By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Al Engebretson is using his competitive nature learned from years of participating in athletics to face his greatest challenge.
Engebretson, who was involved in athletics his entire life, most recently in competitive bicycle racing, is battling against paralysis suffered in a bicycle accident.
Engebretson, now 55, was racing a mountain bike at Alpine Valley near East Troy in southern Wisconsin on Sunday, May 5, 2002, when he went down one of the hills on the course and had an accident, going over the handlebars and hitting his head on an object.
He was airlifted to Froedtert Lutheran Memorial Hospital in Milwaukee and placed in the spinal unit because he was paralyzed from the neck down. X-rays revealed no broken bones, but he suffered spinal damage and a considerable amount of swelling.
Today, Engebretson has regained some movement, but it's taken a lot of work and he needs to continue working to retain what he's recovered, as well as possibly regain more of what he lost.
"I have to do something every day to keep my muscles from atrophying," he said. "Also for the range of motion. I try the range of motion each day so I don't lose that. I can tell if I go a couple of days without exercising. I lose that real quick."
He's exercised throughout his life, but the struggle to exercise now is harder. He participated in athletics throughout his youth, in high school and into adulthood, concentrating on basketball and then bicycling as he grew older.
While most of his basketball participation was in recreation league and pickup games, he got into bicycle racing in recent years, competing around the state.
Now Engebretson, who gets around mostly in a wheelchair, goes to Rice Medical Center once a week for physical therapy. "I used to go four times a week but the insurance for the therapy ran out," he said. "Hopefully, at the start of the year I'll get to go more."
With only one day at the clinic, he goes to the Stevens Point Area YMCA three or four times a week "I use quite a bit of the equipment over there. I hired a fitness trainer at the Y to help with my range of motion," he said. "It's not quite the same as physical therapy but it helps."
He usually goes to the Y in the morning, he said, and then a friend stops by in the afternoon. "We go for a short walk outside," Engebretson said. "And then I'm pretty tired. I don't get a lot of exercise after that. I just get tired out. I get worn out from a short period of time. It's a lot of work."
On those walks, Engebretson uses a walker. "I have to watch my feet all the time so I can tell where I am. If I look ahead of me, I will fall over so I have to watch my feet." He watches his feet, he explained, because he has no feeling in his feet, his hand or his lower body, so he doesn't know if he's moved them unless he looks.
After the accident happened, doctors weren't sure what abilities he would recover. "When I was first in the hospital, I couldn't move anything except my head," he said. "I think the first thing I could move was my finger, and then my toe. I've come a long way from that."
While Engebretson has regained some movement, he knows he has to keep working to retain it. "The doctors say it'll take a lot of repetition to retrain my muscles, the communication between my brain and my muscles. It's working in a certain way. It's going to take a long time."
He's also limited in use of his hands. "I can't use my hands very well, so I bought some voice recognition software for my computer. I can use my finger. I use voice recognition to open and close programs. I can surf the Internet with just my voice."
The computer has become a way for him to keep informed. "I play on the computer a lot and read a lot, but unfortunately it doesn't help with my exercise."
Despite being injured while biking, he still is interested in the sport. "I watched the Tour de France on TV," he said. "We get a lot of phone calls and a lot of people stop by and say 'hi.' It's nice to have people visit. A lot of my biking friends have been real good about stopping over and telling me about what's going on."
Because of his paralysis, his wife, Marge, has become his caretaker. "Marge has been fantastic," he said. "She has to take care of me. She takes care of me 24 hours a day."
He realizes his dependence upon others and is grateful for the help he's had, particularly from therapists.
He appreciated the therapy four times a week at Rice Medical Center. "Those people up there are really great. I miss going four times a week. We got to be good friends with all of them," he said. "Mentally they keep you in a positive mood because they're such good people. They really know their job really well. I can't say enough about the hospital and the Y. They've all been great."
His wife agrees. "They're a bunch of good people," she said. "There's no complaints about Stevens Point."
Engebretson said he wasn't sure about returning home after he was released from the hospital in Milwaukee. "When we were down in Milwaukee, they made it seem like they were the only ones that can take care of you," he said. "You find out there are other places that can help you. They were fantastic down there, but Stevens Point has lots to offer."
He enjoys his trips for therapy, he said. "It's good to get out of the house each day and meet people. Sitting at home every day, it's easy to dwell on your problems, but when you get with people you don't dwell on your problems."
He returns to Milwaukee every three months to see a doctor, but will go more often if he has problems. He has a pump inserted to deliver drugs. "It pumps into spinal fluid, pumps 24 hours every day. The medication goes in continuously," he said. "I have to get refilled every three months, and they can adjust it to different levels. It helps with tone to move better."
The pump was inserted, he said, so the medicine goes more directly to a particular area of the body instead of going through the entire body if the medicine was taken orally. He also receives injections to help his weaker muscles get stronger, he said.
Engebretson isn't sure what his prognosis will be for the future, but his athletic nature keeps him trying to reach another barrier.
"They told us the first year is where you see the most improvement and not to expect any improvements after the first year," he said. "I see slight improvements if I work hard. I don't see great improvements. I have to work very hard just to maintain what I have.
"We've learned that I'm never going to be back to normal. That was hard to accept at first. I thought if I worked hard enough I could," he said. "Those were expectations that are just beyond reality. No one discouraged me from thinking them because they kept me working hard."
He appreciates encouragement. "It's nice that everyone encourages me," he said. "It keeps me going. My family has been really great. You find now you can't get through something like this without friends, family and a lot of good people."
His wife is also grateful for the support. "You really find out a lot about people when something like this happens," Marge said. "They're helpful and prayerful. It gives you a kind of good feeling, that there are good people in this world."
Engebretson said he has some goals as he works to overcome the paralysis. "It's hard to go out in a wheelchair. I feel conspicuous," he said. "I'm starting to get used to that. I think I'll start getting out a little bit more. I might get to some football games this year and some basketball games.
"I would like to gain a little more independence," he said. "Some day I hope I can just take care of myself for a day or so. I don't know if that will ever happen."