"@paflytyer" Road to recovery after major back surgery (2 Viewers)

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Stan, I too have appreciated your advice and kind words more than once as I've muddled through the quirky land of 100 ownership. The journey you're now on, is a personal private journey that most of us can't truly relate to...but I for one appreciate you letting us get a glimpse of that personal journey and get a glimpse of your persevering heart. A close childhood friend of mind will be on this journey for the rest of her life because of a tragic ATV accident and we have had some long conversations that would bring any man to tears, so I say this with the best intentions and sensitivity in my heart: do this. Do what you have to do to get the reaction time to 0.5. Don't stop until you are where you want to be. Don't let anyone in the world hold you back mentally physically or emotionally...you already know you've got this, prove it to us now. You have a MUD community rooting for you, you have friends that care about you, you have a family that loves you to the moon and back....and you clearly have a will to succeed that will drive you to finish this chapter of your life book....all ingredients for success. Thanks for inspiring us. Godspeed man.
 
Thanks MB.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. It's a tough road ahead for her and an even tougher pill to swallow. My worst moments came shortly after my surgery while I was alone in the hospital. My injury was not complete (spinal cord NOT severed) so I always knew that I had a chance of walking again, but not knowing when or if that would happen is a mental tug of war that's difficult to accept. Waking up and looking at a wheelchair next to your bed and knowing that no matter how hard you want to stand up and walk away, it's not going to happen. It's a gut rot that will eat you from the inside out. Eventually even that gets easier.

I was fortunate on so many levels. My neurosurgeon is world-renowned, Craig Hospital is 20 minutes away from my house and has been rated Top 10 in the world for 26 years in row Craig Hospital, my initial accident and even my second injury didn't require immediate/emergent surgery (sort of) and I have an amazing family and a great group of friends. (MUD community included) MANY of the MUD friends I have came to my house to help or visited me in the hospital. I am on a rehab program built for Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets players and I even trained and rehabbed on some of their equipment. Really top level stuff. Makoto machines, Alter-G anti-gravity treadmills, exo-suits, Bioness stim machines..... anything and everything that professional athletes use was available. I know I got lucky with the cards I was dealt. I put down 3 clunkers and picked up 3 aces.

I can walk now. I can stand on my own, I can jump (about an inch), I can climb stairs on my own, and I can finally drive again. I still have a ways to go and I may never be where I was a year ago, but mentally I'm 10 times the man I was before this injury. I appreciate my family, my friends and my life so much more. I worked harder at beating this than anything I've ever faced in my life. It made my time in the Marine Corps seem like a toddler jungle gym. It required mental and physical strength that I didn't know I had.

I'm still in rehab 2-3 days per week and in the gym every single day. We're working on making the correct signals and connections to get to/from my brain, cord and muscles. You can really tell that I have an injury when I try to run. But less than 90 days ago, I couldn't even move my legs, so I'll take it all day, every day.

It's important for your friend to know that everyone's success in their own. One small victory at a time. Being able to get yourself in and out of the bathroom is a victory. Heck, being able to go to the bathroom (Wag Bag 1 and 2) is probably the biggest victory a SCI patient can have, maybe even bigger than actually standing for the first time. As odd as it is for regular adults to talk about bowel and bladder function, it's still the first thing we talk about when I meet other patients or friends that I made while I was inpatient.

I don't have the words to express how grateful I am to everyone in the MUD, TLCA and Rising Sun communities.
 
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Great news on the improvements! As insignificant in the bigger picture as it might sound, i'm sure the driving again part was/is a huge accomplishment. I'm sure even with all the support, the independence is a huge boost in confidence!
 
Great to hear you're getting around on your own two feet again. Best of luck on your continued recovery.
 

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