UPDATE ON TARA LLANES: A SPARK OF HOPE
Tara Llanes, a champion BMX and mountain bike racer, broke her back and neck and seriously tore her spinal cord on September 1 in the Jeep King of the Mountain professional mountain bike championships, still managing to take third place based on her points.
She had no feeling or movement below the waist after the accident, and was kept highly medicated because of pain from several surgeries
Last week, she was transferred to Craig Hospital in Denver, considered the best spinal injury rehabilitation facility in the world. It is also where Steve Murray, a BMX rider paralyzed from the neck down in a Dew Tour contest three months ago, is doing his therapy.
Tara's heavy medication was gradually stopped, and she was able to begin doing her own writing on her MySpace blog on September 27. Still, she was paralyzed from the waist down. But Sunday, September 30, marked the first real sign of hope in a month.
Tara wrote about it, saying, "Today when I was getting ready to get in my chair and my mom was helping me put my shorts on I was looking at my left leg and my muscle looked like it was moving. So I quick focused really hard and sure enough it was ME doing it. I was moving my left quad muscle!!! All the way from the top to my knee! I was FREAKING STOKED! You have no idea. I called in my nurse and she was stoked as well. She was like, "it takes some people 2 years to do that and you did that in like 4 weeks!" So needless to say today was a pretty awesome day."
One of the new facts of her life is how much work Tara has to do for therapy. It's not just working on trying to move, according to Muffy Davis. She was Picabo Street's fiercest rival when both girls were aiming for the U. S. ski team as teenagers. Muffy broke her back while skiing and has been paralyzed at her chest level ever since.
"It's hard, hard work. It tires you out, you just get worn out after an hour of therapy," Muffy said, remembering her own time in rehab.
One of the highlights of Tara's day now is getting messages on her MySpace page or on her web site, tara@tarallanesracing.com. Don't hesitate to send an email, even if you don't know her.
She says on her MySpace page about the emails she has received, "You all have no idea the impact that you make on me and my rehab every single day. It could be a message saying that you've prayed for me that day or a story about how you have overcome a similar injury to mine. I try to read as many messages or emails that I can a day. And so many of them put a huge smile on my face and help me push through the day. I can't thank you all enough. I am blessed to have you all as my friends. Please don't stop writing now. We are going to get through this dammnit!!