A TIME FOR THANKSGIVING

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, Lela Carpenter is thankful to "be here." She is also grateful to be around her family and can now hear their laughter daily.

She has been home about a week from an extended stay at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, and then two different nursing homes in the central and eastern parts of the state. Lela is home to Kimball as a quadriplegic.

But her goals center on "being a good grandma and getting up and walking again."

At her home, Lela tells her story in a matter-of-fact fashion, not questioning fate or asking, "Why me? Or Why not someone else?"

Lela had a normal, regular life until July 1, 2023.

Three years ago, Lela and her husband moved from Gillette, Wyoming, to Kimball to be closer to family. Married and working at the Kwik Stop and GRI, the 49-year-old is the mother of three children. After July 1, her life as she knew it would never be the same.

Something she had done hundreds of times just went wrong. While exiting the shower at her home, she leaned down to dry her legs and passed out, simple as that. But in the fall she hit her head on the baseboard, and "that is how quickly my life changed."

"It knocked me clean out, broke my face and nose," she said.

And tragically, it broke the C3 vertebrae, creating a spinal cord injury.

The Kimball ambulance picked up Lela, and she went from Kimball to Scottsbluff. In Scottsbluff, she had surgery on her neck to stabilize the injury and spent 14 days in the ICU. Then told that she would never move again from the shoulders down, her body shut down for seven days. Reawakening, she showed the doctor who performed her surgery that she could move her toes and, he said, "You are my miracle patient."

After 21 days in Scottsbluff, the spinal cord injury journey would take Lela to the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital. After intense physical therapy there, Lela was able to walk. She said her attitude had always been to "get up and walk, get out of this chair."

Despite a series of setbacks, both physical and mental, at the nursing homes, Lela is starting over in her efforts to walk again. Being away from her family was the most challenging part of this journey, bringing on depression and illness, but her attitude and health have improved when she returned home just a week ago.

The severity of the C3 spinal cord is different in every case. In Lela's case, she cannot regulate her temperature and accumulates water weight. Lela does have some movement in her legs, feet and right arm. She is optimistic that she will be able to get up and go again.

Family and friends have taken on the responsibility of her care and her physical therapy, purchasing rehabilitation equipment and equipment to move her.

Once home with her people, Lela was able to attend Mary Lynch Grandparents Day and celebrated her birthday.

"The tears of joy just rolled down my face," she said.

Lela is looking forward to Thanksgiving and being able to be with everyone at the same table.