11/13/2025
To the naked eye, these videos don’t look like much. But in PT yesterday when Julia started LIFTING her leg to step we were so excited!
The first three videos show her team helping her step at a very slow speed. They are encouraging her to step up and then stomp her foot down, every time. This was the first time - in over 10 years - that she’s been able to help with the steps like this. Watch her left leg as she pulls it up to step down.
In the last video, which was equally as exciting, she’s stepping onto a small block, and then squeezing her right quad muscle to hold it. Again, first time to be able to do this!
It’s these small gains and accomplishments that keep us moving forward, keep the hope alive and keep Julia motivated to continue working hard. Even after a decade of living with a spinal cord injury, Julia’s making progress in her recovery and in doing so, staying healthy and preventing medical complications that can so easily derail the momentum.
When someone endures a spinal cord injury, the conduit from the brain to the body is essentially not working as it should. With this locomotor training here at Frazier, the stepping provides a message from her feet up through her spinal cord from the bottom. Then, when Julia is focused on trying to step, she’s sending a message down. The hope is, while there’s a definite road block preventing messages from getting through (in both directions), more repetitions help to create more pathways to heal the spinal cord. It is a slow process but we are giving it our best shot.
Proud of Julia and grateful to our Frazier team ❤️
