by Cathy Cuff-Coffman

This summer, we are sharing updates about three of the amazing people featured in prior Shalieve stories. Our second feature is Jessica Harris. Read her original Shalieve Story here.

Jessica Harris: Seeing the Light

The last time we visited Jessica Harris, she had just moved into her own house after saving every penny of her disability money and money she could glean from other jobs to gain independence.

But then the hard work began. Harris knew she had to renovate her new house to accommodate her disability. Most of the time, Harris is in a wheelchair. But she spends a lot of time moving about her home in a walker and training with parallel bars and a therapy mat.

Contractor Vibes

She had a good friend who is a contractor who volunteered to help her with renovations. Her biggest expenses, she says, were her bathroom and her flooring. “We installed luxury vinyl flooring,” she says. “It won’t scuff, and it’s so easy for my wheelchair and Walker to roll on.”

“I love my bathroom,” says Harris. “I never knew how much easier it could be when I was living at my parents’ house. We put a lot of time and effort into designing the bathroom to be exactly just for me.” It includes a custom walk-in shower and a custom roll-under sink and roll-under vanity.

Additionally, Harris realized that the exterior of her house needed work from a safety standpoint. She says that all she does, like having a nice garden and a wheelchair, is a “no-go” when you have to leave a property quickly.

“We wound up pulling up all the grass and installing some nice concrete so that if I had to leave the house in a moment’s notice, I’d have concrete to wheel my wheelchair out quickly,” she explains.

It’s been two years since Harris has moved out on her own. “I love it,” she says. “I can’t believe I was nervous.”

And now she says to herself, “Oh my gosh. I get to sit on the couch and read a book all day and not have to talk to a soul. This is amazing!”

New Healing

Harris has also been venturing into new healing spaces. Her latest and greatest accomplishment is trying laser light therapy. She visits a holistic healing center that uses BioLight Technologies low-level laser light therapy. It’s also called cold therapy because no heat is involved. “A lot of it is like modern acupuncture because some of the laser points are acupuncture points.”

Harris has had a series of sessions. “I don’t know how to explain it because it just seems so surreal, but my walking and connection to my body has been better than ever,” Harris says.

She’s walking a whole lot less. But she says her quality and consistency have increased. “When I say that I need to get back into consistency, I’m walking once a day, but those steps are easy-peasy.”

Visitors to her Instagram page can see it. If you know Harris, you can see the improvement in her knee bends and her toe lifts. “My body’s doing what it’s supposed to do,” she says, “And I’m not in pain from it!”

She says the lasers are designed to help reset the brain and the frequencies within the body. The theory is that there is sound to everything within the body.

She gives an example of how the lasers have helped her get over mourning her own injury.

She’s done one for the brain that has a certain sound to it. Once the sound is set, it helps more with the mental aspect. “So, when I get anxious or I’m not sleeping, it helps me process those emotions without having to speak to them out loud and explain my story over and over,” explains Harris.

She uses her injury anniversary date as an example. That date just passed. “I don’t want to talk about my story,” Harris says. “I want to post that I’m proud. I’ve done this, and I’m here, and it’s been seven years, and that’s it.”