A year after a tragic accident left Jaque Dilley without feeling in her lower body and limited mobility in her upper body, she is is continuing therapy and treatments to regain movement and sensation throughout her body.
“I have more mobility in my arms,” she said. “My hands are starting to open up.”
In October, five months after she tripped over a blanket in a bedroom at her parents’ Hollister home and fell, she still struggled to open her tightly balled fists. Now, she can grasp kitchen utensils to feed herself, brush her own teeth and handle her cell phone on her own.
“With contributions the community made – and they’ve made quite a bit – I’ve been able to continue with acupuncture therapy that has helped me continue to work on nerve damage,” Dilley said on a recent morning in her parents’ kitchen. “I’m getting a lot more feeling and movement in my legs. I can move my toys and with my left leg – I can kick it out a little bit more.”
She said at a recent check-up with a doctor at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where she was initially treated, she could feel the doctor touching her legs as he examined her.
Dilley initially spent four weeks at the hospital, two in ICU, before she was transferred to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. The hospital has a reputable spinal cord injury program. There, Dilley spent six hours a day in physical and occupational therapy. She has continued the therapy six hours a day, every day, since she was released from the hospital. She is staying with her parents in Hollister because it would have been impossible for her to get in and out of her three-story townhouse building in San Jose.
In October, the Jacqueline A. Dilley Medical Fund was set up at Santa Barbara Bank and Trust (now Union Bank) in Hollister to allow residents to contribute to her treatment.
The acupuncture treatment she seeks from a practitioner in San Jose is not covered by her medical insurance. With the donations, she has continued therapy and she has also enrolled in an adaptive physical education program at Gavilan College.
“I’m enrolling in school to do swimming and gym,” she said. “That exercise has helped develop strength in my arms and legs.”
She attends with a caregiver who helps her go through the activities with the guidance of an instructor.
At Gavilan College, Dilley has access to a standing frame in which she can stand upright to help develop strength in her legs – and potentially regain feeling and movement.
Dilley said the support of family and friends has helped her to stay positive throughout the ordeal.
“There are days when I feel like I don’t know if I can do this anymore,” Dilley said, adding that usually something encouraging happens such as an especially fruitful trip to her acupuncturist or a positive check-up with her doctor. “It’s a reminder that miracles like that happen. It’s life’s way of telling me to keep going.”
Ever the optimist, Dilley sees an upside to her accident. Before the tragedy, she focused all her energy on working and caring for other people.
“My whole life was consumed with helping others,” she said. “I didn’t take time for myself and my friends. But now I’ve had to step back and I’m doing that now.”
One of her favorite past times these days is going to the movies, but she’s still looking for ways to help others. She recently got in touch with Community Foundation for San Benito County to see if the nonprofit can connect her to other nonprofits that she might be able to help through making phone calls or sending emails.
“It could be stuffing envelopes or talking on the telephone,” she said.
Enchilada fundraiser
Family and friends are coordinating a fundraiser through the end of May to support Jaque Dilley’s treatments. They are selling corn enchiladas with beef, flour enchiladas with beef or cheese for $18 a dozen or corn tortillas with cheese for $16. They will continue to take orders by phone to Mary Castellano at 831-637-7729 or the Dilley residence at 831-637-6432. The enchiladas will be available for pick-up May 31 at the Methodist Church, 521 Monterey St., from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Dilley said friends and family members are also planning a dinner dance fundraiser for Aug. 3 at the Elk’s Lodge, with more details to come.
