Nate’s Road to Recovery

Hi everyone, On behalf of Bec & Nate’s amazing gym the Cave Strength and Conditioning. We have put together a go fund me to support Bec, Nate and Nate’s sister who has flown over from Canada to assist them with all the bills and general life expenses such as recovery, rehab, hospital bills, time for them, hotels & food, parking the list goes on. Your help would mean the world & be greatly appreciated! A story on what has happened: 2 weeks ago Nate woke up with a mildly sore back. Being an active guy he assumed it was a little tweak from training and carried on as usual. The next day, the pain was a little worse - enough to have a day off lifting weights and go for a run instead. By day 3 the pain has started to ramp up to a point that he is struggling to talk. He goes to bed, and wakes in debilitating pain, he can't lie down without being in agony, and is also in immense pain when standing and seated. His pain gets progressively worse, to the point that we take him into Emergency - 3 times. In the initial stages before going into Emergency Nate suspected a disc injury in his Thoracic spine; as the days progressed he suspected something more sinister. By the 3rd trip to emergency, Nate had all the symptoms of Cauda Equina - Severe back pain, significant loss of bladder and bowel function and an acute onset of sensory and motor deficits in the lower body. They performed a blood test, which showed extremely high levels of inflammation, followed by a lumbar puncture which showed an infection in his spine. He was taken to Sir Charles Gardner hospital by ambulance. They performed an MRI and discovered 2 abscesses in his spine which were compressing his spinal cord. An emergency double Thoracic laminectomy operation (at T8 and T11) was performed to remove the abscesses. The abscess was caused by a golden staph infection in his blood, which they are still treating. Though its hard to know exactly how he got this infection it is suspected to be from a persistant cut inside his nose that wasn't healing - from a hit at hockey. The procedure went well, but Nate was told by the surgeons that he may not be able to walk again due to nerve damage, and that he also may not regain bowel and bladder function. There's a lot of unknowns with this kind of injury. Post operatively Nate had small movement in his left leg, and no movement in his right leg. He still has feeling in both legs - but sensation is altered, particularly from the knee down. As the days pass Nate is slowly but surely regaining movement back. With his own knowledge, some help from me and a good team around him he is making good progress, and we are remaining positive that all the little wins will add up to a big win, however long that takes In Nate's words... "I never realised it at the time, but I've been training my entire life to prepare for this moment". I agree that no one could be better prepared for an obstacle like this Just wanted to let you all know, so you can send some positive energy his way, and also in case anyone has been trying to reach him... he's not ignoring your calls and messages, he's just having a really bloody shit week and is putting all of his energy into getting better so won't be on his phone. We are all behind you babe! If anyone can tackle this it's you ❤