Mike Ott on Surviving and Overcoming Nearly Impossible Challenges
Description:
Michael Ott joins Health Gig to speak about surviving a spinal cord injury that originally left him quadriplegic. He talks about his on-going road of recovery, while we learn what motivated him to learn to walk and even run again. We discuss Mike’s goal-oriented rehabilitation strategy, how sharing stories can help others, and how his biggest change was in Perspective.
More on Mike Ott:
Website: mikeott.net
Instagram: instagram.com/mikeott1414
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Quotes:
It's okay to visit dark places, but you can't stay there. Mike Ott
You can only focus on what you can control. You can't control pandemics. You can't control insurance denials. You can't control if you didn't sleep the night before. But you can control the way you approach that moment. Mike Ott
You have to be grateful for what's there because there's always some bit of positive around you. You just have to see it, and then actually have the courage to seize it. Mike Ott
Show Notes:
Mike Ott: I went to a great school, Washington and Lee and started my career in the financial field and had a long run at a good firm and then took a risk and went to a startup.
Mike Ott: One day left for a trip to go see some friends and take a weekend off in the summer and dove into shallow water and broke my neck.
Mike Ott: It's sort of like your body immediately goes to heaven and your head's kind of the only thing left on Earth.
Mike Ott: One of them said he felt, you know, sort of guided from above and walked into the water. And they very kind of slowly and methodically turned me over.
Mike Ott: I was on a ventilator for quite some time, but initially, after the accident, I was still able to breathe.
Mike Ott: I initially had no idea that you could be quadriplegic and then come out of it.
Mike Ott: They ran an MRI and they said, We think surgery is your best bet. Do you want to get in there? And I said, Yes, right away. Let's go.
Mike Ott: About a week later, they kind of pulled my parents aside and they said, you know, we think that surgery went well and we want to let you know, we think he might be able to walk in a year.
Mike Ott: Removed different parts of C3 all the way down through C6. Those were taken out, and see three through six on my neck now are all titanium. Oh and that preserves what was left of the spinal cord and allowed for the recovery that I have today.
Mike Ott: You need to go to a place that can do inpatient rehab for you, where they can work with you 3 hours a day. You live in the hospital.
Mike Ott: Then it got very bleak, trying to navigate the whole system of getting to inpatient rehab.
Mike Ott: You start to feel that slip away a little bit with the insurance approvals and things getting held up in process.
Mike Ott: She slept in my hospital room 25 of the first 30 nights that I was in the hospital.
Mike Ott: It's kind of like end of life care in reverse.
Mike Ott: Everyone pictures paralysis and they think about legs and walking. But the bigger thing for me and for a lot of people was hands and being able to use your fingers and having that dexterity.
Mike Ott: It took two years and I still live with a ton of limitations and pain and a lot of things that people don't necessarily see.
Mike Ott: I felt like I had to get resourceful and also lucky and just be open-minded and talk to a lot of people to eventually find the resources that I needed.
Mike Ott: Keeping track of that every day kept me honest, saying, okay, here's the goal that I set out for. I know what I need to do to give myself the best shot.
Mike Ott: I sort of say about COVID is it changed everything but the end goals. And so you stay focused on what you want and you keep working, but you have to change the entire methodology.
Mike Ott: The primary thing I'll never forget about that summer was having that goal of still wanting to run again.
Mike Ott: It's okay to visit dark places, but you can't stay there.
Mike Ott: You wake up every day and you're hurting. And it's interesting because people don't see that on the outside.
Mike Ott: It's not fun conversation to talk about being in pain, but it's there and you feel it. It's real. And it's just something that you have to work through as as a lot of people have invisible stuff they're working through.
Mike Ott: It's not going to be cured, but you manage it the best that you can.
Mike Ott: Sharing stories does really help people in a way that I never thought I could have.
Keywords:
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