Sign our 'CureParalysis' card and tell Governor Jerry Brown the truth about spinal cord injury

Our newest campaign to present a 'CureParalysis' card to Governor Jerry Brown has gained a lot of attention from those living with paralysis.

AB714 (Roman's Law) is asking for a million dollars a year for paralysis cure research in California and has already made it through the Assembly and is is head through the Senate where we hope it will get passed. The next step will be the Governor's desk where he will either sign or veto the bill. Last year, he vetoed it.

This year we want you to sign our giant 'CureParalysis' card to the Governor and leave your comments telling him why you want paralysis cure. Feel free to share with him not only your hopes and dreams of a cure for paralysis, but also the real horrors of paralysis.

Today I'm leaving you with a few comments that some have already made and urge you to share your heartfelt desire for a cure. Please sign below to add your name to our 'CureParalysis' card.

This campaign has now ended. Thanks for all your support.

Support paralysis cure for father's day. Sign the card!

My kids asked me what I wanted for Father's Day...

So what I did, was have them sit at the computer and sign our 'CureParalysis' card to Governor Jerry Brown in California. 

This card will be presented to the Governor to make sure that he signs AB714 into law once we manage to get it through the last stages in the California Senate. AB714 (Wieckowski D), also known as Roman's Law, will directly fund the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Grant Fund and Core Laboratory. In addition, it will also provide a research funding account and lab to the University of California to fund and carry out pioneering science to advance the field of spinal cord injury research. AB714 will also provide funding to ALL of the best spinal cord injury research scientists at Universities, Industry and Colleges in California.

Here is another son who signed our card to the Governor to support his father.

Stephen Case from Tarzana, California wrote:

Please sir. My name is Stephen case. 10 years ago my dad had an accident on a 4 wheeler. He is now a quadriplegic and his life is a constant struggle. I'd beg you on my knees to sign this bill , not just for my dad but for all paralyzed around the world. My dad is my hero. Please give hope to all those suffering from spinal cord injury around the world.

Eric Stegall, another paralysed father from San Martin, California wrote:

Please sign AB 714. I am I was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident and it is a struggle to get through each day. I am suffering, my wife and kids are suffering. Please sign AB714 and let me have some hope of there being a CURE for paralysis someday. Living with paralysis is not really "living life" at all.
Thank you.

And it's not just sons supporting fathers on Father's Day, but also the other way around.

Don Reed Sponsored California's Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999. Named after his quadriplegic son who was paralysed in his first game of college football "Roman's Law" has provided $14 million in state funding. The funding to Roman's Law was lost a few years ago but this year we're on track to get it back, but we need your support.

Here's what Don Reed has to say:

Passing Assembly Bill 714, to fund the Roman Reed Spinal Cord injury Research Act is a help to young scientists who might otherwise have to leave the field. With an average age of 44 for scientists getting their first NIH grant, what happens to the young men and women whose creativity advances all our hopes? The RR Act gives small grants of $20-$50,000-- success with a small grant gives a scientist a track record, so he or she now has evidence of competence-- and can try for the bigger grants with a far greater chance of success.

And one day, all across our world, paralysis will never again be called "incurable".

Help make this a special Father's Day for me, Don, Eric, and Stephen by signing our 'CureParalysis' card by adding your name, details, and even a special cure message if you want so one day 'paralysis will never again be called incurable'.
   
This campaign has now ended. Thanks for all your support.

To Governor Jerry Brown of California. PLEASE!

Many of you have been following our campaign to pass Roman's Law (AB714) in California for $2 million annually in spending on a cure for spinal cord injury and other forms of paralysis and we all thank you for your continued emails and faxes.

The road from bill to law in America, and in most of countries, has many stages, and we need your support NOW to help at the important final stage when the Governor decides whether to sign or veto this bill. 

Currently, Roman's Law has passed two California Assembly committees and full Assembly with no votes against, but there is no room for complacency. After this we're looking at two more Senate committees and then the full Senate. 

Last year, with your support we passed all these hurdles only to have the Governor Jerry Brown veto the bill. 

So this time, I want to start preparing for the Governor's desk as soon as possible.

By the time this bill passes all those committees I want to present Governor Jerry Brown with a giant card with your comments asking him to sign the bill and bring hope to paralysis survivors in California and all over the world.

What can you do? 

You can add your name and other details to our 'Sign AB714 into law to advance the war on paralysis' or add your own comments.

And don't forget to encourage your friends to do the same. Remember, we don't want to present a card with a lot of white space.

This campaign has now ended. Thanks for all your support.

One of these days...POW! Right in the target point.

Ever tried eating cereal like this?

Mixing Jackie Gleason and science. Do people still know who Gleason is?

Trigger points? 

From what I can figure, it's a pain in one point that causes a pain somewhere else, and that's the pain in my hip that I have often wrote about.

When you get told over and over that it's just neuropathic pain (a pain that comes from the damage to the central nervous system), you start to give up on trying to find the reason.

How did I figure this out? Well, one day I went to rehab with a pain in my back and ribs that was terrible. This pain had always been there from the day after my third operation, but was never as bad as my hip pain so I put it lower on the priority list. This hip pain was also interesting because everytime I raised my hand to my mouth, the hip pain was crazy.

Have you ever seen American movies where the prisoner's handcuffed wrists are shackled to his leg irons? The only way he can smoke is by moving his mouth to his half raised hands. This was me!

I guess you could say that it's another good reason to quit smoking, but eating cereal was also a challenge.

Anyhow, back to my physical therapist at rehab. He started massaging the pain in my back and found a massive knot of muscle which led to more tight muscles all around it. When he was done, the pain in my hip also felt a whole lot better.

My conclusion, I guess since the pain started immediately after my operation, is that having to reach my spinal cord and having to push the muscles around, some damage must have taken place. I don't blame the surgeon for this. It wasn't like he walked in drunk with a cigarette dangling from his lips laughing a crazy laugh, but I do wish he would have listened more and drawn a conclusion about what happened rather having me live a year and a half in hell.

Now I'm going for massage regularly and even hope that the burning and spasticity in my legs will also improve from the massage as this also got worse the day after the operation and could be a reaction to pain in the absence of any feeling.

I am feeling much better.

So what does this have to do with a cure for paralysis? Loads!

Cure activists are constantly labelled as ANTI care. You know, "if you can't cure us, kill us" Jack Kevorkian types. Well, I'll tell you that it's a false accusation and the only reason it's used is to try to drive a false wedge between people. The goal is often to make cure activists sound like they're not interested in anything if it's not cure.

Well, as a paraplegic, the only reason I'm alive now is because care has improved. Better standards in care also have made sure that something like a urinary tract infection hasn't killed me either, and the massage on my trigger point has already improved my quality of life a hundred fold.

We're in favour of cure for two reasons. One is that no amount of care can deal with all the secondary issues that we live with and two, because science is proving it possible. Therefore we do demand that cure money at least matches care money in the hear and now. Not supporting cure would be like supporting a constant bandaid as opposed to fixing what is causing the need for the bandaid in the first place if it were possible.

So the next person who accuses me of being anti-care will get it...POW! Right in the trigger point.