Chris Lesanko.com

Just wanted to fire off a quick message to all of you-wishing you guys nothing but the best in the upcoming year.. this has definitely been a very busy year for myself.

March to May-Carlsbad California attended Project walk

June 14-golf tournament at White city

June until August-assistant coach for the under 16 provincial lacrosse team

August 2-big brother’s wedding

November 4-6- travel to Toronto to attend a spinal cord injury conference

June until present-working on establishing a Project walk provider facility in Regina

That was a couple of the major things that went on for me in 2008

Send me off a quick message and let me know how things are going.  Have a safe and happy holiday.. thanks to everybody again for all of the support.

It has definitely been a busy past 2 1/2 months…… I guess the biggest news is, we have established a nonprofit organization called first steps wellness Center.  We also signed the agreement with Project walk-to become the first ever provider facility in Canada.  This facility will concentrate on consistent and intense exercise programs for individuals with spinal cord injuries.  There still is a lot of work to be done before the doors opened.  We are currently in the process of developing a website for this facility as well.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a spinal cord convention in Toronto.  I wanted to see if there was anything like this in Canada already established.  Although spinal cord injuries have been around for decades and decades, there really wasn’t that much research and science into this area.  It is said that 90% of what we know about spinal cord injuries has been established in the last two decades.  First steps wellness Center is light-years ahead from any other Center.  Although many researchers are trying to help, they are very narrow minded in their own studies too often grasp the overall picture.  First steps wellness Center will incorporate everything that we possibly can to make it easier on individuals with spinal cord injuries.  I established some really good contacts which will hopefully help us down the road.

This project has kept me rather busy, I am still trying to finish off one of my online correspondence classes-which happens to be small business management.  Exercising is going fairly well, but I have encountered some problems with keeping a good routine because of conflicting schedules.  I am also currently working with a female who has a biomechanics degree.  She has proven to be very beneficial in my exercising routines to try to help me with different postural positions and muscle correction.

It is good to see that my Boston Bruins are finally on top-I believe they are second.  Do not know what my plans are for Christmas, probably head back to the farm and maybe had up to Edmonton to see my brother and my uncle.  I want to get back involved with wheelchair rugby.  Hopefully over the winter, I will have enough time to get back on the court.

I will keep you guys posted on the progress with the facility and hopefully next time I provide a updates we will have a website up and running.’

That is all for now………

Once again I do apologize for the very long delay in the update.  Definitely had one of the busiest summers I ever had.  My oldest brother got married in Saskatoon on August 2.  Followed by one of my best friends wedding in Yorkton the following week after which I was the master of ceremonies for.  Also all throughout summer I was the assistant coach of the under 16 provincial lacrosse team.  We had practice almost every other weekend in the summer and we travel to Edmonton on Labor Day weekend.  Things did not go that while as we placed six out of seven, at least we beat Manitoba.

Things have been rather busy with trying to establish a certified Project walk facility in Regina.  The first general board meeting is on October 3, after this meeting hopefully we will be able to have some progress.  If everything goes well hopefully before the beginning of next summer of facility should be established.  There still is a lot of work to be done.

I was still taking a course through correspondence, unfortunately my computer crashed and I lost my third and half of my last assignment.  Luckily I got a extension and hopefully I will be able to get it done before November.

As for my recovery goes, it has been rather frustrating throughout the summer because of everybody’s busy schedules my training routine was messed up for the longest time.  Also with different events that take place weddings, funerals, nationals etc. it takes time away from my training.  I am starting to get back into the swing of things.  Overall, upper body strength has improved which has allowed me to do more things on my own.  My mother finally made her way back to the farm after a couple years of staying with me.  I have been doing a large majority of my workouts standing up in the spending frame.  The benefits are definitely visible in my core stability and also the muscle mass in my legs.  Hopefully I will be able to make my way down to Project walk in the beginning of next year.

Anyways I should probably get going, I hope everything is going well with everyone else.  I cannot wait for the NHL season to start.  Go Bruins

Let me start off by thanking all the individuals that made the tournament in Regina and Bracebridge a huge success once again.  Blaine / Darlene / Brian /Britney / Nick were the  organizers in Regina.  And believe it or not, Mary was the only organizer for the Bracebridge tournament.  I cannot thank you guys enough for all the hard work, valuable time spent and frustrations that you spent into this year’s event to make it even more memorable than the previous year. 

Also a huge thank you goes out to all sponsors for each tournament.  It is truly amazing to see all the support from local businesses and even businesses that are across the country.  Thank you so much for all the door prizes and hole sponsors.

Thank you so much for all the participants who took part in one of the two golf tournaments this year.  Once again it is truly amazing to see all the support from my close friends and family and even from complete strangers that I have not even met.  It truly is special to see all the people who came out to the events in Regina, I am definitely going to make that one in Bracebridge next year you can count on that.

You guys really do not know how much this means to me to see everybody’s continuous support.  Unfortunately the recovery is not very quick but it takes years and years of consistent and intense exercising to recover.  It truly does keep the fire lit with inside of me for another year to keep fighting.. once again thanks a million

please do not hesitate to give me an e-mail is always good to hear from other individuals.  As for me, the rest of my summer consists of trying to get a facility opened up in Regina Saskatchewan, coaching the under 16 provincial lacrosse team, finishing up my correspondence, getting ready for my brothers stag and his wedding, and preparing to be the MC of a close friend’s wedding……. hopefully I really want to try fishing for the first time in 3 1/2 years with my father.

The total amount of money that was raised from the two golf tournaments exceeded the amount of money that was raised last year from three tournaments.  This money goes directly towards my rehabilitation and the prices that come with the intense and consistent training.  Also maybe if I am very lucky, another trip down south to project walk.  I will keep everybody posted, but as you know the summertime nobody wants to be around a computer.

Thank you to all the sponsors from the Regina tournament

 Systems Scaffolding Company – Mr. Don Bell

 Briash Holdings Ltd. – Mr. Darcy Paul

Performance Marine – Mr. Jeff Lorch

These three individuals contributed to the hole-in-one, Mr. Bell also contribute a Ron Lancaster framed autographed jersey which went for $1300- thanks once again 

HOLE SPONSORS:

Briash Holdings Ltd.

CEG Energy Options Inc.

Clear Tech

Fast Athletic Sports Training

Harvest Land Investment Education

Macpherson Leslie & Tyerman

Morris Industries Ltd.

Mosaic Potash Ltd.

NHLfactory.com

Park Avenue Builders (1991) Ltd.

Rusnak Kachur Balako Rusnak Law Firm

SARCAN Recycling

Soaring Ostrich Productions

Systems Scaffolding Inc.

Tan-FX

Thee Lingerie Shoppe

PRIZE SPONSORS:

Artistic Painting

Aspen Links Country Club

Beaver Ridge Lodge

BMO Nesbitt-Burns

Boston Pizza

Brewsters

Broken Rack

B-Sharp Music

Calgary Flames

Curves

David Mitchell

Fit Zone

Future Shop

Great West Brewing Company

Harvest Meats

Heavenly Feet Reflexology

Independent Living

Jane’s Skin Care and Day Spa

Marks Work Wearhouse

Minnesota Swarm

Morris Industries

Moxies Restaurant

NHLfactory.com

Press Box

Provincial Hydraulics

Regina Marine

Regina Pats

Regina Rams

RONA

Saskatchewan Association for Resource Recovery Corporation

Saskatchewan Association of Rehabilitation Centres

Shear Symmetrics

Soaring Ostrich Productions

Systems Scaffolding Company

Tan-FX

Tourism Regina

Uni-Select

Wolseley Waterworks Group

Just wanted to thank all the individual sponsors from the Bracebridge tournament

Hole Sponsors –

·        Greavette Pontiac Cadillac & Garnet Johnson

·        Myraton Industries, Tom and Jill Ryan

·        Trifecta Canada, Doug Pelletier

·        Cottage Country Family Health Team

·        Direct Energy, Harris Hunter

·        Sublime Graphics, Jeremy Cleland

·        Tropical Dream Destinations, Michelle O’Brien

·        Creighton Rock Drill, Jim Creighton

·        Culver & Henderson Building Design, Cynthia Henderson

·        Erborn Electric, Aaron Back

·        BDO Dunwoody, Paul Taylor

·        Digirolomo Greenhouses, Mike Digirolomo & Barb Curry

·        Dave Samborski Realtor

Donations

Joyce Waterman; Scott Hackney; Jen &Vic Steane; Ethel Smith, Jody Smith; Paul Robertson; Harris Hunter; Garnet Johnson; Lockie Wye; Chris Stockwell; Rana Samborski; David Hou; Michelle O’Brien; Jen & Tyler Allair (Inn on Bay);  Robbie and Alain of North Restaurant; Tana D’Amico; Elmer Olsen Model Management; Mariola & Danny Andrusky; Joeffer Caoc; Shirley Farmer; Donalda; Ryan Chatwin; Taboo Golf Course; Silver Lakes Golf Course; Muskoka Stone and Garden; Shine; Conquest Tours; Sue Ferguson; Signature Tours; Paul Robertson; Orillia Floors; Windermere Golf& C.C.; Jeremy Hymers; Tim HortonsGravenhurst.

Special Thanks to :

Don MacKay and his staff including golf pro Darrick Harrop for their help in making this a spectacular day! 

As you can see from both golf tournaments amount of sponsorships is unbelievable, thank you to everybody who contributed something towards the event 

I have been back in Saskatchewan for a couple of weeks finally getting back into the routine of thing.  Started up my personal trainer last week and also have been working out with brian ever since we got back.  We have picked up a couple of new things to try which we have been working on to improve my overall stability within my hips and my abdominals.  Last Thursday my brother and Tyler M. managed to get me up on my feet with very little assistance while I was standing straight up.  Which is pretty impressive given the fact that no physiotherapy place has ever tried to do that-except for project walk. I am still doing the usual three hours a day – four days a week workout routine.

For anybody who is interested-we are having our first general meeting to discuss opening a facility which would be project walk certified in Regina Saskatchewan.  This meeting will be held at my apartment on the 27th of May at 7:30 please send me a e-mail if you are interested in attending or if you would like to be put on the contact list for further information regarding this facility. www.chrislesanko12@hotmail.com

We are starting to get down to our final preparations for the golf tournament which will be held on June 14 in Regina, Saskatchewan formerly known as Emerald Park golf and country club.  Information regarding registration and sponsorship are listed on the left hand side of my website -golf tournament 08  

I am still taking a small business management class through Athabasca University, which sadly to say, has been left on my computer desk for some time.. I do have a couple more months to complete this course, so we things will start to slow down so I can start getting smarter once again -hehe

anyways that is it for now-I will try to send off another update but it may be a little while because of the hectic schedule-

It definitely has been one of the most beneficial / memorable trips-I have done a lot more things than I could ever imagine up on my feet… it is really kind of funny, because when I stand up seems like second nature once again.  During my time here, I also managed to be a guinea pig for a couple of exercising machine.  The machine that I liked the most-it is a trendmail that hangs you up from a lift.  You have two individuals that moves your legs.  The beauty thing about this machine-is you can allocate how much of your body weight you want on your feet, you can choose to stand statically and do different exercises while weight-bearing…….. awesome.  Besides that-I also tried out a mechanical walker.  It will stand you up from sitting which is pretty remarkable because you do not need any assistance.  I have not spent too much time on developing my upper body, I have spent a lot of time on trying to figure out my hip.  I still tend to lean a lot to my left side-it probably will take some time to correct…………

I also had a few visitors last week-my brother ended up coming down-Nick and also my trainer from back home-Rod.  It was very cool to have them down.  Both of them gained a lot of experience and seen how I was doing.  We also managed to hit up  sea world for one day, which is always a great time.  I have put up a lot of videos on my facebook account, if you get a chance  please check them  out.  Also, do not forget to register for this upcoming years golf tournaments.  All the information should be posted on the website-I look forward to seeing you there, I will fire off one more e-mail hopefully before I leave project walk.

bye for now

Over the last month I have seen improvements in my overal strength and conditioning.  Almost every day trainers at project walk have me doing all sorts of exercises while I am standing on my feet-not by myself but with a little bit of assistance. For the first time last week I managed to get myself up in a walker-of course with a lot of assistance-and I made a couple loops around the facility.  This was a unbelievable feeling.  The feeling and sensation that I felt was like no other.  Although I had people moving my feet ahead of my body I felt a very strong connection that was relaying back to my brain.  Trying to duplicate a walking pattern will only take time because it takes hundreds and thousands of repetitious movements before the muscle and the nervous system can connect-also you must build a muscle mass in order to support your upper body.  I am not getting to sore and tired anymore which means my body is adapting to the intensity of the workouts.  We are still working on my abdominals and trying to stabilize my hip flexors.  This will allow me to stay on my feet longer without being strenuous.  The weather down here hasn’t been all that good, we have made a journey to the beach only once since we arrived.  I will be returning to Saskatchewan on May 2 so I have very little time to try to make the best use of the time down here as possible.  We also made a little journey out to Las Vegas.  This was a pretty cool experience given the fact that I always wanted to go.  We also made a trip out to Hoover Dam this in itself was worth the eight hour trip that took us to get back, instead of four hours because of traffic.  I am still plugging away at my education down here. We also have been working on details for this year’s golf tournament which will be held on June 14 in Regina at the old Emerald Park golf and country club in White city.  I will post more details in my next update.  It also has been really troublesome down here because we do not get too much NHL on the television down here, I know that my Bruins will become successful when they beat the Canadians………..

I will post another short update in a couple of weeks-so long for now

Sorry for such a delay on the update, my website was down for a little while but it is back……….

we arrived in San Diego on March 2 early in the morning one o’clock to be exact, we did not arrive at our place until shortly after two o’clock.  The flights and everything were good-no delays.  When we woke up in the morning we did not realize how close we were to the ocean.  We are within 1/2 block to the ocean and can view the ocean from a sliding door in our condo.  After a few days of settling down I finally got to go to project walk once again after two years .  It was definitely good to be back but I did not see a lot of familiar faces.  A lot of the trainers, moved to different locations or started up their own facilities.  The first day that I rolled in to project walk they automatically had me up on my feet.  During my couple of weeks that I have already been attending-I am doing a lot more gait training-this is where they train you to walk-then I was last time I was attending project walk.  Also since the last time I was down I have regained a lot more feeling and  Sensation.  This is definitely a very good thing but unfortunately the side effects are pain and soreness.  The one area of weakness that I have definitely noticed is that my hips have become extremely weak due to the fact that I sit in a wheelchair for a very long time.  Whenever I go to stand up my hips always fall for one side or another-this has been my biggest challenge and probably will be for the next two months.  I definitely have learnt a few different exercises and will continue to strengthen them as much as possible…………….. last time I was down it was my upper body that was weak and this really restricted what I could do when I stood up when I least that is working its way down and my hips should be the last part to strengthen.  Other than working out we really haven’t done too much-next week and we are getting the boot from the landlords because another individual is moving into the Condo.  So we are going to make a trip to Las Vegas and see what trouble we can get into.

On another note-we are starting to organize this year’s golf tournament I will post some information on the website once we get a few more things finalize but until then I will keep on putting posts on this site to provide some updates on how things are going……… so long for now

I hope all is well in 2008, I guess we can’t really complain about the weather it is the middle of January and it is raining.  Back into the full swing of physiotherapy-pretty excited the first day back in a swimming pool is on this Friday.  It should be an interesting adventure, I believe that I should probably be able to swim without any assistance.  I was in the pool when I was in my physiotherapy in the hospital, but I really couldn’t do too much except float.  I guess that is better than sinking.  I will keep everything posted on the link on my website that is listed as physiotherapy progress on the left-hand side.  It is that time again to hit the books, I registered for one more correspondence class through the University of Athabasca but I will still get my degree from Bishops University.  After this class I will only have four more, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We are going to start planning this year’s golf tournament in the next couple of weeks-I cannot wait for another summer like the one last summer.  The golf tournaments were amazing and a lot of fun.  I still want to try to get down to San Diego before this year’s golf tournaments……… so long for now

I am going to head back to the farm for a week so I will not have Internet access, just would like to take the time to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a happy new year-thank you once again for a tremendous year with all the support.  One of the major highlights in this year, was the success of the golf tournaments and you cannot forget the championship which the Saskatchewan Roughriders WON.  I believe  2008 will be a great year -I am raising expectations of myself for this upcoming year.  Number one thing is completing my degree and commit even a stronger commitment to my exercise program.  The program that I have in place took me nearly a year and a half to get all the right pieces together.  This program that consists of numerous different activities and exercises would not be possible for myself without the support from family, friends and even strangers.  I cannot thank you enough and I bring each and every one of you warm wishes for this upcoming year.  Hopefully I will be able to post another message after the new year-do not forget that you can always leave messages on this website as well. I also have added a couple of new pages -they are located on the left side on the home page.  One is called physiotherapy and the other one is stem cell research.  Feel free to add any comments that you would like