The QuadCast The QuadCast

Louise Phipps Senft is a force of nature! She has excelled at the highest levels as an attorney, an author, a professor, fellow podcaster, and following her son Archer's 2015 spinal cord injury, an amazing advocate for individuals with SCI and their families.

After having spent many months in ICUs and around her son's hospital bed, Louise realized that most hospitals in the US do not have Spinal Cord Injury expertise, most families do not have mediation skills which are essential for navigating complicated health care, and most doctors are not trauma informed. So, as she has done her whole life, Louise rose to the occasion! She founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Integrative Center for Trauma Healing, Advocacy, and Transformation, IC THAT, d/b/a Blink of an Eye™, in 2021 to fill the gap for more relational and trauma informed responses for SCI families in crisis bringing them cutting edge SCI medical expertise as well as hope, emotional and spiritual support, and navigation how to’s. Blink of an Eye™ is training medical teams from the inside out through the families served.

Blink of an Eye™ public charity exists for those who know how life can change in the blink of an eye. Their mission is to transform the spinal cord injury experience for families and medical teams into an Extraordinary Experience, despite the devastation, in the first days and months of injury.

Louise and I had a wide-ranging and candid conversation last week. I believe this episode will make you think long and hard about your life, and that of your loved ones and friends, because as we all know, it can change in the blink of an eye!

This week's edition of The QuadCast tackles the very important topics of dating, relationships, sexuality and disability, or three things I know next to nothing about, and one that I have 33 years of experience with. :-)

Luckily my guest, Dr. Danielle Sheypuk, holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The New School for Social Research in New York City. Dr. Sheypuk is widely regarded as a "sexpert" and leading commentator on the psychology of all these topics for people with disabilities. She established a successful and innovative private therapy practice in 2016 that was one of the first to implement “telehealth” as a treatment platform, which she engineered specifically to make it easier for people with disabilities to attend sessions.

Today she was kind enough to join me here on the QP for one of them. So, with a footnote to Salt-N-Pepa's 1991 hit song: Let's Talk About Sex, dating, relationships and disability!

Good things do come to those who wait! When I launched The QuadCast 4 years ago, I had a list of dream guests. High profile folks who didn't know this little engine that could even existed, and yet I held out hope. At the top of that list was Marc Buoniconti, and today he's here! Persistence pays off my friends.

Following Marc's SCI in 1985, his father Nick set out to conquer paralysis with the same ferocity as he did quarterbacks and ball carriers over his 15-year Hall Of Fame NFL career. It was then that he and world renowned neurosurgeon, Dr. Barth Green, came together and founded The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Since then, research at The Miami Project has changed the landscape of knowledge and therapeutic strategies for spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury.

In our wide ranging conversation, Marc shares stories about growing up around the Miami Dolphins, and such great players as Paul Warfield, Bob Griese, and Larry Csonka. He recants in great detail the weeks, days, and moments leading up to his injury, and he praises the amazing father he loved and admired. Today as the President of The Miami Project, Marc proudly continues the yeoman's work his father and Dr. Green began 38 years ago.

This episode has it all, and I can't wait for you to hear it! Thank you Marc!

Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out... You are doing so right now without even thinking about it. Unfortunately, for some individuals with cervical spinal cord injuries, the ability to breath on their own is compromised, if not impossible. Enter Synapse Biomedical, and its NeuRx Diaphragmatic Pacing System, which is specifically designed to decrease the reliance on mechanical ventilators for such people.

This week's episode of the QuadCast features Andrea Osborn, Clinical Specialist for Synapse Biomedical, who will tell us all about the device, and Karen Mills, who has been breathing easier with the aid of it for years now following her SCI in 2019.

The date was June 20, 1991, Ryan Baker and his family set out on a long drive from Temecula, California, to their new home/life in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. They had bought into the Häagen-Dazs ice cream franchise which was based there. As if that wasn’t cool enough, the night before Ryan had just graduated from high school. Unfortunately, his journey to the Centennial State was about to take a whole bunch of unsuspected twists and turns, and I'm not talking about on the highways.

In just over two months, he will have been living with his spinal cord injury for 33 years. Over that time he has discovered a unique, and profound perspective on what recovery from SCI means to him: “For me it is not walking again. It is getting back to center with your self, spirit, and soul, contributing, working, finding relationships, engaging with other people, just really trying to participate in life again. We have to allow ourselves to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually get back to that sense of belonging and self-worth. That to me is recovery.”

Among the many amazing things he has accomplished in over those 3 decades, Ryan is also the co-founder of Wheelchair Lacrosse USA (wheelchairlacrosse.com), director of sales & marketing for Vapor Wheels, and represents/sells Kinetic Balance’s adaptive clothing line intended for wheelchair users, through his website, Twisted Spine. It was my pleasure to meet/speak with Ryan on the latest episode of the QuadCast.

As someone recording a podcast aimed at, and for the benefit of the spinal cord injured community, I wasn't sure if I was alone in this lane. Well, it turns out there are a number of us out there doing just the same, one of which is Jerimie Dixon. He was still in high school when he was in a catastrophic car accident that caused his SCI and subsequent paralysis.

Jerimie and some great friends founded The Live to Walk Again Foundation in 2015, to among other things: fast track a cure for paralysis, and to find new ways to improve the quality of life for patients currently living with it. In an effort to do just that, The Live To Walk Again Foundation’s podcast was born! Jerimie spotlights patients with SCI's, life hacks for paralysis victims, and researchers and doctors who are currently seeking a cure for it.

Two podcast worlds collide on this week's episode of the QP, because Jerimie Dixon is my guest.