RATHDRUM - Little things that "normal" people take for granted, like leaving the house, sleeping in a comfortable bed or having a well-balanced diet, are a headache and a heartache for 24-year-old AJ Cada.

The Rathdrum resident has been in a wheelchair since a freak accident at Tubbs Hill in 2011 that broke several of his vertebrae, snapped his neck and rendered him paralyzed with limited arm mobility.

"I wasn't even doing anything nuts. I wasn't jumping off rocks, anything. I was four feet off of the water, just on a little rock, nothing else," he said Thursday, propped up on a mountain of pillows in his living room. "Slipped, fell forward, broke my neck. It was nothing."

The Press featured Cada's story in a 2012 article titled "'I'm alive,'" which described in detail Cada's horrific accident and how it affected his life at that time.

Nowadays, Cada certainly is alive, but he's not quite thriving. He is experiencing numerous problems that may seem small individually, but together are crushing him under the weight - his home requires several repairs, his wheelchair-accessible van needs minor services and the wheelchair lift isn't properly working.

His diet is lacking essential nutrients, his heating bill is unaffordable and the list continues.

Cada is held back by these issues because they stand in the way of his progress and interrupt his life on a daily basis.

"Generally I'm fine, and I do just fine," he said. "But you can't get out and do things, you can't explore the way you want, you can't hang out with any friends, you can't do anything like that. You're stuck. You're trapped inside your little shell ... that's just the way that it is."

Cada spends his days quietly reading, napping, watching TV, visiting with family members and playing on his phone or tablet. He lives in his own home with a caregiver on site. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the accident, so he doesn't sleep a lot at night. He served in the Army National Guard for three years until his accident and he had many, many plans for his academic career, including possibly becoming a pediatric surgeon.

Cada's family is concerned for his future and well-being, including his sister, Crystal Handlen of Coeur d'Alene. She said their family wants to see him work on future goals, but the small "here and now" problems are constantly preventing long-term plans.

"When he had the accident, the doctors had told us that his mental well-being is going to be the most important, as well as his whole well-being and his health," she said.

Previously, Cada and his family reached out to the community for assistance in purchasing a manual wheelchair and an adjustable bed. Cada lives on $683 a month from disability and very little from food assistance programs. He has applied and been denied for several grants and contacted different community organizations for help, but to no avail. He keeps running into catch-22 situations - he said one organization that helps with transportation wouldn't help him fix his van because he has a van, even though it doesn't work properly; he had energy-efficient appliances and windows installed and his utility bills keep rising; and because he is a homeowner, despite being disabled, his property taxes are also practically unaffordable for him.

These stressors agitate Cada's health, so to relieve some of these burdens, he and his family are reaching out again.

"Community involvement is huge," Handlen said. "What we're trying to achieve is just relief of that financial burden that he can't afford. Getting his van fixed to get him to and from his doctor appointments, to get him to his group therapy and outings. That would help his health. The more financial burden we can relieve, the more he can focus on getting better and progressing and going on with the physical therapy."

Cada and Handlen both expressed their gratitude with how people in the community came out to support Cada in getting his wheelchair and bed. Cada said he hates asking for help, but with all the troubles he has had trying to receive assistance from service providers or other organizations, he feels the only thing he can rely on is the overwhelming generosity he has found in this community.

"I have to be the squeaky wheel to get the oil," he said.

One of Cada's other sisters, Jamie Powers of Albany, Ore., said when his accident occurred, there was a lot happening to get things set up and taken care of when he was able to go home from the hospital, but things have settled down now that time has passed.

"He struggles to make ends meet and as with most people, it is difficult for AJ to ask for help," Powers said. "He doesn't want to feel like he is a burden to others and I think at times he still struggles with what's happened. He tries to stay positive and still has a sense of humor about things, but you can tell that there are times that things weigh pretty heavy on him. I think that he's been so focused on just getting by on a day-to-day basis that it's hard for him to look ahead or even think about his goals or dreams for the future. My hope is that we can help with some of the financial burdens that AJ deals with so that he can not just survive, but thrive. He's a smart, funny young man and still has a lot to offer the world. Sometimes, when you're just trying to make it through the month, you lose sight of that value in yourself."

Cada and his family are hoping for help networking and finding resources to offset some of Cada's burdens so he can focus on getting better and having a higher quality of life. Once these issues are managed, Cada's hopes are to go back to school, write a book and welcome a service dog into his life.

"Just because I'm in a wheelchair doesn't mean that I'm not a regular person or anything else," Cada said. "People look at me and think that it's something different, that I'm not normal anymore, but my cognitive function is still there, everything is still there, I'm still progressing as a normal person, I eat just like everyone else, I need interaction like everyone else does. I'm still a regular person. I'm still alive."

To help or for more information, visit www.facebook.com/prayersforajcada or call Cada at 704-8185 or Handlen at 929-0984.