My name’s Josh, I’m a dad, husband, cyclist, and skier. Growing up in Vermont, I’ve skied since before I could walk and have been in love with bikes for about as long. More important than my hobbies, I have two kids and a super supportive wife and family. Without them and their patience, I would have never made it through this.
In 2022 I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, with a poor prognosis. On my second day in the hospital a doctor told me I need to “come to terms with the fact that I would likely never walk again.” I was paralyzed from the chest down, with significant function loss in my left arm. My first symptoms were numb feet and fingers but it quickly progressed from there. I couldn’t move or feel anything below midline. It only took about 3hrs to go from a trail run to being in a hospital bed.
I developed my main lesion from C6-T2 and longitudinally extensive lesions that extend down through my spine. I still undergo regular MRI’s but for now it’s considered idiopathic and stable.
My initial treatment was a standard five-day course of IV steroids followed by inpatient therapy. Once I was able to go home, I did months of physical and occupational therapy. Relearning to survive in daily life; how to walk, self-care, home tasks, work, driving, everything. In mid 2023, I had a pseudo-relapse, likely due to heat and over-exertion. I underwent another round of IV steroids, followed by an oral course and a long taper while we figured out what was going on. This round was particularly difficult, I had a lot of side effects from the steroids. Weight gain, steroid myopathy, as well as a host of other issues.
Since then I’ve managed slow but constant improvement while I continue to live, work, exercise, and improve. I’m left with lingering effects from the lesions: I have nerve pain throughout my body, near constant fatigue and changes in feeling, especially through my legs. I have a significant amount of proprioceptive loss and coordination issues which means, unless I’m clicked into my pedals or a pair of skis, I’m pretty clumsy.
Being able to return to cycling and skiing has been a huge benefit to my mental wellbeing. The act of relearning sports I’ve loved my entire life has been essential to my recovery. It provided a much needed avenue to understand my new circumstances.
After regaining more stamina through 2024, in early 2025 I set a goal of returning to endurance events and signed up for the Vermont Gran Fondo. I completed the VTGF in June 2025 and set my sights on the VermontT50. I completed the VT50 in September 2025 and I’m hungry for more!
I hope this site can help give a little guidance to anyone learning how to adapt to life with TM. For me, I’ve learned that you don’t really “recover” from spinal cord issues, you learn to adapt and live. I’m very lucky and extremely thankful
