Dave Barry

She'd been accepted to where she wanted to go. Two days before, on August 18th, 2018, she's getting ready to go to Duke and she wakes up and she, she can't move. Can't move her from her chest down. She cannot move. And like at first we're like, this is like, okay, some kind of nervous panic, you know, it's not like her, but maybe that's what it is. Pretty quickly think, no, it's something else.

She'd been accepted to where she wanted to go. Two days before, on August 18th, 2018, she's getting ready to go to Duke and she wakes up and she, she can't move. Can't move her from her chest down. She cannot move. And like at first we're like, this is like, okay, some kind of nervous panic, you know, it's not like her, but maybe that's what it is. Pretty quickly think, no, it's something else.

And so we take her into the hospital and a neurologist, thank God diagnosed immediately what it was. And it's something called transverse myelitis. And so like our daughter's in there getting scanned in this way. She comes out, this neurologist, and sits down with me and Michelle and says, it's not good. That's the first thing she said.

And so we take her into the hospital and a neurologist, thank God diagnosed immediately what it was. And it's something called transverse myelitis. And so like our daughter's in there getting scanned in this way. She comes out, this neurologist, and sits down with me and Michelle and says, it's not good. That's the first thing she said.

She said, I think this is, I'm pretty sure this is called transverse myelitis, and it's when your immune system attacks your spinal cord. And a third of the time, people recover completely, and a third of the time, they only partly recover, and a third of the time, they never recover at all, never walk again.

She said, I think this is, I'm pretty sure this is called transverse myelitis, and it's when your immune system attacks your spinal cord. And a third of the time, people recover completely, and a third of the time, they only partly recover, and a third of the time, they never recover at all, never walk again.

This is what we're being told as our daughter is in the other room two days from going to Duke. And so just to get quickly through to the good part, she did recover. It took, you know.

This is what we're being told as our daughter is in the other room two days from going to Duke. And so just to get quickly through to the good part, she did recover. It took, you know.

couple of months a lot an intense therapy and everything and she recovered and got got to duke a semester late they wanted to make her a year late but she said no i'm class of 2022 and i want to be she and she graduated with honors and and is now fine but we went through the like the absolute like most unimaginably horrible time I mean, no, that's not true.

couple of months a lot an intense therapy and everything and she recovered and got got to duke a semester late they wanted to make her a year late but she said no i'm class of 2022 and i want to be she and she graduated with honors and and is now fine but we went through the like the absolute like most unimaginably horrible time I mean, no, that's not true.

People have lost their children, which is obviously worse. But at the time, I could not imagine anything worse. I remember like the day, the next day, Michelle never left the hospital. She stayed in the hospital like 45 straight days with Sophie until Sophie was able to come home. The next day, I would go home every night to walk the dog and bring clothes in to Michelle and Sophie.

People have lost their children, which is obviously worse. But at the time, I could not imagine anything worse. I remember like the day, the next day, Michelle never left the hospital. She stayed in the hospital like 45 straight days with Sophie until Sophie was able to come home. The next day, I would go home every night to walk the dog and bring clothes in to Michelle and Sophie.

I remember the next morning, I'm driving to the hospital, the Baptist hospital, and drove by Sophie's elementary school, and there were Little kids were walking across the street, just where Sophie used to walk across the street. And I'm thinking, like, I'm thinking, my daughter's never going to walk again. This is it. And I had to pull off the road. I was just sobbing.

I remember the next morning, I'm driving to the hospital, the Baptist hospital, and drove by Sophie's elementary school, and there were Little kids were walking across the street, just where Sophie used to walk across the street. And I'm thinking, like, I'm thinking, my daughter's never going to walk again. This is it. And I had to pull off the road. I was just sobbing.

And every night when I would leave the hospital, I would just proceed to get in the car and just cry for, like, half an hour. I'm crying now. And so... The result of it was that, first of all, I decided she was the most amazing human being on the face of the earth. She never complained. She never said, why me? She, to this day, never says, oh, I'm a victim of transverse myelitis.

And every night when I would leave the hospital, I would just proceed to get in the car and just cry for, like, half an hour. I'm crying now. And so... The result of it was that, first of all, I decided she was the most amazing human being on the face of the earth. She never complained. She never said, why me? She, to this day, never says, oh, I'm a victim of transverse myelitis.

She has become a person who counsels other people who have trans, but you would never hear her bring it up, ever. I'm bringing it up because it changed everything. But the lesson of that was going right back to what you were talking about, the amount of love you feel.

She has become a person who counsels other people who have trans, but you would never hear her bring it up, ever. I'm bringing it up because it changed everything. But the lesson of that was going right back to what you were talking about, the amount of love you feel.

the feeling that the three of us had michelle sophie and me in that hospital room day after day where there's all these tubes in and out of her and doctors come in all the time and can she move yet it was like 11 days before she even moved a toe like during which we thought she's this is it when she and every day they'd come and say she moved nope nothing they'd come and say sophie can you feel anything nope nothing you know day after day of that when it finally finally came through

the feeling that the three of us had michelle sophie and me in that hospital room day after day where there's all these tubes in and out of her and doctors come in all the time and can she move yet it was like 11 days before she even moved a toe like during which we thought she's this is it when she and every day they'd come and say she moved nope nothing they'd come and say sophie can you feel anything nope nothing you know day after day of that when it finally finally came through