{"id":75658,"date":"2024-05-02T09:39:54","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T15:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=75658"},"modified":"2024-05-21T14:36:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T20:36:55","slug":"shell-walk-for-her-cu-diploma-but-first-she-had-to-relearn-how-to-walk-after-acute-transverse-myelitis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/shell-walk-for-her-cu-diploma-but-first-she-had-to-relearn-how-to-walk-after-acute-transverse-myelitis\/","title":{"rendered":"After Acute Transverse Myelitis put her in a wheelchair, she was able to walk across the stage to collect her college diploma"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><figure id=\"attachment_75664\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75664\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75664\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/05\/02092133\/UCHealth-Nicole-Briar-closeup-capsized.webp\" alt=\"Nicole Briar is set to graduate from CU Boulder with a degree in psychology. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.\" width=\"640\" height=\"438\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75664\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Briar is set to graduate from CU Boulder with a degree in psychology. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s not much that college students want to deal with less than final exams.<\/p>\n<p>Acute <a id=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ninds.nih.gov\/health-information\/disorders\/transverse-myelitis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Transverse Myelitis<\/a> that paralyzes from chest down would qualify.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2022, just before her five final exams, Nicole Briar, a 20-year-old University of Colorado Boulder sophomore, caught a cold that put her under the weather on a Friday and at Boulder Community Hospital by the following Tuesday. Her Delta Gamma sorority sisters had been keeping an eye on her. As she became immobile and incoherent, they called 911.<\/p>\n<p>Good that they did, because Briar\u2019s condition was life threatening. The virus that had caused the cold had gotten into her spinal cord and inflamed the insulating myelin sheath, causing paralysis and numbness below the chest. Her arms functioned, but only just.<\/p>\n<p>She spent five days in the intensive care unit and another two weeks in the hospital. Plasma exchange therapy, intravenous antivirals, and other meds pulled her back from the brink and restored feeling and afforded some movement to her legs. But upon discharge, she rolled out of the hospital in a wheelchair, unable to walk and her prognosis murky. Many with transverse myelitis recover fully, thought that can take months. Others have permanent disability.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75661\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75661\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75661\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/05\/02091706\/UCHealth-Nicole-Briar-1-horiz-edsized.webp\" alt=\"Nicole Briar, who battled a life-threatening case of Acute Transverse Myelitis, tosses her cap at the Norlin Library, her favorite place on the CU Boulder campus. She particularly likes the quote above the west entrance: &quot;Who Knows Only His Own Generation Remains Always A Child.&quot; UCHealth photo by Sonya Doctorian.\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75661\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicole Briar, who battled a life-threatening case of Acute Transverse Myelitis, tosses her cap at the Norlin Library, her favorite place on the CU Boulder campus. She particularly likes the quote above the west entrance: &#8220;Who Knows Only His Own Generation Remains Always A Child.&#8221; Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Acute Transverse Myelitis forced her to relearn how to walk, one step at a time<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Her next stop was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/locations\/uchealth-broomfield-hospital\/\">UCHealth Broomfield Hospital<\/a> a few miles down U.S. 36. That\u2019s where Boulder Community Health and UCHealth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/new-inpatient-rehabilitation-unit-opens-today-at-uchealth-broomfield-hospital\/\">are partners<\/a> in an 18-bed rehabilitation unit for patients recovering from such conditions as stroke, neurological disorders, and brain and spinal cord injuries.<\/p>\n<p>There Briar would focus on learning to walk again. Marisa Leykam, the UCHealth Broomfield Hospital senior physical therapist who would work with Briar most closely, had seen transverse myelitis cases before, but none so young. During 90-minute sessions five days a week, Leykam and physical-therapist colleagues focused on building Briar\u2019s strength and improving her balance. This was a continual process of evaluating Briar\u2019s movements, focusing on exercises to challenge deficiencies, and repeating as she gained strength and function.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75662\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75662\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75662\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/05\/02091813\/UCHealth-Nicole-Briar-3-edsized.webp\" alt=\"Briar, 22, was paralyzed by a virus in April 2022. Lifesaving treatment at Boulder Community Hospital and rehabilitation and UCHealth Broomfield Hospital helped position her to walk for graduation this month. UCHealth photo by Sonya Doctorian.\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Briar, 22, was paralyzed by a virus in April 2022. Lifesaving treatment at Boulder Community Hospital and rehabilitation and UCHealth Broomfield Hospital helped position her to walk for graduation this month. Photo by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The work included mat work; walking with the walker and, later, trekking poles; stair climbing; balance training on different surfaces and dynamic balance training involving throwing and kicking a ball; and much more. A planned summer trip to England and Ireland \u2013 one that would involve a lot of time on her feet \u2013 served as additional motivation. By the end of her first week, Briar managed to walk the 0.3 miles uphill to the nearest Starbucks with help from a walker. Leykam paced her from behind while pushing a wheelchair that stayed empty. The Starbucks was closer than the Delta Gamma house is to the Norlin Library on the CU Campus, but it felt like a whole lot farther. Starbucks then served as a venue for some impromptu occupational therapy, Leykam says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce you\u2019re at a Starbucks, not only do you get a treat, but it\u2019s practice in opening doors, standing at a counter, and carrying a drink,\u201d Leykam said.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>More work to do<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, UCHealth occupational therapist Sarah Bury and colleagues worked with Briar on practicing life skills from dressing, eating, bathing, and, in Briar\u2019s case, baking brownies and cooking up quesadillas.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75663\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75663\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75663\" src=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/05\/02092041\/L-R-PTs-Missy-Darnell-Marisa-Leykam-Nicole-Briarsized.webp\" alt=\"From left, UCHealth physical therapists Missy Darnell and Marisa Leykam with Briar during her a visit to UCHealth Broomfield Hospital in early April. UCHealth Photo by Kelly Tracer.\" width=\"630\" height=\"473\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75663\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, UCHealth physical therapists Missy Darnell and Marisa Leykam with Briar during her a visit to UCHealth Broomfield Hospital in early April. Photo by Kelly Tracer, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two weeks after she rolled into UCHealth Broomfield Hospital, she walked out with aid from a walker. She had, in therapy, graduated to trekking poles, and was able to walk unaided with Leykam spotting her. She flew home to parents Beverly and Keith\u2019s home in Alamo, California, where she did another month of twice-a-week outpatient rehabilitation. She continued to improve and did make it to England and Ireland. A three-mile walk along Ireland\u2019s Moher Cliffs was a turning point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn&#8217;t know how long it was when we started it. But at the end of it, I checked my Apple Watch,\u201d Briar said. \u201cAfter that, I was like, \u2018OK, I think I&#8217;m strong enough to do almost anything now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But a full recovery would indeed take months. The last holdout was her bladder. It wouldn\u2019t completely cooperate until she was back at CU Boulder the following fall semester, at which point she could ditch the catheter. She took two of the final exams she missed that fall, too. (She had been doing well enough in her other three classes that her professors excused her from the tests.)<\/p>\n<p>Two years hence, Briar was preparing for her last round of finals before graduating. The psychology major with minors in business and sociology will walk across the stage at the CU Events Center during the Psychology &amp; Neuroscience ceremony on May 10. She\u2019ll soon leave Boulder behind as she seeks a job in medical or pharmaceutical sales in California\u2019s Bay Area. She hasn\u2019t forgotten the health care providers who helped her get back on her feet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt Boulder Community Hospital, they were awesome,\u201d she said. \u201cAt UCHealth, they were amazing. I mean, I felt like I was friends with everyone, which was super fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s not much that college students want to deal with less than final exams. Acute Transverse Myelitis that paralyzes from chest down would qualify. In April 2022, just before her five final exams, Nicole Briar, a 20-year-old University of Colorado Boulder sophomore, caught a cold that put her under the weather on a Friday and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":75664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[372],"class_list":["post-75658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-occupational-therapy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - 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