Fundraiser to help community advocate with physio costs
- EFN Staff | February 13, 2017
Colleen Hamilton thought her lowest point was when the surgeon told her she would have a 50 percent chance that she would walk again. But then later her physiotherapist told her, “You have to find a new place to live. You will never walk again.”
“I was in shock,” said Hamilton, a tireless community advocate who has worked for years improving the lives of people in Saskatoon. “I realized our lives would never be the same again. I cried for days. Then I decided to fight.”
It all started on a Monday in November. She fell at home a few times. She left work at Child Hunger and Education program (CHEP) on Tuesday because of pain in her legs. By Sunday she was rushed into surgery at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital. Two operations later, Hamilton was left with a metal rod and someone’s hip bone fusing her spine in the middle of her back. She had a decompression of the D-5 to the T-10 of her spine.
“I was humbled by the fact that someone’s hip was helping me sit,” said Hamilton. “But basically I was just happy to be alive. The worst part is the pain.”
Hamilton has made her name in Saskatoon with her work at CHEP. Passionate and admittedly stubborn, in the past thirteen years Hamilton has pioneered many community partnerships that help fill the gaps in current programs. She loves her community work and uniting organizations on a shared mandate. “Creating a partnership is like dating an organization. When programs start, it is like a marriage. You have to work hard and communicate,” said Hamilton. “And when those marriages fail, the community and kids suffer. CHEP has true partners. I love o see someone smile when they see things get better and to see people for who they are and not what they were labelled.”
Her commitment to the community is now paying Hamilton back with an outpouring of support for her and her husband Gary. “It is not cheap being disabled,” said Hamilton. “Wheelchairs start at $5000 and I need a special bed and we had to move to a wheelchair accessible house. Thank God for Gary, he has been amazing.” She is also on thirty two different prescriptions of over sixty pills a day. Insurance coverage only goes so far.
Husband Gary is worried about the challenges of the future, but he knows his wife is one tough cookie. “Seeing her upset hurts me,” said Gary. “She was always helping everyone and it is hard for her to accept help. But she doesn’t quit. When the physical therapist asks her for one rep, she gives them two.”
Her work ethic is apparent in her dedication to rehabilitation. For the past few weeks her home has been the seventh floor of Saskatoon’s City Hospital. She spends about three hours a day at the rehab centre working with a mixture of occupational and physical therapists and assistants. Ultimately the goal is to walk again, but for now they focus on little things like standing up, moving one toe at a time and practising moves like getting into and out of bed. She is still paralyzed at the waist. “It was very hard off the start,” says Colleen. “But the staff has so much patience and they deal with all kinds of people with different needs. I am so impressed with the staff on the seventh floor. They are wonderful and we tease each other.”
Rehab is not easy. She likens the process of physio to falling in a lake of cold water. “It pushes and pulls muscles and the tingling and aching and muscle spasms are the worst,” she adds. “The pain breaks me down and I count down the time to my next pill.”
Pain aside, Colleen wants to get better and continue her good work and be there for the community and her three children, eight grandkids and great grandchild. “I want to advocate for the disabled now. I didn’t realize the challenges.”
More rehab is in store and she expects to be released on March 21 and will then move into a new place Gary found. She hopes to get back to work at CHEP in modified way. Getting better takes time and money. CHEP is hosting a fundraiser on February 13 for Colleen. It is expected to be a sell out. And for that Colleen is reluctantly grateful. “This is hard for me,” said Colleen. “I’m a helper and now I need to be helped and it’s hard for me to digest.”
Colleen admits that she gave up for a while but then her stubborn side kicked in. “The people around me have been great and my work mates have been so positive. So I am doing this for myself but also for people I can help in the future. I am going to come out and fight,” she said. “I can’t take this lying down. I can’t let those people down.”