I'm Kale.

The beginning

I used to be the one on the other side of the bed.

I was five months into my nursing career when I fell running to help a patient. I was 22. One moment I was the person doing the helping. The next I was the person who needed it.

That fall gave me CRPS, complex regional pain syndrome. It's sometimes called "the suicide disease" because of how severe the pain can be. Nobody told me I was disabled. I had to figure that out myself, in waiting rooms, in appointments where I felt like I wasn't being believed, in the quiet of my apartment on the days I couldn't get off the couch.

I knew how the system worked and it still failed me. That experience changed everything about what I wanted to do with the skills I had.

The pivot

I stopped putting my life on hold until I felt better.

That first year was the hardest. I hit rock bottom. I lost my grandmother. I isolated myself completely. Nick proposed during all of it, even after I asked him to wait until I didn't need a cane anymore. He proposed anyway.

I started making content as a distraction, honestly. Then one day I got a DM from someone who said they'd never heard anyone talk about this stuff. Not from this angle. Not with the beauty and the softness and the realness all at once.

I used to hide my cane in photos and videos. I hid it at my sister's wedding. Now I use it, my knee scooter, my wheelchair, my walker, whatever I need that day, and I document all of it. Because someone needs to see that you can still build a beautiful life with all of it in frame.

That's what I'm building here. 🤍