Columbia resident Pat Brandon, a year into her recovery: ‘I will not give up’

Pat Brandon leaned over in her wheelchair, grasped her right calf, and hefted her leg onto the coffee table. Then she did the same with the other leg.

“Much more comfortable that way,” she said.

It’s been more than a year since Pat, in her late 50s, woke early one morning in her home near Trenholm Road and discovered that she couldn’t walk, the result of lifting her garage door the day before.

“When I lifted (it),” she said early this year, “a blood vessel in my spine kinked like a garden hose and prevented blood and oxygen from getting to my spine. It created a stroke-like effect in my spine.”

Since those horrific couple of days some 14 months ago, Pat, an avid tennis player and a professional counselor, has been fighting tooth and nail to recover the use of her legs. We got together recently to talk about her progress.

“As long as I can draw a breath,” she said, “I will not give up. It may be two weeks from now. It may be five years from now. Ten years. And it may be never, but the goal is always going to be to walk. Giving up? It’s not gonna happen.”

Pat’s physical progress has been significant.

“I have more feeling in my feet. I can move my left knee and I can kick out my right leg. When I run my finger along the inside of my right foot, I can feel a tingle. In physical therapy, I can be up on all fours (hands and knees) and I can stay there by myself. That’s a big deal. In the salt water pool, I can raise my left knee to my chest and I can push it back out again. I’m building a lot of strength. When this first happened, I couldn’t sit on the edge of the bed. Now I can.”

Pat’s physical therapy includes exercising in the salt water pool at the S.C. Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, using a “standing machine,” a neuro-stimulator and a recumbent bike.

Pat’s progress when it comes to getting her independence back has been huge, too.

She has a gray SUV outfitted with hand-held controls which means she can go where she wants, when she wants. That includes work twice a week, out-of-town trips, the grocery store, dinner downtown with friends, her favorite Chinese food take-out place.

“To be able to get in a car and go has been wonderful. The first place I drove to was Williams-Brice Stadium. Then I just drove through town. I think I went all over the place. It was amazing.”

Recent months have not been without their setbacks, however. Physical therapy was slowed down by a stress fracture in her right heel and a tear in her lateral meniscus.“I was sick about that,” she said.

And Pat has had to learn to be more patient with everything she does. “Everything is harder to do; everything takes longer.”

And then there was the doctor who told her that the window for recovery from her kind of injury was two years. “He told me, ‘If you haven’t recovered by that time, you are probably not going to.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘I wouldn’t put my money on that if I were you.’ ”

What Pat has put on her money on, and what she said has been essential in helping her through the past year are “the 3 F’s.”

“Friends, family and faith. It’s what has gotten me through this.”

Pat is also writing a book. “It’s my story. A faith journey. What the past year has been for me.

What do you do when paralysis strikes in the middle of a completely satisfying life?”

Well, I guess you do what Pat has done.

You don’t give up on getting that life back.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Columbia resident Pat Brandon, a year into her recovery: ‘I will not give up’."