Elizabeth Meadows: Finding Inspiration After Defeat
“Don’t let other people belittle your goal.” - Elizabeth Meadows
Elizabeth just wanted to be able to kayak again. When a back injury damaged her peroneal nerve so badly that she was left with foot drop syndrome, her doctor said, “I guess you’ll go on disability now.” But Elizabeth wasn’t ready to give up quite yet. She knew there were still rivers to kayak and, though she didn’t realize it then, she would have Mt. Kilimanjaro to climb.
An ICU nurse by trade, Elizabeth knows the struggle of putting one’s own health on hold in order to get through work shifts. In 2016, surgery didn’t correct her injury-induced foot drop, and she had to figure out how to push through work while also learning how to work with an AFO leg brace. And the brace alone was a struggle. Elizabeth admits that she didn’t know how to advocate for herself at that early point. She was using whatever AFO brace was offered and it was awkward and clunky, and she used a walker while learning. She remembers people staring and asking questions. “Between feeling invisible and also like a circus freak almost…people wouldn’t get the hint,” she remembers. But finally trying different options and landing on a carbon fiber AFO gave her the confidence she needed to simply walk around the block.
Elizabeth, two weeks after biggest surgery, complete with motivational sweat gear from an encouraging friend!
That little walk “felt like I had just run a marathon,” she recalls. That short jaunt many of us take for granted was a huge victory for Elizabeth’s body and mind. She felt stronger doing that walk and knew she could push herself to do more. Her mindset was, and still is, “I kept wanting to push myself to see what I could do.”
This set Elizabeth on a mission to learn self-advocacy in finding the right AFO brace for what she wanted to do with her life. She dealt with some negative experiences with some condescending attitudes and salespeople claiming all the braces were the same, but she had done her research and was learning to speak up for herself. She found braces and tools to help her start doing short hikes around the state, and she kayaked more to build her upper body strength. And then finding out she’d need another very intensive back surgery, she headed to Wisconsin’s Chain O’ Lakes area to get in, what she thought would be, one last big kayak trip. Crawling to the end of the dock with pain she hadn’t known before, she was proud of pushing herself to do what she loved, thinking she’d never be able to do it again.
After that multi-level fusion surgery was complete, Elizabeth had to relearn to walk with bone grafts, steel rods, and a catheter. She ordered big, “off-road” tires for her walker so she could get outside. She worked to get to the end of her driveway and remembers it being really tough. But, “I kept doing it,” she says. Then she started to hike again, short lengths after short lengths to build strength and stamina. Eight months after surgery she was hiking 22 miles because she kept pushing herself not to settle.
We at Strong Girls Travel love Elizabeth’s determination and dedication to refusing to allow her disability define her. Many of us see friends or loved ones “give in” to what their body will allow them to do at the time. And we certainly know that some situations are more dire and make it more difficult to move past. Elizabeth spent time grieving the privilege of her former abilities, sure. But with time and a commitment to movement, she saw past her foot drop, past the awkward AFO in hiking boots, and past the stares from strangers in order to see herself in a life she could have never imagined. It took an intentional choice for Elizabeth to get out of her own head and out of her own way. She had to adopt the idea that anything was possible, even with a clunky AFO brace, as long as she wanted it badly enough.
So when she was approached with the idea of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2022, she sat down and figured out what training she would need to do in order to go. Plans of going with a group fell through, so she adapted to going solo with sherpa guides. Kayaking wasn’t enough to build the strength she’d need, so she started swimming and hiking longer, more intense trails. Her 50th birthday had just passed and self-doubt started to creep in as the date approached. Halfway up the trail, her AFO broke and needed repair.
Thing after thing presented itself as a reason Elizabeth should quit. But her “Just Keep Doing It” attitude pushed her forward as she challenged herself to what was next. And she remembers sitting at the summit feeling “terrified and awesome and lonely and happy. It was really hard to just sit there with my feelings.” Standing there at the Rooftop of Africa was a life-changing experience that has helped Elizabeth realize that without her disability, she would have never experienced this life she had created. Where many might see a condition like foot drop as a reason to stop living your old life, Elizabeth has used it to provide with her a new life.
Her advice to anyone looking to do something difficult, even with a disability, is to first and foremost, not let that disability define you. She may not be as fast as other women on the trail, but she’s doing it. She might have been afraid to set huge goals, but she reminds us that we’ll learn so much more about ourselves as we do difficult things. “I was afraid…but I learned a lot of things through doing the wrong thing.” Mistakes will happen, but nothing we can’t work through and figure out. She also suggests starting with what you can do. When you accomplish small goals, you’ll be able to use that feeling to set a bigger goal. And celebrate! Find like minded people in your community or in an online group like Women Hiking Wisconsin to motivate you and celebrate with you!
Elizabeth is making time for physical rest right now as she’s just returned from a hiking trip in the Grand Canyon. But you can see her pictures and be motivated by her on Facebook. Her hope is to explore Glacier National Park sometime in the next year. And her next big adventure? She’d love to tackle Iceland's Laugavegur Trail in the next few years. And regardless of where the upcoming years take her, you can be sure that Elizabeth will be looking for the next way she can challenge her body to see just what it can do.
