Blog

Changes to sexual function after spinal cord injury are common. They're significant. And they remain one of the least discussed aspects of life after injury in clinical settings, in rehabilitation, and in public conversation. This episode goes there. When Your Body Was Your Identity Both Niall and Steve came into their injuries as people who had invested heavily in their physical selves. Niall used his body to access mountain environments and jungles. Steve was a 6'1" high sc

There are things that happen after a spinal cord injury that almost nobody prepares you for. Not the physio. Not the muscle work. The other things. The ones that people tend to lower their voices for or skip over entirely in clinical consultations. This episode doesn't skip over them. The Fart That Got a Round of Applause Niall McCann did not know, before his paragliding accident, that he would lose control of when he broke wind. Nobody told him. It came as a surprise, and fo

At some point during his early rehabilitation, Steve Kearley would wait until no one was watching. Then he'd look down at the 12-inch floor tiles beneath his wheelchair and try to move. One inch. Maybe two. And feel genuinely good about it. It sounds like a small thing. It wasn't. The Night Shifts Nobody Saw Steve was 17, a serious athlete who had been planning a college football career before a car accident changed everything. The gap between who he had been and where he now

Most people, when they imagine serious injury, picture the physical challenge. The muscle building, the physio sessions, the slow return of function. What Niall McCann and Steve Kearley's experiences reveal is that the narrative running in your head is doing at least as much of the work and in some ways, a great deal more. Two Injuries, Two Very Different Starting Points Niall, a biologist and National Geographic Explorer, was flying a small parachute when he flew into the si