Rehabilitation services in Hunter New England

All right. Just starting to have a bit of fun here in Rome.

(UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

I would say I'm an adrenaline junkie - anything that's outdoors.

Travelling has certainly brought out a side to me that- kind of just letting go and just going with it.

Trying new things - skydiving, bungee jumping, diving - ironically.

Anything that gave a bit of a rush.

And me being me, wanting to show off, I chose to jump off the side of the pier, where I was in view of my fiancée.

Did a big dive, and upon hitting the water headfirst, it felt like the surface of the water was concrete. I was 100% convinced I was about to drown.

(DOWNBEAT MUSIC)

So, I'd fractured my C6 and my C7. I'd damaged the spinal cord up to C4.

You are. What were you doing on Sunday?

Did you have a party without inviting me?

It took me a few weeks to understand the difference between a paraplegic and a quadriplegic.

My hands are, you know, paralysed; weakened forearms and triceps and shoulders.

Huh? Would it be at night as well? Yes, you do.

You got me all week, actually. Is that all right?

Yeah, I believe.

You sure?

It's been three weeks since I've been home now, out of rehab.

It's been a rollercoaster, to say the least.

Probably the first week back was the hardest week of my life, I would say.

Going through a breakup with my fiancée.

So, the first two weeks, yeah, were a bit of a blur.

Taking it day by day, you know, emotionally, mentally.

Thank you for helping. I try.

Cos he's coming home, and he's in the unknown, if you know what I'm saying.

Like, you've got the hoist and all that kind of stuff.

Getting into routine - that's a big thing that usually takes, Jesus, months for some people.

As each week goes on, it gets better and better - more confident, actually, I'm finding.

Just heaps of progress in two and a half weeks.

Success! I didn't drop you again!

You come back into the real world, and, you know, setting up your own life, in a way,

so, you acclimatise to having a routine.

Thank you very much. See ya.

It's so much harder, but this is life. So, this is, you know, what I've gotta do.

This is your chicken, and Glenny can.

So, I'm Donna Treseder. I'm Ashley's mum, and registered nurse. I work at the Blood Service.

If I leave that there, are you up to get the lid off, or do you want me to leave it?

No. I can get the lid off. OK.

'I'll be honest, initially, I did have a bit of an anxiety that they wouldn't do as good a job as me, if I'm honest. Like, cos I'm pretty particular. I like things done right.

Do you want the bickies left out?

Uh... Um, nah, they're all right. No? Goes back.

Renee is his main carer, but he does have others, and they're all just great.

I have no anxiety at all. I know they'll do a great job looking after my boy.

Do you want any granola on that, Ash, or just...?

Maybe the smallest bit.

'I've been lucky enough that I've got such an amazing mum, that she's been able to move in with me and be there for as long as, you know, I need her.'

At rehab, they made Ash a fork and a knife, you know, with things that he can twist in around his fingers to make it easier to eat, but he's figured out how to eat with regular knife and spoon, which makes it easier for him. Not a knife. Fork and spoon.

Yeah. Knives are a bit hard.

The day I got home from rehab, my fiancée at the time had expressed to me that, yeah, she could no longer do it.

I could not say a bad thing about her. She was an absolute rock to me.

It all just got a bit too much for her, and, yeah, now I'm just in a phase of... trying to discover what, you know, the new...the new, uh...life will look like.

Yeah.

Maybe just get some glue on these and glue 'em together.

'I'm practical, I guess, and I'm happy to help Ash, yeah, set things up,' and we can, um, come up with some pretty neat solutions, I think.

It was really a lot to deal with, worrying about whether Ash was gonna regain any kind of movement, yeah, was a real concern.

All right, talk me through, Ash.

You're doing well.

Since his accident, he's done a lot of grieving for things that he's loved and has been an integral part of his life.

He could not be happy unless he's competing somehow, you know? He just loves it.

It's tough.

So, the last six months, him facing the fact that, 'OK, I'm not gonna be able to do that,' and working through that loss, you know, he does it.

So terrifying dropping it. The last step!

There's you as a coach. Ah, yeah.

There's you playing. Gold medal.

Yeah.

That one can go inside, I think.

Inside, yeah? Yeah.

This was all stuff from my bedroom back at, uh...I never got the chance to fully, you know, pack anything, moving into this house.

Um, being in hospital, the house that we're currently living in wasn't suitable to return to.

2011 Under-23 Player’s Player.

So many little things that you accumulate and make, you know, your little area, your home,

you know, attached to old memories.

Wow. Mm.

Football, to me, was my number one passion in life.

Like, 'obsessed' would be an understatement.

There's no other feeling like it. Um... It's just, you know, having played it for 20...24, 25 years,

you know, it's been the biggest part of my life, you know.

I can't remember who's given me this album.

(MOODY ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

I was probably pretty vain, to a degree, before the accident.

They say you look good, you feel good, and that was true to a degree as well.

You know, I love the fitness side of things, cos it would make you feel good, you know, feeling fit and looking and fit.

So... an accident like this really puts things in perspective, you know?

(SOLEMN MUSIC)

January 3rd 2019, me and my former fiancée at the time had taken a trip out to Shoal Bay for the day.

We were on our way walking back to the car, and I'd said that I can't come all this way without first diving off this pier - something I've done multiple times before.

I suppose I hadn't... taken into account the tide.

Did a big dive, and upon hitting the water head first, my memory of it was just that it felt like the surface of the water was concrete.

I just remember my body underneath the water, and nothing was moving.

And I remember thinking this is the end of my life.

You know, everyone always says everything happens for a reason.

My answer to that is, 'Well, what is the reason?' You know?

It's an accident like this that makes you really look and wonder, 'Right, what am I gonna get out of this?'

My life just doesn't end sitting in a chair, waiting for it to end. There's gotta be a bigger reason.

Waking up, immediately I still had the feeling of panicking, trying to breathe.

I had a life support tube down my throat. Not being able to move any muscles in my body and take it out. I wasn't able to talk.

Feeling completely paralysed; I knew it was pretty bad at that time.

It was when waking up in hospital, that's when they really confirmed I've had a spinal cord injury.

Do you want me to get rid of that? I'll try and open the bin. Heh.

Last time been to Newcastle beaches would've been six months ago now.

So, it's been a while. My home beaches is gonna be exciting, but, you know, I'm expecting it to be a bit- bit tough still, at the same time.

This will be challenging. Should be interesting.

It's either this or the, um... the X-Trail.

Yeah. Just slide down.

Yep.And then flick this.

Yep.

Got ya.

Good? Yup.

Yeah. If you slide that out...

You good?

Music. Got you.

Theo was one of my brother's best mates. He's like a brother to me, so he'd do anything for ya.

So, this is Merewether Beach, and, um, Merewether Ocean Baths is just here.

This is pretty much, I would say, my favourite place in the world.

I thought it'd actually be, you know, kind of really tough coming back here for the first time, but, you know, sitting out there and watching the waves and the water over the rock pools, yeah, it's just something about it. Something about round here that's just extremely peaceful to me.

This was a big step, and I'm extremely proud of him.

He's looked at it in a positive way, which I think is fantastic.

Gave me goosebumps when we were sitting over there and just looking out to the water.

I mean, him still being here with us just makes me incredibly happy.

He's got all these goals, and he's achieved so much.

I don't think anything's gonna stop him.

He's overcome a lot, and I've never heard him once say, 'Why me?'

He is the strongest guy I have ever met, to be honest.

(LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

Heya. How you doing? Hello, hello!

Welcome back. Hey. How are you? Thank you.

All right. We did it from your left the other day.

Yeah. Cos I can only do it from... going to the left. Yeah.

Back at rehab, doing my physio's my favourite part of the day, cos, you know, I knew I was bettering myself in some way or another.

But it's the getting from,...like, sitting on the edge of the bed, to getting my legs up. OK, into lying?

Yeah. OK.

That's the bit I'm struggling a bit with at the moment.

'When I'm at the physio, that's pretty much when I'm at my happiest through the day.'

...to see if that's something you can facilitate at home...

'Having gym equipment around, me, you know? Even that brings me good vibes.

'No, I enjoy it.'

Four. Yeah, it's pretty light.

Five.

They give you a weight to start on, and in my head, you know, if I left there knowing I can do more, I'd only go back home knowing to myself that I could've done more, and, you know, that's not cool with me. You know?

I'm... I'm all for going... going hard or go home. You know?

...and 12. Good. Take a break.

Maxed out.

Oh! Maxed out already?!

We can change the lever length, I think.

I'm Belinda. I'm a physiotherapist at the Hunter Spinal Cord Injury Service, and I've been working

with Ash since the start of this week...three.

'We're probably gonna look to really improve his independence. So, his independence with transfers at home, into the car; also, skills in his wheelchair out in the community - so he can go where he pleases and be independent.'

Your upper body strength's pretty good.

What about my chance?

You said hot contender - Anyway.

'The positivity and the determination -he was previously a support worker for people with disabilities, so I feel like he's got this beautiful compassion about him that's gonna help him go further and be a really big mentor and personality in disability - spinal cord injury.'

Your arm. Yeah.

Whoa. Hang on a sec. OK.

He'd have experts come in and say, 'Right, this is what you can do, and this is what you can expect, and that's about it, Ash.'

And then over the next week, it's like they'd set a bar. 'Right, I'm gonna smash that.'

And then they come in next week and go, 'Oh.'

He was told he'd never have wrists, for example, and then his wrists become very strong, and they're like, Oh. You know, he's sort of surprising everybody.

When I go in to watch him sometimes with the physio, he's doing this incredibly hard thing, and the physio's like, 'Let's do three.'

And so, he does three, and then he'll go, 'One more!' And then, 'One more! One more!'

And he'll smash 12 or 15 one-mores until you can see that he physically can't catch his breath anymore.

You know? And that's how he's got strong so quick - because he's just pushed himself.

(BRIGHT MUSIC)

He's such an interesting child to raise, because whatever was going, he'd be in. He kept me poor.

If he went to try out for a team, he'd get in. So, you have to buy the uniform. You'd have to pay for whatever.

But, um, yeah, nah, it was very adventurous cos we got to go all sorts of places, playing sport.

My brother and I were pretty much inseparable growing up.He pretty much was the one person I looked up to the most during my upbringing.

Taught me how to tie my first pair of shoes, how to kick a soccer ball.

Everything, we did together.

My oldest boy, Jeremy, the kindest and generous boy you'd ever meet, um, and he died when he was 20, in a car accident.

And so, Ashley was 17 at that time. So, uh, yeah... so that changes your world.

I raised the boys on my own. Their dad left when I was pregnant with Ash, and so it was always just the three of us.

Cos you said to me get rid of anything that's not large.

That was my last festival shirt.  Oh.

The one you wore at your last festival? Yeah.

It's a small. But it's actually- It's a loose fit, though. OK.

Yeah, I'll keep that one.

I love that shirt. Good times in that shirt. Yeah, go on.

'During those years, he finished school, which was awesome because his whole world had finished,and he- you know, he didn't wanna go to school, didn't wanna do anything for a while.'

And then he got a job.

Hey! Hello, hello!

How are ya? I'm good. How are ya? Good!

How are you? Good to see ya. Good to see you!

You're looking well. Great to see you, mate. Good to see you, bud. Cheers.

'I fell into the disability realm, initially working with young males with autism, and ended up moving into a group home with two other gentlemen in wheelchairs themselves.

'So ironic as it is, the care I was giving for them is the same care that I'm receiving for myself.'

It's been tossed up before, the idea of, um,... helping with recruitment or training.

'It's always great catching up with those guys from work.

'It's been about three or four months since they came and visited me. But they've remained in contact ,and it's got me excited, you know, knowing that I've got a job to come back to.'

First and foremost, my rehab and physio - that comes first.

I've gotta get myself as strong as possible.

So he knows exactly...

He's brought a wealth of knowledge prior to his accident, and also continues to do that.

His experiences with his accident, and pre-injury, with support work, um, he would be an asset to any part of the organisation.

You know, first-hand teaching people what it's like to live with a disability.

(LAID-BACK ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

Hi. I just wanted to order some pizzas for delivery.

Being in a chair or not, you know, these boys love me for me.

They don't treat me any differently. I've never felt looked at differently.

Where is that? The flatpack. The flatpack.

Flatpack what? Uh, he cheated at- Oh, flatpack.

Piece of piss.

Well, then, you wanna do it? Don't even need the instructions.

What instructions?

There always seems to be a time the boys know it's, you know- that's boys night. It's on.

It'll be fine. Holding the doors.

If it takes too long, mate, it's all right.

It's good. Then you cut these fellas here.

You know, having them, you know, even help set up my tables and furniture - like, literally anything I needed, these boys are there to help me, and takes a message, and someone's here within a half hour.

I feel like it's all between me and... Are you going to admit it?

Usually, I can put these together in five minutes.

Nah, she's sweet.

I'm Lee. Um, I've known Ash since year eight. Basically, we've been friends ever since he came to our school.

Travelled the world together and, you know, got up to mischief, but, you know, I feel like he's, uh, you know, my family, really.

He's larger than life. I mean, he's always been a motivated guy that just wants to strive for the best he can be.

It sort of reflects with the people that he's around as well. It sort of rubs off on us.

So we wanna do the best for us as well, because we're around him.

How are you? Yeah, good, good. Good.

You know, he's probably one of the strongest blokes I've ever known.

Despite the accident he's had, before that, he's just been incredible.

His whole life is just... Yeah, it's inspirational to see.

Just relax, Ashley. I know what I'm doing.

Can I hold the instructions, just so I'll feel better?

What instructions?

We're just always making each other laugh. It's just so many good memories, you know?

It's just... And I know that... we're gonna be mates for life.

And we're gonna continue travelling. We're gonna continue making these memories.

And, you know, still to this day, when we hang out, it's no different - just the boys.

Ohhh!

What are you doin'? What are you?

(RELAXED ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

Back at rehab, there's three boys there that we became extremely close.

Us four boys would hang out every evening.

Whatever happens, once therapy is done, everyone is like, 'Righto, where are the boys?' You know?

'Whose room are we hanging in tonight?'

The things we learnt off each other, you know, during those night hangouts...

We'd crack up; we'd learn different ways of doing things off each other.

You use those other ones, don't you? The thick ones? Yeah.

Yeah, I use them - nowhere near as much. Like, these are on 90% of the time.

I wanna see - how are your brakes? What are they...?

I don't really need these. These are lock brakes. I've got the... these locks. So, you just put them on.

The bond we created by being able to be around others that know exactly what you're going through,and being able to express those little frustrations to people that get it, oh, I'm so grateful for that.

...my elbow in, with the triceps alone...

Cheers, everybody. Cheers.

Part of my job, apart from loving him, is to support his, um, road to independence.

I don't wanna set up a life where he can't function without me. You know?

He needs to be able to independently function.

Mum's mum. Yeah, how do you say it? Mum's...

I've always said it. Never been afraid of, you know, being a mama's boy.

Mum's my world.

She's beautiful. The most generous and kind, selfless person I've ever met in my life.

She only tells me these things now that I'm older, but she would go years without buying a single item of clothing for herself, just to give me and my brother everything that we ever needed.

(BRIGHT ELECTRONIC MUSIC)

Yeah. Love Mum.

The future, for me, starts tomorrow.

I don't wanna look too far.

You know, I used to think, 'Right, work till you're 65; big family, successful career.'

You know, I'm just focused on tomorrow and excited, you know, I'm here, I'm still alive.

I'm gonna be able to wake up tomorrow and then start again.

www.able.co.nz 

[Jess Collins]

Prior to having the injury. I guess, uh, I wasn’t super aware with anything to do with spinal cord injury whatsoever.

When you see someone in a wheelchair and you, I guess it sounds terrible to say, that I never really thought twice about it. I just thought maybe they're born that way. It's not something that I ever really put much thought into and now…

My name is Jess Collins. I'm 26 years young and I suffered my injury the 31st of May 2018. So, on the Gold Coast, I had a surfing accident. I fell off a stand-up paddle board that I was riding as a surfboard.

I came off the back of the wave and yeah, instantly felt nothing from pretty much the head down, face down in the water. And then I was flipped over, thankfully, by one of my girlfriends and straight away I knew something was wrong.

I fractured my C5 vertebrae, and I have spinal cord damage from about C3 down to a C7, meaning that I'm a C4 quadriplegic. So, I've got some pretty good strength in my biceps. But other than that, there's not a whole heap going on.

So about six months altogether from the start of the injury to the end of my hospital stay. And then when we came back to Newcastle after rehab, I got involved with Hunter Spinal Cord Injury straight away and yeah, been with them ever since about December 2018 and loving it.

So, I do physiotherapy with Lex, so lots of strengthening and just like different movement things trying to maintain my health and wellbeing and also trying to get strong enough to be able to be as independent as possible.

And then, with Alex Watson, I do the OT things, so I've worked on adaptive splinting for me. Yeah. So, I'm able to clean my teeth. And yeah, she just helps me out with pretty much everything that I need.

It’s probably as a young person, one of the hardest things that I've noticed is having to rely on carers coming in and out of the house. At the start, I would just…I wouldn't ask for things if I needed them. I'm just…even like little things, scratching my face and other things like that. I was oh, I won’t bother someone.

And now we're going on 2 1/2 years down the track and I’m like I can't really live like that anymore. I need to ask people to do things. And I've noticed since doing that, everyone is more than happy to help; even a random person on the street, if I drop my water bottle on the street or something, people are so…I think maybe it's a Newcastle culture as well.

For me I’m an open person, nothing's really off limits, but…there's probably 2 questions that are most common. Firstly, how did you have your accident? Why are you in a wheelchair? I've actually got that just at the traffic lights before, people are very intrigued.

I think that as a young female, just in a wheelchair and the curiosity of why…and then the other one is which I get very often and it's so bizarre. I would never personally ask someone this, but if I'm able to have children or not?

I get that actually more frequently probably than having the accident. Which, yeah, it's a very odd question to be asked. Like, just because you're in a wheelchair? Yes, absolutely. I can still have a child. That doesn't mean I will be able to, as in maybe I'm not fertile, which could have been something that has nothing to do with my injury whatsoever.

Life still goes on completely the same. Definitely learnt that I like that I was a very organised person prior to having the injury because everything now has to have some sort of a structure and organisation, whether it be going out to dinner, just going up to have a look at the beach or something…there needs to be plans put in place, and yeah, that I can still do pretty much everything that I was going to do or wanting to do prior. It's just very different now.

[Music]

[Dom Punch]

Yeah, so it was at the end of the actual the grand final. I came under the field, and it was a scrum, and I played in the front row, and it was a pretty innocuous thing, a collapsed scrum that happens multiple times a game.

I'm Dom. I'm 32 and from Stockton, originally from Maitland, and I had a spinal cord injury playing rugby union nearly five years ago now.

Yeah, I suppose the first few weeks were a bit of a blur to me. I was taken to hospital and had surgery to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord. So, my injury is a dislocation at C5-6 level. So, I've got an incomplete C4, C5, C6 injury, which means I have partial sensation below the level of the injury.

I'm a pretty competitive person. There are certain things I don't miss about rugby. You know the cold Thursday nights with the rain and that sort of thing. But yeah, absolutely, the social aspects and the workplace as well.

Sort of, I don't miss the work. I miss the friendship, the environment, the community that that brings. Sometimes I can feel like family and friends are almost making an effort or…uh, yeah…making an effort to socially interact with me in a certain way.

You get so used to frustrations and barriers and that you get, you get so used to them that you get over them a little bit. Just simple little physical things like the state of the, I guess, gutters and access you know at street level; little things like that, access into buildings and shops.

I'd say initially not progress from for the first couple of years, maybe two or three years was slow and steady. In terms of physically getting stronger, learning how to how to do things for myself and in the last couple of years, I'd say my progress is sort of plateaued to the point where it's not something I really think about anymore.

Whether it's content or acceptance or I wouldn't say resignation, but progress in other facets like setting goals to do things and achieve things like travel or exercise or having my own space and freedom to have the ability to drive my own independence.

Yes. Plan for the future and not be reliant…as reliant…on family for things that I can always, I can now learn to achieve in my own has been pretty important for me.

Yeah, there's not many questions that I haven't learned to accept or ignore or get over, couple of examples would be when people ask when I'm going to be walking again or when there is a cure or when people suggest that they read something or heard something about a potential cure and what I thought about it.

[Hans Zank]

The accident when it happened, I did one thing, I didn’t have my eyes on the path and it was only for 5 seconds maybe, and that led me to where I am now.

I took on a van. The van was stronger than me and left me with a C3, C4 spinal cord injury to the disc.

My name is Hans Zank. Hans for short. Easier for people. I'm initially born in Romania; we moved to Germany and 21 years ago we came to Australia. I'm 52 years old. I studied chemistry and I'm a physical chemist by training and I'm working for mining services company.

So, the injury happened on the 15th of December 2019. I gave myself a nice Christmas present. It's quite high up, I had anterior surgery, and they put a brace in between my C3 and C4 to replace the discs that got shattered, which was a geriatric disc and probably would have given me grief down the time anyway.

And it affects mainly the upper body. So, it affects my hands it affects my upper body mainly and I lost a lot of muscle up there. And I have a lot of spasms, and it sort of affects me as well because the balance. So, when I walk it's it stops me from walking as I walked before, so I'm working towards a new normal.

From immediately after the injury where I could only move my head and nothing else. I'm now at the stage where I can walk reasonably safe. I can do everything at home that I want and could do before. I’m a bit slower but I can do it…apart from I guess mowing the lawn and things like that, which are more physical because I just don't have the upper body strength.

I don't have any frustrating experiences because I'm quite mobile, it's more the frustration with me because I see the other people, they walk in a different way and move in a different way and that sort of affects me more than people probably looking at me and not understanding what I have because well I can't explain it to everyone.

I think it was character building. Yes, I probably, last couple of years, before the injury was moving into the direction, which was not a good personal direction. And it teaches you that you have to have some humility and deal with the things that are given to you in life. And I think that was a good thing and it helped me in my private life as well.

I had some anxiety. I spoke with people and explained what I felt, and I they encouraged me and said it was actually normal to feel that way and gave me some guide and some support how to tackle the problem.

Sometimes when people try to help me. I don't like that because I want to do it myself, so it's makes me feel uncomfortable if people try to help me. I'd rather just struggle, but then I see that makes them uncomfortable.

To the community itself. I would say if that injury happens to anyone, there is a great support network. There is a lot of people that are very well. Trained and educated in helping you, and you just have to be able to accept the help and work with those people to find a solution that works for you.

[Music]

[Ben Archer]

I don’t like people getting down about things, because that’s just how life is. Life throws you challenges, you can’t sit down and wallow in it, you’ll just drown in them.

My name is Barry John Archer, and I just turned 37. I grew up in the Hunter Valley.

I was in a major car accident and that sort of put a halt to my professional career. About 12 months ago I got diagnosed with testicular cancer and it’s a couple of stages in. It metastasised and attached itself to my spine and it’s sort of weakened my legs quite substantially.

I’ve got to learn how to walk again. Generally, sort of the mental side of it – like the places you used to go to or want to go to. In terms of like, the footpath access or even just accessing the building, the dentist…with a wheelchair, you can’t go in.

The staring is one thing I’ve never been able to understand, like, you get around in a wheelchair…everyone gets around differently. You’ve got old people on their frames, some people have a prosthesis. Just being in a wheelchair, I guess it’s something not many people see on a regular basis, because I live out past the [inaudible] when you come into Newcastle.

Just the fact that you’re down on a different level; how do I say? It’s a different world. So, there’s people staring a lot, just saying hi or asking a question. Rather than them ask me what happened, they just stare. Even though they try to do it, I suppose, without you knowing, but it’s hard not to when you know that they are. That’s probably the biggest thing.

It's not so much a question. But, when they go, aww you poor thing, it’s…no needs sympathy. It’s not like, aww poor me, I mean here I am. I’m alive and getting on with it…so just an encourage work would be a lot better than going, aww you poor thing.

I’ve always been a positive type of guy. I’d rather see the sunshine than the dark.

I suppose, when you see people out and about in a wheelchair or walking with some sort of aid, I don’t look at them like they’re ailing or different because at the end of the day we’re all people. You know? So, just smile and say g’day and I suppose, take the delight that they’re actually out and about and we’re getting on with life. You know?

We’re just out there trying to do our best we can every day, so yeah, just say g’day and if there’s any way you think you might be able to help, like just opening up the door you know, may be just carrying something to the car for someone who you can see that’s having a bit of a struggle. Yeah, just treat us like people.

[Music]