Part 4: Brian Roche: Road to Recovery
"There was a special nickname that I had for Project Walk, can we talk about that?"... "The Infamous Project Beatdown..."
ALBANY, Ga. – With my initial stay as an inpatient and outpatient at the Shepherd Center coming to an end, and a return not possible for nearly two months, my parents and I needed options, and needless to say…
Trying to stay in Georgia would do us no favors.
“We said to you, we would be better served being in our own house, where we’d have enough room for everybody, we would make everything work, for you…” said Marci and Rob Roche, Brian’s parents.
This would ultimately lead us back to New Jersey, and to a place that would be just as vital as the Shepherd Center was in my journey…
Project Walk New Jersey…
A paralysis recovery center that had the benefit of not needing to go through insurance in order to receive physical therapy.
“Project Walk New Jersey is an intense, activity-based recovery center for people who sustained spinal cord injury or other neurological disorders. We are basically the next step after insurance releases you from traditional rehab programs, and we go to the next step and push the patient, or client in our case since we are non-medical, to the next level of recovery,” said Leslie Clark, Owner, Project Walk New Jersey.
It’s there that I would meet many of the people who would work closely with me over the course of the next year and a half from November of 2021, all the way to March of 2023.
And, it immediately earned an affectionate nickname from me from that first evaluation session.
“There was a special nickname that I had for Project Walk, can we talk about that?”…
“The Infamous Project Beatdown…”
And, a beat down it was…
Three times a week, nearly every week for that time frame, I was getting pushed to my limit with the goal at first of simply getting out of the wheelchair for good.
“…However, I believe that you were the one who gave meaning to the term ‘project beatdown’ because even though I was there, facilitating all your workouts and putting you through a program, you were the one who had to show up and give it your all, and you gave it 110% every single time. So I believe the name ‘project beatdown’ was given its meaning because of how you came to project walk, and came to the challenge…” said Carly Weinhardt, Trainer Specialist, Project Walk New Jersey.
And, while I had continued to make progress throughout the year, I would be met with one large setback…
“Unfortunately with whatever was going on, with whatever went on therapy, at one point you ended up with the beginnings of a stress fracture in your foot, which kind of took you out of therapy for a short period of time…” said Marci and Rob Roche, Brian’s parents.
I had been effectively been put back in the wheelchair, and my recovery was forced to be on hold for nearly a month as I could hardly stand up.
“I was just trying to think what we can do so you don’t regress, so you don’t fall back. So I started thinking ‘what could we do for your core, what could we do for your core, what could we do for your shoulders, posture?’ What could we do to improve your body and overall body and fitness without going back from that setback with the ankle. We couldn’t do a lot of standing things, but there’s still a lot of stuff we could do to help you continue with your improvements,” said Brian Gartland, Trainer, Project Walk New Jersey.
It’s thanks to working on those other parts that I didn’t lose focus of my ultimate goal to be able to be on my own again.
And, once I was finally able to bear weight through that foot again, progress would continue throughout the year, with each time becoming more of a challenge.
“Throughout the months that I was there, from my internship, to aiding to being one of your specialists and creating programs for you, watching you constantly push yourself. Even when I saw it in your face every now and then, you’re like ‘man, this is tough’ or, ‘man, I’m getting a little tired here.’ you pushed through. You knew your limits but your pushed past your limits every single time…” said Ken Chinjen, Trainer, Project Walk New Jersey.
I had initially come back to my home state with the idea that I would get support from my family during my recovery, and by the time I left in March of 2023, I had a group of people who had seen me through the worst of my life that I could call a second family…
And, my recovery nearly complete, with one last thing to do before I resumed my life…
We’ll conclude the documentary on the Road to Recovery, right here, tomorrow, only on CBS 44 South Georgia.
Brian Roche reporting.
Copyright 2023 CBS 44 South Georgia. All rights reserved.
