Milestone Day

[Skunk City]

Well, today was a good day. As a few of you guys may know, 4 months ago my girlfriend had emergency surgery for a tumor that ruptured inside her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. After being told by a Neurosurgeon that she would need 6-hour surgery and a not-so-promising prognosis of being able to walk again, her first question to him was "When can I get back in my kayak?". Today was that day . A week in ICU, months of inpatient extensive rehabilitation at Kessler Institute learning to walk again, and now 3-a-week outpatient at Kessler, today we put that hard work to good use. With the use of her walker and very little help from me, she was able to get back into her kayak and go!

Now, considering all we've been through so far, just the fact of us being back on the water together was plenty to celebrate...but the fish gods had a little more in store for us. Within 3 casts, Meg hooked up with this chunky Pike. It absolutely smoked an HJ14 to the point where none of the lure was visible lol. After a quick photo and celebration, we continued our paddle until we came across a few huge schools of Crappie, Perch and Bluegills that we were able to sight cast for. We picked away at a few before the nerve pain and spasms were too much and called it a day.

To say I am proud would be an understatement. To go from no movement, to just a couple toes, to being able to get out of the wheelchair and upright on the walker and canes in FOUR MONTHS is crazy. Without her ridiculously hard work in rehab, there's no way this day would have happened. She has a long road back to being close to 100%, but today was a huge milestone that I am so grateful to be a witness to.