10 replies to this topic

[Angie26]

Hi there! Not only am I new to the forum but I've also just moved to Denver Colorado I'm looking for anyone out there from the Denver area that can give me some suggestions on a good doctor or a good SCI support group. I had a great doctors back home in Michigan and I'm hoping to find some out here too. We all know that finding a good Dr. isn't easy! I've had my share of quacks!!

Looking forward to all my new adventures!

[Soryfam]

I'm about 50 miles north of you, in Greeley, Colorado. Finding a doctor, hmmm. Possible calling Craig Rehab hospital would be a good idea. THey are one of the best facilities in the country. I'd also check out the University Hospital system- very cutting edge.

As far as an SCI support group, I don't know about Denver, but here in Northern Colorado there is NOTHING. Very disappointing.

Hope you enjoy Colorado.

Sandy

[Angie26]

Soryfam, on 11 February 2011 - 11:37 PM, said:

I'm about 50 miles north of you, in Greeley, Colorado. Finding a doctor, hmmm. Possible calling Craig Rehab hospital would be a good idea. THey are one of the best facilities in the country. I'd also check out the University Hospital system- very cutting edge.

As far as an SCI support group, I don't know about Denver, but here in Northern Colorado there is NOTHING. Very disappointing.

Hope you enjoy Colorado.

Sandy

Thanks for the response Sandy! I'll look into both of those hospitals. I know of Craig but I was unaware of the University Hospital.

Man that sucks! I had a couple SCI support groups in Michigan. It was fun just to sit around and talk to others who wheel for a living. Learned quite a few "tricks of the trade".

[qbounce]

If I were you I wouldn't consider anything sucking being so close to Craig Hospital. Yes, it's 30 minutes outside of downtown Denver, but their reputation and all they have to offer are second to none, including an indoor gym for wheelchair rugby, basket ball, and a large support group. As Sandy said, check it out!

[mjrcpd]

Craig is a great place. I did my original rehab there all the way from Upstate, NY !!! It was well worth the trip and I have returned for re-evals a few times. I love the Denver area. Good luck

[allis53ca]

denvers pretty accessible too...im in steamboat now but considering a move down to denver

[lizaaslor]

Hi guys~

I know this was posted over a year ago but just wanted to share this adaptive yoga class I teach in Denver. Check it out: http://www.yogadenve...-yoga/index.php

Adaptive yoga modifies yoga poses for people with mobility challenges from arthritis to quadriplegia.


Feel free to contact me with any questions:
Liza Aslor
720-810-0182
liza_aslor@hotmail.com

[Grinch83]

Funny this popped up...my girlfriend and I are considering moving out from Jersey to Denver within the year. We are going out there in March to scope it out. Anyone have anything new to say about accessibility and overall quality of life in the Mile High City? Also, I'm currently on NJ state disability and SSI; hopefully I'll be off of these programs and back to the working world by the time we move out there, but just in case I'm not, does anyone know how well these programs run in Colorado?

Feel free to PM me if it is considered a forum faux pax to continue to drag up an old thread.

Thanks!

[KayDub]

Grinch83, on 07 February 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:

Funny this popped up...my girlfriend and I are considering moving out from Jersey to Denver within the year. We are going out there in March to scope it out. Anyone have anything new to say about accessibility and overall quality of life in the Mile High City? Also, I'm currently on NJ state disability and SSI; hopefully I'll be off of these programs and back to the working world by the time we move out there, but just in case I'm not, does anyone know how well these programs run in Colorado?

Feel free to PM me if it is considered a forum faux pax to continue to drag up an old thread.

Thanks!

Hey! I've lived in Colorado almost my entire life. I grew up in Avon, which is a small town about 10-15 miles west of Vail. In high school my mom (parents split) moved to Aurora, an "inner ring" suburb of Denver that borders the entire city directly to the east. I went out east for school but came back to finish my undergrad in Boulder at CU and then started law school at the University of Denver (south end of town).

Here's something I posted here a couple months ago:


"I'm working on navigating the city in my chair from taking light rail (a train system that connects the southern suburbs and parts of Denver to downtown... they've voted to extend it north towards the northern suburbs and Boulder and east through the existing line to south Aurora up to the airport. The only thing they've done is extend it west towards the suburbs there ending in Golden, right in the foothills before you head into the mountains.) and the RTD buses (cool fact RTD, the Denver public transport system was one of the first to get accessible buses in the 70s) Public transport is really great here if you're in a chair, it's all completely accessible. The hardest part is sometimes not all the stops are accessible, especially the further yo get from the city. Out near my mom's in the southeastern suburbs (in between Littleton and Aurora) the closest bus stop is along a major state highway in the grass median. Can't make it there in my chair so I'm lucky enough to catch rides to the light rail stations.

Anyway the ultimate catch 22 is finding an accessible house or apartment is easier in the suburbs and some areas are very cheap. The suburbs aren't nearly as accessible unless you have your own car and can get yourself to the more accessible parts of town. Have you started looking at jobs? Where you work will really dictate what part of the city you want to live in. Traffic here is absolutely awful and you don't want to have a 2 hour commute every day. I can definitely help you find more accessible areas in the part of town you'll eventually settle in to live and work. Getting to downtown to go to sports games, see concerts, go to cool places to eat, is generally very doable in a chair, especially compared to other parts of the country I lived in for short periods of time for school.

There's no cut and dry answer to whether or not apartment complexes plow. Denver can be kind of shady when it comes to sidewalk plowing (some areas are great, some suck). They do not plow the side streets. As far as individual apartment complexes you have to ask the landlord when you're looking. Some places do some places leave it turn into ice which is bad enough for ABs let alone a chair! In the city there's a lot of organisations to find accessible apartments (I'm currently working on it myself, the area around DU was build in the 60s mostly and very inaccessible for housing). You have to understand, Denver gets barely any snow. Crazy to think about I know when everyone assumes all of Colorado is a winter wonderland and skiers paradise. Because it's east of the mountains and at a relatively high elevation for being on the plains (5,280 feet above sea level -> the Mile High City) they get some of the weirdest weather ever. You can get lightning storms during blizzards, 75 degree days in January and snow in July. During winter (Nov-Feb) there's usually just a spittle of snow, it's more likely to absolutely frigid. It'll be below 0 but sunny enough to get a sunburn. In March is when they get the most snow, usually one or two big blizzards that come through and dump feet of snow. But the day or two after the dry air and sun just eat it away and it's gone. That's why Denver doesn't really plow. Back in '06 there were 3 storms in a row in Dec that didn't allow the previous snow to melt with 10 ft drifts at the airport and it got shut down for a week. That was really uncharacteristic. (My college degree was in hydrology and geography so I studied extensively the climate patterns in Colorado and why things are the way they are... but I won't bore you with any more details!"

Hope that helps. Do you have any more specific questions about the area? I'd be happy to answer them!

[AmericasHorse]

I live just east of Aurora in Strasburg, feel free to contact me, i work from home and run a non profit that helps the disabled of Colorado. Craig is a great hospital, i wish i could have gone there as a kid for my rehab. 303-622-9382 or americashorse@hotmail.com

[Grinch83]

KayDub, on 07 February 2012 - 07:24 PM, said:

Grinch83, on 07 February 2012 - 06:07 PM, said:

Funny this popped up...my girlfriend and I are considering moving out from Jersey to Denver within the year. We are going out there in March to scope it out. Anyone have anything new to say about accessibility and overall quality of life in the Mile High City? Also, I'm currently on NJ state disability and SSI; hopefully I'll be off of these programs and back to the working world by the time we move out there, but just in case I'm not, does anyone know how well these programs run in Colorado?

Feel free to PM me if it is considered a forum faux pax to continue to drag up an old thread.

Thanks!

Hey! I've lived in Colorado almost my entire life. I grew up in Avon, which is a small town about 10-15 miles west of Vail. In high school my mom (parents split) moved to Aurora, an "inner ring" suburb of Denver that borders the entire city directly to the east. I went out east for school but came back to finish my undergrad in Boulder at CU and then started law school at the University of Denver (south end of town).

Here's something I posted here a couple months ago:


"I'm working on navigating the city in my chair from taking light rail (a train system that connects the southern suburbs and parts of Denver to downtown... they've voted to extend it north towards the northern suburbs and Boulder and east through the existing line to south Aurora up to the airport. The only thing they've done is extend it west towards the suburbs there ending in Golden, right in the foothills before you head into the mountains.) and the RTD buses (cool fact RTD, the Denver public transport system was one of the first to get accessible buses in the 70s) Public transport is really great here if you're in a chair, it's all completely accessible. The hardest part is sometimes not all the stops are accessible, especially the further yo get from the city. Out near my mom's in the southeastern suburbs (in between Littleton and Aurora) the closest bus stop is along a major state highway in the grass median. Can't make it there in my chair so I'm lucky enough to catch rides to the light rail stations.

Anyway the ultimate catch 22 is finding an accessible house or apartment is easier in the suburbs and some areas are very cheap. The suburbs aren't nearly as accessible unless you have your own car and can get yourself to the more accessible parts of town. Have you started looking at jobs? Where you work will really dictate what part of the city you want to live in. Traffic here is absolutely awful and you don't want to have a 2 hour commute every day. I can definitely help you find more accessible areas in the part of town you'll eventually settle in to live and work. Getting to downtown to go to sports games, see concerts, go to cool places to eat, is generally very doable in a chair, especially compared to other parts of the country I lived in for short periods of time for school.

There's no cut and dry answer to whether or not apartment complexes plow. Denver can be kind of shady when it comes to sidewalk plowing (some areas are great, some suck). They do not plow the side streets. As far as individual apartment complexes you have to ask the landlord when you're looking. Some places do some places leave it turn into ice which is bad enough for ABs let alone a chair! In the city there's a lot of organisations to find accessible apartments (I'm currently working on it myself, the area around DU was build in the 60s mostly and very inaccessible for housing). You have to understand, Denver gets barely any snow. Crazy to think about I know when everyone assumes all of Colorado is a winter wonderland and skiers paradise. Because it's east of the mountains and at a relatively high elevation for being on the plains (5,280 feet above sea level -> the Mile High City) they get some of the weirdest weather ever. You can get lightning storms during blizzards, 75 degree days in January and snow in July. During winter (Nov-Feb) there's usually just a spittle of snow, it's more likely to absolutely frigid. It'll be below 0 but sunny enough to get a sunburn. In March is when they get the most snow, usually one or two big blizzards that come through and dump feet of snow. But the day or two after the dry air and sun just eat it away and it's gone. That's why Denver doesn't really plow. Back in '06 there were 3 storms in a row in Dec that didn't allow the previous snow to melt with 10 ft drifts at the airport and it got shut down for a week. That was really uncharacteristic. (My college degree was in hydrology and geography so I studied extensively the climate patterns in Colorado and why things are the way they are... but I won't bore you with any more details!"

Hope that helps. Do you have any more specific questions about the area? I'd be happy to answer them!

Wow! Thank you so much for all the information! I'm glad to hear Denver and the surrounding areas seem to have it locked down when it comes to accessibility and public transportation. I'm not too concerned with plowing/driving in snow -- I lived in Vermont for a few years (albeit as an AB) and have had plenty of snow experience here in the NE, so no biggie there. Same goes with the cold...I can bundle up and deal!

As far as where to live, I pretty much figured that would be the biggest obstacle (as it is in every city/town when you're SCI) so I will just have to do the research and find the best spot for us. We are really looking for that "city living" experience again, so we'd like to be in a spot where I can roll out of the apartment, hit up the bank, grocer, drug store, bar or restaurant, etc without having to hop into a car and take a drive, find parking, transfer in and out of the vehicle, etc. I'm okay with having to drive occasionally but would rather be able to just stroll about more than anything else.

Work....I was a full time bartender and part time freelance writer prior to my injury. Obviously my tending bar has had to be sidelined for now, but I'm hoping to really get back into writing for a living again (which would mean I could work either from home or from an office, depending on the type of writing/job I do). Location and commuting would be more of an issue for my girlfriend, whom would be transferring from her current job here in Jersey to a location in or near Denver. Again, we'd just have to do the research and find our best scenario. As I said before, right now I am on SSI and Disability, but I really, reallly want out of the system and I'm hoping I can make that happen before we decide to move out of NJ. I'm still navigating career options and all that stuff so we'll just have to see.

I'm sure I will have more detailed questions when I return from our trip out there! I will definitely reach out to you when we get back. Thanks again!

AmericasHorse, on 08 February 2012 - 02:14 PM, said:

I live just east of Aurora in Strasburg, feel free to contact me, i work from home and run a non profit that helps the disabled of Colorado. Craig is a great hospital, i wish i could have gone there as a kid for my rehab. 303-622-9382 or americashorse@hotmail.com

Thank you for the info! Like I said in my post above, I'm sure I will have more detailed questions when I return from my visit, but it's great to already have a resource for living in Colorado with a disability. I will be in touch soon!