms included a pounding headache, profuse sweating, and total nasal congestion that made breathing erratic and extremely difficult. Sudden and uncontrollable spikes in blood pressure, together with a rapid heartbeat and constricted blood vessels, increased my risk of having a stroke, cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness, and other life-threatening events. From the perspectives 15
