On June 9, 2019, Cory Goral was enjoying a fun family weekend on the Colorado River, just outside of Blythe. He had been diving off the dock along with other family members all weekend, until the next dive went all wrong. Cory hit his head on the bottom, unable to move, he held his breath in hopes that someone would retrieve him from the water before floating downriver and drowning. Thankfully, family members rushed over to fish him out. They checked his vitals and supported his neck until the paramedics arrived and airlifted him to the hospital.

March 14, 2021

Winter has almost come to an end! I posted an update with videos showing how I do some tasks and my current range of motion. You can check it out here: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corygoral/journal

February 14, 2021

We've been dealing with many equipment challenges lately. See our latest update here: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corygoral/journal

Thank you for your continued support!

December 2, 2020

December 1, 2020

Hi there, we hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was quiet here. The weather has turned chilly so Cory has his hood on permanently for the next five months. I should save myself the time and effort and forgo giving him hair cuts until the weather warms up again ;)

Cory's therapy routine continues to adapt. In addition to the usually home routine, he goes to PT every Monday for an hour and does an online zoom workout for quads every Wednesday/Friday afternoon. These have been great additions! He's making new strength and range of motion gains. It's motivating to see the improvements and to see him expand his network in the SCI community.

Cory's equipment needs some repairs, it's been a fight of patience and persistence to get things addressed. What was just an annoying error code on his wheelchair a couple months ago has now turned into an urgent matter. Cory's chair powers itself off nearly every time he goes to tilt back into a weight shift. The only way we've found to get him out of a tilt is to power cycle the master switch 5 or more times until the chair wakes up. Cory cannot be left alone right now without being stranded! The equipment vendor sent a technician 3 weeks ago and they needed to order a part. Yet, here we are still waiting. We will now be calling Numotion every day until his chair is fixed.

Earlier this month, we enjoyed some sunshine down in Dana Point. It was a nice change of scenery for a quick overnight getaway. We strolled along the ocean cliffs and watched the waves with our parents.

Thank you for following our journey and we wish you happy healthy holidays!

November 7, 2020

Hi everybody! It’s Cory. Thank you for all of your kind words, well wishes, and support. It has made a huge difference in my recovery journey and helped to keep my spirits as high as possible. I cannot thank you enough.

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween! Celebrating Halloween in my PERMobil F3 wheelchair...

October 19, 2020

We took a big road trip last month. See Cory's latest update on https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corygoral/journal.

October 1, 2020

Did you know September is National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month? Yep, so I'm a little late posting this, but hey, it's still September.

September was designated National SCI Awareness Month by the US Senate in an effort to raise awareness about SCI, the need for better treatments and education on prevention. I really like the SCI iceberg, it truly conveys the point. Just over a year ago, I only knew the tip of the iceberg. That having a spinal cord injury meant you couldn't walk. I had no idea what lay under the surface. There is so much more a person in a wheelchair faces than just the inability to walk, as many of you know from following our journey for the past year. Since Cory cannot regulate body temperature, he's rarely seen without a blanket or sweatshirt. The stories and jokes relating to Cory's bladder and pee are endless in this house. His muscle spasms are abundant and give some people false excitement that he's moving his legs, "settle down bro, it's just a spasm. It's not a controlled movement, so don't get too excited."

Since the info-graphic has some great detail, I wanted to take a sec to remind you about Cory's neck. He fractured every cervical vertebra and has two rods from the base of his skull to T1. His spinal cord damage was worst at C4/C5 and is classified as incomplete since he has some sensation throughout his body. I hope these posters give you a better understanding of SCI. We've learned a lot in this journey and feel it is important to spread the knowledge.

To see the info-graphics, visit https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corygoral/journal

September 5, 2020

We posted some more videos; some from last year and some more recent. Driving sip-n-puff, tenodesis exercises, and using a computer to name a few. Check the videos out on youtube at CoryG SCI

https://youtube.com/channel/UCvS6jx08dQ7yLz3HwhRbyPQ/videos

September 3, 2020

Self feeding videos, check out the progress from Aug 2019 to May 2020.

Aug 2019: https://youtu.be/dd2yTMkIVks

May 2020: https://youtu.be/RJGD0l54eSg

August 24, 2020

For updates, please visit: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corygoral