This is Joy's story...... We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement more than you will ever know!!!! Click "Read more" for the whole story!! --------------------------
It started with Joy helping me....... We started riding again to help me recover from an accident that I was involved in. I told her that if she rode 500 miles with me that I would get her a new bike - she didn't care, she just wanted to hit the trails.
Joy rode over 200 miles with me in July. It was awesome! She is so full of determination and you cannot help but love that strong spirit of hers!! I wanted to surprise her and got the bike! She loved it! We were on our first ride with Joy's new bike. We had gone over 7 miles and we were less than 3 miles from our home and had just crossed a road continuing on the path. ---------------------------------------------------- At around 7 pm on Friday August 2nd, while riding our bikes, Joy had a horrible accident in which she struck a barrier post while riding her bike. She was taken to Strong Memorial Hospital and after a CT scan and MRI, we were told that her spinal cord was damaged and that she would not walk again. We were in shock and absolutely crushed.
She was operated on early the next morning during which they fused two of her cervical vertebrae together in an attempt to stabilize her spine. After surgery, the spinal surgeon spoke with us and told us that the disc between C6 and C7 was torn worse than he thought - but - the spinal cord was not as badly injured as they had initially thought and he thought that she would be a perfect candidate for spinal rehabilitation - so, although we don't want to get our hopes up too high, we were all breathing easier. As you might suspect, her spirits are marvelously high. Check back for updates!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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