May 30, 2025

“Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t how hard you can hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward” -Rocky Balboa

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On the morning of April 11th, Mike did a workout in his basement gym before starting his day. This was unusual for him. Typically, he exercised in the evening between 5-7pm. But that day, being a Friday, he was still trying to decide if he’d head up to Lake Placid to work on his cabin or stay home and go rock climbing with me. Of course, I was rooting for the latter.

He remembers that during his workout, the back of his head was throbbing and felt like it was on fire. Although not a common occurrence, he had felt this similar sensation during other workouts so he didn’t worry too much, but it did cause him to stop his circuit and go upstairs to shower.

He had his phone in his back pocket during his workout and when he went to shower, he just threw his pants on the floor of the bathroom.

He remembers getting into the shower, then stepping out and bending down to clear some water from an area close to the drain. As he was leaning forward, he lost his balance and started falling into the shower. He went to catch himself with his left arm and realized he couldn’t move it. He slowly fell into the water that he was trying to clear.

At first, he was scared he might drown because he didn’t think he could move out of the puddle. He reports initially not being able to move either arm but as his survival instincts kicked in, he was aware he could move his right side and got himself away from the water.

He estimates he laid there for an hour or more before remembering his phone was in his pants pocket. He shimmied himself over and retrieved the phone which took what seemed like another hour to get to. He was able to call 9-1-1, tell them he needed help and give them the code for them to enter the house.

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Mike is adjusting to his temporary new normal as well as can be expected. But losing your independence is not something you just easily accept without some defiance. He’s fallen a few times trying to do things he feels capable of, such as reaching forward from a sitting position to pick up his phone that has fallen on the floor. It’s been very humbling for him. Luckily, he has not had any injuries.

Home health aides are just starting to come 3x/week. PT/OT will come 2x/week.
Mike has been home for 10 days and therapy has not truly begun. It’s been administrative more than anything.
He is frustrated. He’s worried he’s starting to lose the momentum of regaining movement.

Simply put, recovery is not happening fast enough for Mike. He’s desperate to get back to work. He’s panicky about the future of his business.

But that word “time” again echos incessantly.

It’s easy to remind him of the need to be patient, that this is a matter of healing over time, that he will not be this way forever, that every day he is improving. And all of this is true.

But…

He’s the one sitting in that wheelchair day in and day out relying on others to help him with his every need, apologizing for every perceived inconvenience or annoyance. And I see glimmers of defeat wash over his face during those times. I can imagine it’s hard not to let the darkness creep into those small moments where misery and despair are right around the corner, waiting for their chance to snuff out the light.

When his sons, his friends and I see that happening, we pounce on it as quick as we can. We encourage him to celebrate the small victories.

But… it’s hard to see the picture when you’re inside the frame.

So we remind him every time we see him struggle how far he’s come. One week home with no therapy and his transfers are getting easier. He’s much more active in that process. He can stand for a good minute holding onto a fixed object. I can now get him into the bed by myself because he doesn’t need to be lifted up out of the chair.

Progress comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s barely noticeable but it still counts all the same. You can’t summit the mountain without taking every arduous step of the climb.

Mike saw his family care doctor who gave him the cold honest “statistical” outlook for his recovery. He’s looking at minimum of a year and most likely will not regain 100 percent functional movement back.

Well, you know what statistics are… limits. And Mike doesn’t believe in that. Like I’ve said from day 1, he’s a fighter and if anyone can come back from this, it’s him.

Mike knows the hard work that awaits him. He’s eager to begin. He enjoys working out and training for physical challenges. Once he gets started, he won’t stop til he reaches his goal. And his bar is always set pretty high.

In boxing, the boxer who accumulates the most points over the total number of rounds wins the match. There can be rounds of complete dominance and rounds where you take a beating and even get knocked down, but quickly get back up.

And after the match is over and you review the tape, you can see in your toughest rounds how hard you fought and the people who were in your corner cheering you on to victory.