#HIGHFIVESATHLETE BLOG POST | DANIELLE SHANNON

#HighFivesAthlete Danielle Shannon updates the High Fives Community on her progress! Check out what she has been up to.

It was super nice to swing by the High Fives Foundation on my way back up to AK!

I want to thank the Foundation for everything you guys have done to help me along the way. It was a huge help to have the therapists in New Hampshire help me progress through my goals and allow me to overcome some deficits since getting out of the hospital.

It was exciting to get to travel to Whistler and watch Peter’s (my boyfriend) bike race. I even got to do some PEMF therapy with one of Peter’s teammates contacts in Pemberton. It was a little weird to do, but I feel like it was well worth the two sessions I did.

Now I am back up in AK, settling back into things and getting to see so many close friends that I hadn’t remembered seeing from this spring or hadn’t seen since my accident. It was a really strange feeling to return to the place that I experienced the worst moments in my life at. I think it was some nervous excitement that made me feel so strange. I was greeted with a group of about twenty friends at the airport which made me come to tears but feel so welcomed and loved.

I overcame a huge milestone and Goal the other day that I wanted to share with you as well. I had an appointment with the Neurosurgeon that had seen me the first night I was admitted to the hospital and helped save my life by immediate surgery. I hadn’t remembered the doctor at all, just what I was told by Peter and my family.

As I met his PA, a woman named Candice who had also seen me many times through my hospital stay, all she could do was smile and keep looking at me as if she didn’t believe where I was at. She went through some normal questions, which I have heard many times now, but just kept expressing this warming energy of disbelief to how well she thought I looked and felt.

She continued to get Dr. Kralick (the Neurosurgeon). As he walked in to the small office we were in, he just couldn’t believe how I looked. He immediately gave me a hug and asked how I was feeling, how I was doing and what I was doing for activity. After telling him I have been running and hiking I asked what he thought about my timeline for starting to get back into biking and skiing, at a very slow pace. He continued with saying he thought I was able to start getting back into both activities, slowly and being extra careful. It was some of the best news I have heard since I got out of the hospital in May!

Before we left, Dr. Kralick wanted to make sure he got a personal photo with me with his phone and was just so happy to see how I was doing.

The appointment really made me feel like I had made progress and that I was getting back to normal life!

We drove back to Girdwood, collected my bike from storage and proceeded to the paved bike path with the most excitement I had felt for months. We road at a comfortable pace, and I felt completely normal on my bike the whole time, which felt awesome!

– Danielle Shannon, August 2015