Terry Chase interacts with her therapy dog, Shamly, in front of the Health Sciences building at Colorado Mesa University on Fri., Jan. 28.
Terry Chase hands a dog treat to a student to feed her therapy dog, Shamly, after class at Colorado Mesa University on Fri., Jan. 28.
Terry Chase smiles with her therapy dog, Shamly, in her office in the Health Services building at Colorado Mesa University on Fri., Jan. 28.
Photos by MCKENZIE LANGE/The Daily Sentinel
Terry Chase smiles as students swarm Shamly, Chase’s therapy dog, outside of the Health Sciences building after class at Colorado Mesa University. Below, Chase and and her traveling buddy, Shamly, rarely stay behind a desk.
Terry Chase interacts with her therapy dog, Shamly, in front of the Health Sciences building at Colorado Mesa University on Fri., Jan. 28.
Terry Chase hands a dog treat to a student to feed her therapy dog, Shamly, after class at Colorado Mesa University on Fri., Jan. 28.
Terry Chase smiles with her therapy dog, Shamly, in her office in the Health Services building at Colorado Mesa University on Fri., Jan. 28.
Photos by MCKENZIE LANGE/The Daily Sentinel
Terry Chase smiles as students swarm Shamly, Chase’s therapy dog, outside of the Health Sciences building after class at Colorado Mesa University. Below, Chase and and her traveling buddy, Shamly, rarely stay behind a desk.
Terry Chase was on her road bike, hugging the white line riding over the Colorado River bridge on Fifth Street, when she was hit by a black Lincoln Continental.
Her bike went under the car as she flew onto the car’s hot hood before it swerved, causing Chase to roll and slam into the pavement.
Those were the last moments Chase felt her legs.
“It was like all I could think of was this is really bad,” she said.
And it was. Chase was paralyzed.
But there also was good. There were strangers who immediately came to her aid on that day in 1988. And in the months and years to come, there were many health care workers who helped her heal and adjust to living with a spinal cord injury.
“I’ve been guided by my 32-year-old self,” Chase said as she drove her van down Interstate 70 on a Tuesday morning, her right hand on the steering wheel and her left on a hand-operated brake accelerator. “I’m really grateful to that 32-year-old.”
Chase, 66, is an associate professor of nursing and mental health at Colorado Mesa University as well as a professional coach, speaker and consultant.
She has a doctorate in nursing, master’s degrees in spiritual psychology and in exercise and sports science and many other credentials to her name.
She is an avid handcyclist, horseback rider, cross country skier and kayaker and received the Arthur Ashe Award from the Colorado Tennis Association in 2002 for promoting wheelchair tennis, a sport at which she excelled as a player.
“I have a low threshold for boredom,” Chase said to explain her lengthy list of academic and extracurricular pursuits since her spinal cord injury on April 2, 1988.
Toward the end of 2021, Chase added author to that list with her book “Spoke by Spoke.” It’s a collection of stories about her journey to living a “wholehearted life” with all its joy and challenges, the anger and hurt she felt because of her injury as well as the opportunities and new life that came with healing.
She started writing those stories about eight years ago, and “back when I first started they were just junk,” Chase said. “I had several vomit drafts.”
With more writing and help from a writing coach, “I began to really discover my own voice.”
“I never wanted to put anything together that would tell people what to do,” she said.
Instead, she is hopeful readers will find her book to be encouraging, because everyone faces struggles in life. Some of those struggles for her included being underestimated because she uses a wheelchair and dark thoughts and doubts about continuing to live without the use of her legs.
“I think it was really important that I had to go through those times. I couldn’t ignore them,” Chase said, pointing to her own life as proof that “you can go into a dark time and get through.”
While driving her van around the Grand Valley on a Tuesday morning to check on some of her CMU nursing students, Chase talked about how she wound up in Grand Junction in 1980.
That was the year she landed a job as a PE teacher at East Middle School. “I loved it here,” she said. “There is a lot of heart and soul here for me.”
She loved her middle-school students, who she worked hard to get back to by August of 1988.
However, inspired by the care she received after her injury, she decided her life was taking her in another direction in 1991.
She spent 23 years on the Front Range, many working at Craig Hospital, where she started the patient and family education program.
Chase has a way of making situations practical and humanizing for patients, said Sharon Blackburn, who is Chase’s partner and was a physical therapist at Craig Hospital for 40 years.
“Nothing stops her. With her students and coaching … all she wants is to be able to help people,” Blackburn said. “I know I’m prejudiced, but she’s a remarkable person.”
So when Chase felt like she was being called back to the Grand Valley and then began teaching at CMU in 2014, Blackburn was supportive.
“I think she gives a lot of herself to these (CMU nursing) students and she opens up a space that they can feel,” Blackburn said.
On this particular Tuesday morning, some of those nursing students were scattered across the valley at various locations, including Grand Valley Catholic Outreach’s Soup Kitchen and Day Center, Ariel Clinical Services, Western Colorado Area Health Education Center (AHEC) and Independence Village in Fruita.
The students were helping with work at some sites and observing at others as part of their mental health clinical training with Chase, “because nurses can’t sit behind computers,” she explained as she drove.
Nurses need to know their communities, they need to understand the dramatic diversity of people they will see as patients. In health care, “we deal with everybody,” Chase said.
“I just have a ton of respect for Terry,” said Georgia Hoaglund, executive director at AHEC. “There are not many people who could succeed and do what she has done. It’s really inspirational.”
Hoaglund met Chase about seven years ago while they were both stuck at Denver International Airport with canceled flights. While waiting to see who would get the first standby ticket for the next flight, “we became friends. And then she got the ticket and left me,” Hoaglund said with a laugh.
With Chase, “you know where you stand,” she said. “There is not a fake Terry.”
But before Chase got the standby ticket, the two women got to talking about dogs — Chase and her dog, Shamly, are a therapy team — and careers and then about what they might be able to do together professionally.
Along with Chase’s nursing students rotating through AHEC as part of their clinicals, Chase developed a mental health program for youth for AHEC. “She’s just absolutely amazing with high school kids,” Hoaglund said.
Chase also has presented at AHEC’s middle school health education camps. “The kids just really warm up to her,” Hoaglund said.
While Chase’s education, background and skill sets are extensive, there are many in the Grand Valley who likely don’t know her, Hoaglund said.
“She one of the best untapped resources that we have,” Hoaglund said.
Along with her impact on CMU nursing students and with entities such as AHEC, Chase does workshops and one-on-one coaching for professionals, equine-facilitated learning programs and consulting work with hospitals, including workshops for nurses.
When it comes to nurses today, “I’m just really concerned,” Chase said.
The pandemic has added further strain to an already demanding occupation, and “I think what’s happening is they’re getting so far away from themselves that they’re just leaving,” she said. “I’m petrified of what is going to happen to our health care system if we don’t pay attention to the human being.”
“I’ve been on a 34-year journey of what made me feel better,” said Chase between Tuesday stops to see students, using a lift to raise and lower herself and her wheelchair from her van at each place.
She wheeled herself inside, asked questions and offered recommendations and reminders about assignments before moving on to the next location and more students. With each interaction she offered some of the knowledge and experience she has gained both as a nurse and as a patient.
While she was at Craig Hospital after her injury, Chase quickly noticed how some health care providers were able to create a space of support and compassion that helped her heal, while others were not.
She spent years learning what it was about those health care providers, what worked and at this point “I have a big bag of tools,” she said. “If I’m going to learn something, I’m going to damn well use it.”
She’s also willing to share, which is in part why she wrote “Spoke by Spoke” to complement her coaching, speaking and consulting practice.
“I want people to take away hopefulness,” Chase said about her book. “For transformation and change and a better life, you have to take action.”
And while her drives around the valley don’t often take her past the spot where her life changed in 1988, when they do “I just bless that place. Bless myself,” she said. “And I thank God there is now a bike path.”
“There is more for me to do,” Chase said.
For information about Terry Chase and her book, "Spoke by Spoke," check out her website: drterrychase.com.
"Spoke by Spoke" also can be found at some local bookstores.
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A few clouds from time to time. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 62F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
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Mostly clear skies. Low around 65F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Some clouds early will give way to generally clear conditions overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 66F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Isolated thunderstorms during the evening, then partly cloudy overnight. Low around 65F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
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