The Strength Within: Lessons from Scott Fedor

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How does one rebuild their life after a devastating accident? Join us as we explore the extraordinary journey of Scott Fedor, whose life took an unexpected turn after a diving accident in 2009 left him paralyzed from the neck down. Scott shares how the motivational teachings from his father and his competitive sports background ingrained resilience in him, preparing him to face unimaginable adversity. Through Scott's story, we learn about the power of a positive mindset and the importance of perseverance in overcoming life's toughest challenges.

With an athletic background that taught him the value of incremental progress, Scott emphasizes the significance of small victories and a daily goal-oriented mindset. His book, "Headstrong: How a Broken Neck Strengthened My Spirit," offers further insights into his journey and the role of resilience in achieving significant milestones over time.

We also discuss Scott's unwavering faith and how it has fueled his resilience, particularly during trying times such as the termination of insurance coverage for therapy. Scott talks about "Getting Back Up," an initiative he created to support others facing similar challenges, and how relationships and simple pleasures have a profound impact on his life.

Additionally, Scott shares heartwarming experiences with his service animal, Melanie, and his engagement with cutting-edge technologies like Neuralink. Through Scott's story, we are reminded of the importance of accepting our circumstances and living life to the fullest each day.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Fuzzy Mike, the interview series, the
podcast, whatever Kevin wants tocall it.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
It's Fuzzy Mike, Hello and thank you for joining
me on this episode of the Fuzzy.
Mike, imagine this You've beena top rated high school and
college athlete in your teensand early 20s.
Now you're a vice president fora global manufacturing company
owned by one of the world'srichest people, warren Buffett.

(00:29):
You've been happily married forjust over two years.
Life is great.
Then, on a seemingly uneventfulJuly day in 2009, this amazing
life that you've been living forall intents and purposes, it
ends After you dive off a dockinto water that you thought was

(00:50):
deeper than it actually was andyou break your neck on the lake
floor.
Doctors proclaim that you'relucky to have even survived, but
are you really?
You're paralyzed from the neckdown.
You're a quadriplegic for therest of your life.
That's how life unfolded 15years ago for my guest, scott

(01:10):
Fedor.
I learned about Scott when I wasresearching extreme athletes.
I like to talk to extremeathletes, and so I researched
them from time to time to invitethem on the show.
Extreme athletes are some ofthe most mentally tough people I
know.
Show Extreme athletes are someof the most mentally tough
people I know.
Mental toughness can oftentimeskeep depressed and suicidal
people alive during low moments,so I like talking with mentally

(01:34):
strong athletes to get tips andadvice for us to incorporate in
our battle to stay alive.
Scott Bedore was a guest on aparticular podcast I stumbled
upon.
I was blown away by him.
While I was listening to himtell the story about, you know
how his life changed in aninstant, I wondered if I would

(01:56):
have the mental metal to endurewhat he has endured and if I was
strong enough to survive.
Would I have the positivedemeanor that Scott has?
Honestly, I think I know myselfwell enough to answer no to
both of those questions.
Scott Fedor is next levelmentally tough and I told him I

(02:19):
know Navy SEALs, I know MMAfighters who have won world
championships, I know boxingworld champions, but I don't
know anybody as strong as you,scott.
So where does it come from?

Speaker 3 (02:30):
You know, I would say two things.
First of all, I think I wasfortunate enough I had a strong
upbringing with my father and mymother that even from a
relatively young age I alwaysremember just being instilled
with think positive, you can doit.
My dad worked for himself, hewas a salesman and I mean I grew

(02:51):
up cutting my teeth listeningto Earl Nightingale and Norman
Vincent Peale and Zig Ziglartapes on the way to when he was
driving me to practices.
So I kind of always I don'twant to say took it for granted,
but there was always some kindof motivational talk or lesson
just being thrown out there.
And I think you know,especially as you're a young,

(03:14):
younger kid, you just startabsorbing stuff.
You may not realize what you'reactually listening to or
digesting at that point in time,but it's like osmosis, you know
.
It just gets sucked into yourbrain somewhere and it rattles
around there and then when youneed it at some point in your
journey, hopefully you're ableto access it.
But that upbringing as well asI think sports had a lot to do

(03:38):
with it from an early age,whether it was baseball,
football, I wrestled, playedbasketball, swam, played rugby,
tried everything and ultimatelyfootball and baseball is what
really stuck, which I played upand through college.
And I think just that whole ideaof having to work hard, knowing

(03:58):
, especially in the practices,and especially football, when
you think about the doublesessions over the summer, the
conditioning there's, you know,probably three or four times a
week when you're like, oh, thisisn't for me, and you kind of
just want to quit because it'shard, you know, frankly, but you
stick with it, you persevere,you continue to win each day and

(04:22):
come back the next day, and notthat it gets easier and easier,
but you start realizing, okay,you know, I've gotten through
this, I can get through it again.
And I think that whole mindsetit just becomes a what do they
say?
If you do something two, fouror five weeks in a row, it can
kind of become a habit.
I think when you're just and Idon't want to say going through
the motions, cause obviously youtraining, you're working hard,

(04:45):
but you just keep doing it anddoing it, I think the idea of
showing up, dealing with thepain, dealing with the adversity
, dealing with the uncertaintyjust becomes a habit.
Did I lose you?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
No, not at all, I'm still here.
I'm sorry.
I'm riveted by what you'resaying.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
I think it just becomes habit.
I'm riveted by what you'resaying, I, and I think it just
becomes habit.
And, fortunately, once I gothurt and once I was forced to
have to dig deep to really dealwith something I had never
planned for or I don't want tosay prepared for, because in a
way I guess I was preparing forit but wasn't prepared for it to

(05:25):
happen that's when you kind ofthen have to channel all that
resiliency and hopefullyremember that your whole life
there's been opportunitiesbefore that.
You dealt with setbacks, youdealt with adversity, you got
through them.
So this is certainly acompletely different kind of

(05:48):
adversity, a completelydifferent kind of challenge.
But that mindset and I alwaystell people the fact that the
one thing I can still havecomplete control over is my
attitude Attitude equalsaltitude, as they say, and that
makes all the difference.
And you know it doesn't always,at least for me, it didn't

(06:10):
happen right away.
I, you know there's.
It takes some time, as you canimagine, to have to digest and
have to process something thatchanges your life in a matter of
seconds going from being ahealthy, physical, able-bodied
athlete and guy at the prime ofmy life to diving into a lake
and snapping my neck in aheartbeat.

(06:31):
That's an adjustment, as youcan imagine.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
You didn't just snap your neck, you internally
decapitated yourself.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Yeah that's what they call it.
They call it internaldecapitation, which it was From
the C1 through C6, all thosevertebrae were shattered, and my
neck, if you imagine.
I was diving face first, soimagine my forehead hitting the
lake bottom with such force thatit pushed my head back.

(07:02):
Force that it pushed my headback, and you know if I can go
to a graphic for a second justimagine what that would do to
your vertebrae if the back ofyour head kind of touched the
back of your shoulders, so youjust can imagine how severe and
how just impactful that impactwas.

(07:23):
Well, wouldn't that kill a lotof people?
I think it would, and I to thisday I don't know why I'm alive.
Um, oh, I do.
Well, yeah, we can get to that,maybe, but just from a pure
yeah, from a pure physical,physiological sense.
Yes, um, you know, the doctorsaid this just should have

(07:45):
killed you, and I was.
I was 33.
When it happened, I was stillrelatively in good shape, I was
strong, I was working out.
Um, I had strong cardio becausethat helped save me too,
because after I hit that lakebed I didn't pass out.
Um, because it wasn't likeplowing into hard cement, it was

(08:07):
plowing into soft mud, but Ijust hit it with such force that
my neck had nowhere to go butback.
But I didn't lose consciousnessand it would turn out it was 33
inches of water and I wasfloating there wide awake
looking down at this.
All of my family relatives wereall up in the house, which was

(08:29):
100 yards away at the time, andI ended up drowning myself.
I said my prayers after whoknows how long I was in the
water for, but just all theemotions that were going through
my mind, but just all theemotions that were going through

(08:56):
my mind, the guilt for feelingselfish, that I dove in and
broke my neck and was now takingmyself out of other people's
lives as well.
I was married at the time, so Ihad a tremendous amount of
guilt, feeling I just ruinedeveryone else's life.
Then quickly fear, realizingthat I still can't put into
words.
When you and at that point Iwas 100 convinced I was going to
die, when you know that you'reabout to die um, for me it

(09:17):
wasn't this peaceful, calm,reassuring okay, this is my time
feeling.
It was just the trauma aroundthe way that I was going to die
and what had happened.
My heart was beating a thousandmiles a minute that's all I
could hear, filling up theentire lake in my ears was

(09:37):
pounding my heart.
I thought my heart was going toexplode and it would be a heart
attack that would kill me.
But just processing all that,having the fear and then,
ultimately, the sadness,realizing I am going to die, and
I'm going to die alone, cold,wet, no one to hug, no one to be
there with me, no one to saygoodbye to, and at that point I

(09:59):
said some prayers and Iswallowed water just to open my
mouth, just to drown myself, toget it over with.
What I didn't realize was thefamily dog, eddie, had followed
me down to the lake and it washis barking, realizing that
something was wrong with Scott.
He usually jumps in, jumps out.
That alerted others in thehouse and they saw what had

(10:23):
happened.
They came running down and,obviously you know, pulled me
out of the water.
But going back to thatdecapitation one, the, the
impact was so severe.
But I also think they didn'tknow what had happened and I had
a stroke and I had a heartattack.
All they knew is I was floatingdown in the water, not moving.
So they pulled me out and I'msure I was getting jostled

(10:44):
around.
The last thing on their mindwas to stabilize my neck,
stabilize my head and kind ofkeep me from doing further
damage.
And I wasn't breathing, so theyhad to hoist me up onto a pier,
put me down there and startdoing CPR and ultimately the
emergency vehicles went to thewrong side of the lake.

(11:05):
So for about 45 minutes again,god was on my side that day with
variety of things, but myex-sister-in-law happened to be
an ICU nurse, so her and one ofher friends were there and they
just went back and forth takingturns doing CPR and other
life-saving measures.
And I think all that obviouslyI'm grateful for it, it kept me

(11:28):
alive.
But I also think there was justa lot of extra trauma constantly
being pushed on the neck, on mybody and yeah, I don't know the
doctors after they did about a16-hour surgery to literally
reattach my head to my body, oneof them told my family this is
one of the worst injuries I'veever seen in my life and I've

(11:50):
done what I can do.
Now it's up to God.
But you need to prepareyourself because, scott, he's
been injured prettysignificantly and, to tell you
the truth, he never said it.
But I don't even know if thedoctors expected me to pull
through with just the level Ithink they implied that the
level of injury that was thereand how long it had taken them

(12:14):
to kind of stabilize, reattach,put in all the hardware, the
bone grafts, everything elsethat I would need to allow my
body to at some point heal.
Who knows what was goingthrough their mind, whether or
not they thought that this wouldbe survivable, but it was.
And the one thing I want to say,just going back to your

(12:35):
original question, where do Ifind that?
I realize that I have beenthrough a pretty traumatic
experience, but I do a lot ofspeaking and I always tell
individuals you may not realizehow resilient you are until you
truly are up against it and youtruly are tested.
And while I appreciate whatothers tell me and can

(12:59):
understand why they think that Ihave shown strength in the face
of adversity, they think that Iam have shown strength in the
face of adversity.
You know, I tell everyone don'tsell yourself short, because if
the roles were reversed and Iwas sitting where you were right
now, looking, talking tosomeone in my situation, I'd
probably say there's no way I'dbe able to handle that, I
wouldn't have been able to findthe strength, but I did, and I

(13:22):
don't think that's I give myselfcredit, myself credit for that,
yes, but I don't think I'm theexception by any means.
I think a lot of individualswould be able to find that
strength in them if they're upagainst it, because I do think
people by nature are resilient.
But what does help thatresiliency, I will say, is

(13:42):
having the right attitude.
And if you let your attitudeget away from you, then you,
then you are doomed, I thinkphysically, because you know
where the mind goes, the bodywill follow.
And if you're not, if you'renot in that right mindset and
ready, like like it's like likea pregame you know you get your

(14:03):
speech from your coach ready outthere and ready like like it's
like like a pregame.
You know you get your speechfrom your coach ready to go out
there.
If you're not in that rightmindset, ready to take on the
task at hand, then why even showup?
So that was a challenge.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
We know that the mind is infinitely tougher and
infinitely stronger than ourphysical bodies.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Navy SEAL David goggins has a a saying that when
you think you're done, yourbody is only at 40, but it's
your mind telling you, yeah,absolutely, and it's, it's,
that's a very tough uh, you know, we also know how powerful and
convincing the mind can be.
So it is very tough to kind ofignore your mind when it's

(14:42):
telling you, oh, stop, stop timeto give up.
You know, and trust that.
Nope, you know, there is morein me.
I'm only at 40%, like you said.
So you have to trust your mind,but you also have to, you know,
keep your mind in check attimes, I guess.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
We're talking to Scott Fedor.
You can read Scott's book.
It's called Headstrong how aBroken Neck Strengthened my
Spirit, and it's a fascinatingbook.
That what you're hearing now iswhat you'll be able to read in
the book.
It's available on Amazon.
You said a few things in therethat I kind of want to unravel,
if you don't mind.
Sure, okay.
So the first one was yourathleticism in high school and

(15:21):
in college.
Did that prepare you to gothrough the physical distress
that you went through?

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Absolutely, in a couple of ways.
First of all, at the time thatI was injured I was still pretty
active, working out, and hadrecently I say recently,
probably six months prior takenup a more extensive cardio
regimen.
And the doctors did tell myfamily that, because, swallowing
the water and just dealing withthe pneumonia that came with on

(15:52):
the onset of the injury rightaway, they said, if his lungs
had not been in the shape thatthey were, he might not even
because I was on a breathingmachine.
I did have a ventilatorbreathing, but even so I was on
a breathing machine, I did havea ventilator breathing, but even
so, um you know, his body mightnot be strong enough to accept
and allow all this.
So I certainly think at thatmoment in time, um, that, uh, my

(16:15):
body was fortunately strongenough, and also all the work
that I had done up to thatmoment in time, from all the
workouts starting in my earlyteens, um, uh, strength
conditioning up until that pointin time, all the other uh
challenges on a on a footballfield, a baseball field, a
basketball court, wrestling mat,whatever you um, what have you?

(16:38):
Um, certainly I think that justallowed my body to, um, to get
used to being, uh, stressed, toget used to being, um, you know,
uh, bent around, pushed around,if you will say and kind of
starting to learn like, okay,there are limits that, you know,

(16:59):
my body can, can exceed and andjust because, um, you know, I'm
getting bruised or beaten orpushed around in a moment, the
body is tough, it is strong andI think muscles have a memory as
well, and I think that, beingin that situation and being in a
spot where my body suddenlyjust took on a tremendous amount

(17:23):
of trauma, I think it kind of,to a certain extent, fell back
on all of its training,realizing, okay, maybe that is
why I'm alive and maybe that'swhy that injury didn't kill me,
because, okay, we just took apretty, pretty hard shot.
But this is nothing new, youknow, for the past several years
and decades, you know, scott'sbeen kind of putting his body

(17:44):
through the ringer at times.
Well, I do think the athleticismhad a lot to do with it but not
.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Not only the athleticism, but you would also
said that, uh, going through twoa days, you're just like
mentally win the day just winthe day, absolutely, and that's
what you have to do every day toovercome or deal with your
paralysis.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yes, absolutely, I have a saying.
It's not my saying.
I found it in a book that myfather used to read when I was
laying in a hospital bed.
It's actually from a bookcalled the Mind Gym and it's
about an athlete as well as apsychologist who talked about
the mental side of athletics.
A great book, it's worthchecking out.

(18:22):
But there's a saying in thatbook inch by inch is a cinch,
yard by yard is awfully hard andthat's kind of a take on the
whole win the day, especiallywith a spinal cord injury.
This is an injury that, ifyou're looking for nerves to
regenerate themselves or ifyou're looking for other types

(18:43):
of recovery, it's not going tohappen right away.
It's going to take time.
So, inch by inch, you reallyhave to realize that there's
going to be a lot of littlegains, incremental gains that
will add up in time.
But you can't just come outswinging for the fences, can't

(19:05):
just come out swinging for thefences and that all goes back to
that win the day mentality ofwhether you're in a on a dusty
field doing two a days or, youknow, shooting 100 different
foul shots after practice.
It's just inch by inch, it'sone step at a time and those
inches add up the feet, thosefeet, yards, yards, miles.
And it's not until, all of asudden, you know you're at the
end of the season.

(19:25):
You look back like, wow, youknow, I made it through all
those two days, I made itthrough a grueling season, I
ended up becoming a statechampion.
I mean, wow, look, but thosearen't really immediately on
your mind on those hot August orhot July days when you're just
trying to kind of make it aroundthe, you kind of make it around
the track for another lapbefore you pass out.

(19:47):
So it really is staying in themoment, focusing on those little
inches, trying to win each day,realizing that the rest will
start to take care of itself asyou pile up those little
victories.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
So then, right after the accident, right after the
injury, to now, how has won theday?
Win the day?
How has it changed?

Speaker 3 (20:11):
I think the goals are different.
When I was first injured, a lotof it was about, you know, the
little things.
I call them little, but theywere obviously big.
But the little victories that Ihad to keep managing were
things like learning how tobreathe again on my own without
a ventilator, learning how totolerate sitting up without

(20:32):
passing out, understanding howthe blood pressure and the body
temperature and otherphysiological factors were
affected by a spinal cord injury.
Physiological factors wereaffected by a spinal cord injury
.
Being able to go to therapy andtry to get through an afternoon

(20:52):
of whether it's kind ofshrugging a shoulder or getting
stretched out and not gettingnauseous, not passing out, and
then making it through eachnight lying in bed at night,
questioning God, trying torelive a million times in my
mind what had happened, tryingto bargain for a second chance,
if you will, to take all thisaway.
Those were all the things inthe demons I was dealing with,

(21:16):
as well as the challengesphysically where I was trying to
win the day.
Now it's much different.
When I was first hurt and I wokeup, the first thought of my
mind was damn.
I'm still paralyzed and youknow I was there for a while, as
I mentioned in my book, when Iwake up now, my first thought is

(21:36):
you know, damn, I slept anextra hour.
I got to get going.
There's a lot I want to do.
So that mind shift has totallychanged and my win the day now
are the daily work that I throwmyself into, and by work I mean
I was able to start a prettysuccessful foundation.

(21:57):
Now it's managing thatfoundation on a day-by-day basis
reviewing applications, talkingwith other facilities, other
vendors, other individuals tofind the right, connecting them
with the resources they'relooking for.
It's doing some writing, whichI still try to do.
It's just managing theday-to-day business activities,

(22:23):
if you will, as well as kind ofthe work and the service and the
advocacy that I've thrownmyself into.
I don't find my winning the dayso much about me trying to get
better as much as trying to dobetter with the projects and
those that I'm serving, if thatmakes sense.
So it's kind of gone from.

(22:44):
I don't wake up and try to workout to get myself stronger.
I wake up now and I try to dothings that are going to help me
be able to contribute tosociety more and be able to help
serve others, whether that'sthrough the advocacy work or the
foundation or whatnot.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Well, it's very interesting.
One of the things that I heardyou I heard you say in a
previous conversation was nowyour life is more rewarding than
it was before the before theinjury.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yes, it's, it's it's more fulfilling in a in and I
don't.
You know, I don't say thattongue in cheek, I'm not trying
to have a Pollyannic outlook,but you know, before I got hurt,
a lot of it was self-serving.
I think, like most of us, youknow we have a career, we're
working on bettering oursituation.

(23:34):
I think, like most of us, youknow we have a career, we're
working on bettering oursituation and that certainly
hasn't gone away.
Obviously, I continue to want toget stronger physically and
certainly better myself.
But now my outlook has becomemore just that, more outward,
more focused on what I can do tohelp the greater good and you

(23:58):
know I don't say that with loftyaspirations, it's more.
By greater good I mean, justhey, if I can run this
foundation and be able to helpone more individual today get
the tools and the resources theyneed to be able to grow
stronger and go about their life, then that's great, then I've
won the day and there's a lot offulfillment in that.
As they say, we help ourselvesby helping others.

(24:21):
But you ask anyone that kind ofhas a life of service.
It feels good, I think,psychologically, when you get a
gift and you see someone'sreaction that always feels
better, sometimes than receivinga gift, and it's the same thing
with service and in the workI've chosen to do.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, getting back up .
You've helped over 300 peoplecontinue their therapy physical
and mental therapy with spinalcord injuries because, as it
happened to you, your insuranceran out.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Yeah, it's.
You know, I was in a nursinghome and the one thing that got
me up and kept me mentallystrong and excited to win each
day was going to therapy andgetting challenged.
And one day the director oftherapy comes to me and says hey
, your insurance isn't going topay for this anymore.

(25:12):
You've plateaued.
And in their mind, I wasn'twalking, let alone the fact that
I had learned to breathe on myown.
I had learned to toleratestanding up in machines with
assistants doing differentactivities, being able to get in
my chair for a day and go outand take part of a baseball game
or go to a restaurant withoutpassing out.

(25:33):
No, no, that didn't matter tothem.
They just figured oh, if you'renot walking, you're not getting
better, so we're not going towaste our money anymore.
And I'll tell you, Kevin, thatwas like breaking your neck all
over again because you've workedso hard to get to this point
physically where you can startto see relief.
You can start to realize, okay,I can live like this, it's not

(25:56):
the end of the world, I amgetting better.
I might not be walking, butthere's so many more important
things that I've started todiscover, and now it's like
flipping that rug right fromunder your feet again and that
was a tough blow and I wasextremely fortunate that I had
friends and family who came tothe rescue with resources to
help me continue.
That was a tough blow and I wasextremely fortunate that I had
friends and family who came tothe rescue with resources to

(26:18):
help me continue to privatepaper therapy.
But that was the impetus forgetting back up and I realized
there's a lot of individualsthat are probably having the
same conversation butunfortunately they're not in a
position where they know peopleor have access to the resources
they need to be able to continuetheir therapy.
And that, ultimately, is whatdrove getting back up the idea.

(26:39):
And I'm happy to say, like youmentioned, we've been able to
help hundreds of individuals getthe therapy they need.
When insurance says no, we sayyes and that's really where
we've been able to kind of makeour carve, our little niche and
that leave that you know you'renot walking so we might not have

(27:01):
the money anymore.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
That's spirit breaking, and your spirit is a
hell of a lot stronger than yourbody.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
Well, you're right, and I think that's also why I
kind of titled the book how aBroken Neck Strengthened my
Spirit, because again, it's oneof those things that I think I
discovered how strong the humanspirit and, in my case, how
strong my spirit was by havingto go through something like
this.
Unfortunately, you might notever realize how incredibly

(27:49):
strong the human spirit can beunless you go through adversity.
But there's a quote I like tosay that you know x-rays and
MRIs can determine, you knowthey can tell you what's broken,
but they can't judge or theycan't show you how strong that
the spirit is.
You know that comes frommentally, that comes from

(28:13):
somewhere inside of you, andthat spirit is just as strong as
anything else, if not stronger.
So, yes, it was spirit breaking.
But I also realized, like Ialluded to earlier, okay, you
know I got this.
I've gotten through some prettyspirit breaking, pretty damning

(28:34):
challenges in the past.
This is just another one.
I can get through this as well.
And you fall back on thosetools that you've accumulated
along the way, those mentaltools to start being able to
apply to the job at hand.
And that's what you have to docompartmentalization and a lot
of breaking.
You know, breaking things downinto their simplest parts and

(28:56):
then not worrying about what'sgoing to happen.
You know, even a day, week,month from now, focus right now.
What can I control?
You know, let's get my mindright it's inch by inch Yep
absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
You have a very strong faith.
I know that, and do you thinkthat um faith?
I know that and do you thinkthat because a recent guest that
I had said God doesn't dothings to you, he does things
for you.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
I believe that.
I believe that and I think toindividuals who might not have
as strong of a faith or mightnot have the same idea of God
that I have, they probably hearthat and they're like, what does
that even mean?
I mean, what a bunch of hot air?
But no, absolutely.
It goes without saying that,like they say, God doesn't give
you more than you can handle.
I've questioned that a lot.

(29:51):
Trust me because I certainlyfeel he gave me a lot, but I
don't feel I've ever been alonein my journey.
I was raised Catholic.
I went all the way up throughCatholic high school.
I had strong faith and one ofthe things I'm most proud of is
that I haven't lost my faith.
But I've also doubted a lot.

(30:12):
I mean, I also laid in bed andI cursed God and I swore at him
and I just wondered I mean, ifyou are this great God, why
would you do this to me?
I mean, if this is what yourwill is, why is that?
And you know you have thoseconversations.
I think it's perfectly normal.
But at the end of the day I alsorealized, you know, I can't do
this alone and my faith is whatI believe, gives me the strength

(30:37):
, gives me the resiliency, helpsfuel my spirit, and the last
thing I want to do is go thisalone and and not have that um
co-pilot with me.
And I think that's helped mekind of keep things in
perspective, focus on myrelationship with God, and all I
got to helped me kind of keepthings in perspective, focus on
my relationship with God, andall I got to do is look back at

(30:59):
it and say, wow, you know, allthose years ago those doctors
pretty much wrote me off andthey told me I would never
breathe on my own again,probably never get out of bed
again, never be able to eat.
My life was pretty much over,just worried about making it
comfortable.
And I look at where I am todayand, yes, there was a lot of

(31:20):
hard work I put in to get hereand a lot of others helped me,
but I also think that's God.
I mean, I tell people sometimesmiracles don't have to be these
big, grandiose things that justhappen right away.
They can slowly revealthemselves over time.
And I think that's a testamentto the position I'm in today
that I do believe God did work amiracle through me.

(31:40):
And just because I'm not walkingor I'm not diving into a lake
again, I'm not back to where Iam, doesn't mean that I haven't
experienced a miracle.
As you pointed out, and as I,you know, added on, I feel my
life's more fulfilled.
I mean I I dove into a lake,broke my neck, was left for dead
, and can I honestly say todaythat I'm in a better situation?

(32:04):
Um, spiritually, mentally,emotionally.
Now I certainly have my momentsand you know we all still have
bad days, certainly have mymoments, and you know we all
still have bad days.
But in the grand scheme ofthings, when I look back over,
you know, over the course ofevents that have transpired, I
feel so much more fulfilled andI think that if I didn't have

(32:26):
god in my life, if I didn't havestrong faith, I wouldn't be
able to appreciate that and Imight not even be able to
experience that.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
So let me throw this your way.
Get your reaction to this, Allright.
Jesus lived to be 33 years old.
You dove in 33 inches of waterat the age of 33.
I said we're going to savelives today.
Are you the savior reincarnated?

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Are you the savior reincarnated?
No, no, absolutely not,absolutely not.
But I do believe that God andJesus are working through me to
help others.
There's no question about that.
Yeah, I firmly believe that.
But you know, and I've thoughtabout the whole thing before
with the 33 age but no becauseyou, because it is all relative.

(33:16):
My story, as tragic as itstarted out and as challenging
and as resilient as it may be,is just one story in millions,
and I think God, every day, isworking miracles with
individuals.
And just because I broke myneck and became paralyzed does

(33:38):
not mean that my adversity or mychallenge in life is any more
great than anyone else's.
As I've talked about when I givetalks or when I speak with
others, I mean there'sindividuals out there dealing
with mental illness on a dailybasis and in a way, they may
wake up being more paralyzedthan I am.

(33:59):
There's others that are dealingwith depression, might also be
dealing with other health issueslike paralysis or ALS or cancer
or something else, and a lot ofthose people are still choosing
to wake up each day, to winthat day, to focus on what they
can control and to make the mostout of it.
And I just think that any one ofthose individuals you could

(34:22):
look at and say they're a livingtestament of the power of God
and God working through them tohelp others appreciate a little
of the in the.
The irony of the 33 isn't loston me.
I just think you know, ifanything, I'm just an example or

(34:44):
a chance to to really helpothers understand and embrace
the fact that you know God.
God does work in mysteriousways, but God also gives us the
tools that we need to thrive ina situation that might seem
completely untenable and and andand hopeless.
So, um, so I'm trying to, uh,to do my best and, uh, you know,

(35:06):
appreciate the opportunity thatI've been given and realize
that there is, there is a chanceto use tragedy and adversity to
advocate, to teach and tohopefully help others get a leg
up in this crazy world.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
So the Fuzzy Mike is all about mental health.
It's about taking the fuzzinessof our mental illness because I
am.
I'm depressed, clinicallydepressed and suicidal ideation.
So when I think about my badtimes, my bad days, I'm going to
think about you and I hope youdo and you're going to pull me

(35:48):
through and I hope you do and Ihope that helps.
No, it will.
I mean, you inspire me.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
I appreciate that and I want to come back to that
word inspire, in a second.
But when I give my talks, Ialways talk about the absolute
truths that a broken neck hastaught me, and one of them is
that it's all relative Becausewhen I'm having my bad days, I
have some individuals I've metin my life who I think about
them and they pull me through.

(36:15):
And I say it's all relativebecause you might think, oh well
, you know, mental health,that's nothing compared to being
paralyzed in a wheelchair.
But I'm thinking the oppositeway.
Oh, you know, I'm paralyzed ina wheelchair, but, you know,
fortunately I have a.
You know, I have a strong mindand I'm able to kind of focus
and stay the course.
So it is completely allrelative.

(36:37):
And I hope you do use my storyto help you, because I use other
people's stories to help me,and at the end, that's what
we're all here for and itdoesn't matter where you get
your help from or who you get itfrom or how you get it.
I think, as long as that you'reopen to help, you're willing to
receive it.
And going back to the wordinspire now, once you do get

(36:58):
that help, you do something withit Because a lot of individuals
you know they used to alwaystell me and people I'd meet, oh
you're such an inspiration, andI would tell them okay, I
appreciate that, you know, butyou opened up this can of worms
now, because inspire means toact.
And if I'm going to inspire,you go act on it.
Don't just say you're inspiredbecause you're in my presence

(37:20):
right now and you're kind offeeling sympathy or you're being
, oh, I'm glad I'm not in yoursituation.
No, when you're out there on arandom Tuesday and something's
going on and you feel at the endof your rope, you know, act,
then become inspired, then drawon this inspiration that you
have, because just because ourpaths have crossed and I may,

(37:40):
you know, wheel away and you goyour way, doesn't have to mean
that inspiration's ended.
So if you want to tell me I'man inspiration, I appreciate it.
Thank you.
But I'm going to challenge youright back to you know, go,
prove it.
Go.
When you have those moments andyou're not in the presence of
someone else who you might thinkof as an inspiration, you now

(38:00):
need to inspire yourself and younow need to take what you've
learned in those mental toolsand use it to help yourself, and
I always tell people.
So that's the greatestcompliment you can give me is if
, if you are, if you want totell me that I help you, well,
let that continue to be the caseafter our, you know, after our,
after we've departed eachother's company.

(38:21):
So I hope, I hope you docontinue to.
You know, when you're havingyour down moments, if you need
to use me for an inspiration,please do, but realize that you
know it forces you to act.
So you know you now need to.
You now need to act on whatyou're feeling and find a way to
help dig yourself out of thatknowing, hey, I've had bad days

(38:42):
before I can get through this.
I just can't let myself getoverwhelmed, one inch at a time
and I'll get through it again.
And then you wait andinevitably more bad days will
come.
But I think as long as we startstringing together more good
days, you're certainly going tohave those rainy days.

(39:03):
That's fine and it just helpsus appreciate.
I will say if I can add one morething I'm sorry if I'm a little
long-winded here.
No, no, no.
But there's moments where Imight be sitting outside and
just enjoying a sunset or theweather, or a campfire or
whatever it is, and sometimes Ithink about how horrible the

(39:24):
situation I did find myself inafter I dove into that lake and
how much my body was ready togive up and how broken I was and
how beaten down I was.
And I think about it and ithelps me just appreciate the
moment that I find myself insitting at that, staring at that
sunset, realizing, I was told,I'd probably never see another

(39:45):
sunset again.
And wow man, I was pretty messedup and I got through it and I
take a little bit of pride inthat and I allow myself to kind
of, for the moment, just relishit, enjoy it.
And then it also helps centerme and keeps me focused on the
now and it's like, okay, youknow, I've been given this
opportunity.
Let's make sure that even whenI do get depressed or I do have

(40:07):
down moments, I'm notsquandering the opportunity I
have been given, opportunity Ihave been given.
So my point is that I think alot of times looking back on our
lowest moments can really helpus more than we realize, you
know, if we don't dwell on them,but if we allow ourselves to
just remember how low we wereand then realize that we've

(40:29):
gotten through that.
It's such an incredible surgeof just inspiration and hope to
realize okay, I can get throughthese awful, tragic low moments
in my life and when they comeagain you might not always be
ready for them, but when it'stime to deal with them, you know

(40:51):
that you have that arsenal.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, it lets you know how far you've come them.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
You know that you have that arsenal.
Yeah, it lets you know how faryou've come.
Absolutely I don't think enoughpeople give themselves credit,
whatever their situation is, torealize you know how how far
they have come in theirendeavors.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
What are your?
What are things you appreciatenow that you didn't appreciate
before the injury?

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Um, yeah, I certainly I don't want to to.
You know, the first thing wouldcome to mind would be like my
relationships with others, but Ithink I always did appreciate
those.
But now, especiallyspecifically with my mother and
father and sister, seeing andand others that I've met, seeing
just how much people arewilling to help me and how much,

(41:35):
especially my mom's, how muchshe has sacrificed to uh to help
me.
I think I always appreciatedthat.
But, uh, there's differentlevels of appreciation and the
depth to which I can truly seenow how much she's put her own
life on hold to help me.
Um, it's something I'll neverbe able to repay her for, um, so

(42:00):
that that, that goes withoutsaying.
I don't think she would want.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
I don't think she thinks about repayment.
I think just seeing you breatheis repayment enough for her.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
No, and you're, and you're absolutely right.
But I certainly would love tobe able to kind of just help her
go after and you know, and get,go chase any dreams that she
still has.
But the relationships, you knowthat that certainly goes
without saying.
But then it's other things likeit's it's a sunny day, it's
being able to sit outside andtruly like little things, just

(42:30):
truly put my head back, close myeyes and just feel the warmth
of my face.
A good glass of wine withfriends sitting around a
campfire, going to a greatconcert, you know, seeing a good
movie, it's all those littlethings.
You always hear that cliche, youknow like you know the little

(42:50):
things are the big things, butthey really are.
I mean it's.
It's those just enjoying a day,enjoying a moment, and
especially when you're enjoyingit, you're able to sit there and
tell yourself to consciouslyrecall the fact that I was told
I'd never have these moments.
That even helps you enjoy iteven more.
And to have and I've beenfortunate enough where I've been

(43:12):
able to master that disciplineso that when I am having a good
time you better believe itsomewhere in the back of my mind
I'm always like and I was toldI wasn't going to have this good
time, so I'm going to enjoy itmore.
But it really is those littlemoments that I can now
appreciate that, that cliche,that, those little moments that
I can now appreciate that, thatcliche, that, those little

(43:32):
things again.
You know, if there was a themehere, it's those inches.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
They really do add up and and become the big things,
man, you're not just enjoyinglittle things.
I mean, you went to deafleopard and journey.
You had to have a hell of atime there yeah, I just that was
recently.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
That was a great concert, yeah another kentucky
Derby.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
You're living the life.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
I'll tell you too.
You know they always make thejoke.
You know membership has itsprivileges.
You know, after I hurt my neck,it was probably about three or
four years afterwards I had thechance to meet one of my idols,
bruce Springsteen, and he cameto Cleveland for a concert and,
long story short, I had reachedout to his PR firm and when the

(44:13):
concert was over, there was atap on my shoulder.
I turned around and it was thisusher saying are you Scott
Fedor?
I'm like, yes, he's like, Ineed you to follow me.
And I didn't know what was goingon.
I thought the guy was helpingmyself and my friends get to the
parking lot to avoid traffic.
But we get into this freightelevator and the next thing you
know we're going down.
It opens it up behind the stageand I'm like, oh my God, is

(44:35):
this happening?
And yep, sure enough.
They say wait here.
You know Bruce will be out, hewants to meet you in a little
bit.
And I was like you got to bekidding me.
And yep, sure enough, he cameout and came right up to me and
said God bless you, kiss me onthe head.
And we just started tellingstories about the concert, about
music, about other things,probably talked to him for about

(44:59):
10 minutes and then, you know,we went on our way and I'm just
like.
You know, it was his music andI kind of mentioned that in the
letter when I had written thisPR for him.
I was like, uh, you know, whenI was getting up every day to
work out, after broken that, toto try to learn inch by inch
again, uh, it was his music thatI listened to my iPod.
That would keep me going, thatwould motivate me and just be

(45:21):
able to have the chance to saythank you to him and tell him
what, uh, you know, again, like,I look at him as the
inspiration.
Um, so it is all relative, butum, yeah, so that was a, that
was a great moment.
And then just a lot of otherthings I've been, you know, talk
about living the life, whetherit is going to concerts or
sporting events, just theindividuals I've been able to

(45:41):
meet, the speaking events I'vebeen able to attain, the
different organizations I'vebeen able to become involved
with.
There are a lot of very, veryfascinating and remarkable
people out there that Iotherwise might have never
crossed paths with and mightnever have thought to even want
to cross paths with.

(46:01):
So those are all again, thosemiracles that you know.
They're not big and grandiose,but they reveal themselves
slowly over time.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Well, there's another celebrity that you talk about
in the book and I'm wondering,uh, if you'll share the story
about dennis bird and thebiblical quote yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
For those that you know that don't know, dennis
bird was a uh, he played for theback in the early 90s, late 80s
, early 90s played for the newyork jets.
And when I was 16 years old I'mdating myself here when I'll
let your listeners do the mathwhen I was 16 years old it was
actually 1992 and I was layingon the floor of my childhood
home flipping through the pageof the Sports Illustrated.

(46:41):
It was probably after afootball practice or something,
but I remember I was in Decemberand I was flipping through
those pages and I came acrossthe story that had just been
shared earlier.
That season Dennis Bird hadwent for a tackle and broke his
neck in an NFL game and waslaying any recounts in the story
through the interview.

(47:01):
He was laying on the field justlooking up at these worried
faces and these expressions onhis teammates, realizing that he
just broke his neck.
And then he kind of passed out.
And he says when he woke up inthe hospital, the first thing
that he noticed he looked abovehis head and there was inscribed
on a poster a scripture verseRomans 8, 18, which reads for I

(47:26):
reckon that the sufferings ofthis present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glorythat shall be revealed in us.
And he was a deeply religious,spiritual, you know faithful
filled man as well.
But he kind of took that mantraand carried it with him
throughout his rehab and thenultimately walking out of the
hospital and how he chose tolive his life.

(47:49):
And I'm a 16 year old adolescentbut I was so moved by that
scripture verse and I'd alwaysbeen a fan of positive mantras
growing up, as I mentioned, anddifferent sayings.
But I actually got up, I typedthat out and we still use
typewriters onto a piece ofpaper, folded it up and stuck it
in my wallet, but I didn'tforget about it.
There probably wasn't a week ortwo at most.

(48:16):
That went by over the next 17years up until the day I got
injured, where at some pointduring the week I wouldn't pull
that out, remind myself, take abreath.
No matter how crazy things aregetting with work, relationships
, whatever, god does have a plan.
Glory will be revealed.
Right now there's sufferingyou're going to go through, but
it pales compared to what is instore for you if you keep the

(48:37):
faith.
Fight the fight.
A former football player,obviously nowhere near the
caliber of Dennis Byrd.
But I break my neck.
I wake up in a hospital bed andone of my family members had
gone through my wallet, hadtaken out that verse,

(48:58):
transcribed it, and what do youthink?
The first thing that I saw waswhen I woke up in a hospital bed
was that same Romans 8, 18.
And you can tell me it'scoincidence, all you want, but
I'll just say bull, the factthat that saying moved me that
much and struck a chord with meas a 16-year-old.

(49:19):
I continued to carry it with meall my life, to the point now
where I wake up in a hospitalbed, same, similar situation
Dennis had found himself in.
And here I am looking at thatsame verse.
It was, you know, it's just.
There's just too much divineintervention in there to think
it's anything else.

(49:40):
But again, it just serves assuch a great reminder that the
suffering for all of us, youknow, the sufferings of the
present, are not worthy to becompared with the glory you know
that shall be revealed in usand it goes here on earth.
I think by working hard goodthings will happen.
And I think, you know, as yourelate to God in heaven, by

(50:02):
believing and living a, you knowa pious and a righteous life
and a just life.
You know you'll have eternallife afterwards and you will
have, you know, glory in thenext.
So it's just such a great storyto share with others and also a
great reminder for me of thatGod does.

(50:23):
To your point earlier, you knowGod does have a plan.
He kind of does know what he'sdoing and even though bad things
may happen and we might notagree with it, these are all
opportunities, if we embracethem, to find ourselves more
fulfilled than we otherwisemight have been.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
And I'm fortunate that I've been able to do that
and to share my story withothers and hopefully help them
learn and do that as well, andyou've always considered
yourself I know that you talkabout this a problem solver, and
now you have other problemsthat you didn't have prior to
the injury, and one of thethings that I think you solved

(51:02):
as a problem and I love thisabout you, brother is that you
helped change Ohio law to allowfor various service animals and
you actually had Melanie for awhile.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
I had Melanie, and Melanie was at the time I got.
Her was a 28-year-old capuchinmonkey and there was an
organization out of Bostoncalled Helping Hands and they're
now called Envisioning Accessaccess, if anyone wants to check
them out.
But um, they trained thesecapuchins to help individuals

(51:35):
with spinal cord injuries.
Because of the intelligence ofthe animal, their small stature
and then how just ambidextrousand agile they are with opening
things and closing things.
Mel Melanie was a capuchinmonkey, lived with me for about
11 years and would helpeverything from turning on

(51:56):
lights, wiping my face, if Itold her.
If I said face, I would keep arag in my lap.
She would itch my face.
She could unscrew bottles, putstraws in drinks, turn on DVDs.
I would have a little pointerthat I kept attached to my sip
and puff here, which is how Idrive my wheelchair, and I could
click that electric pointer.

(52:17):
It would aim at something.
She'd run over and hit it,whether it was a button, whether
it was a light switch, whetherit had a spasm, and maybe my
foot was out of place my footpedal.
They would spend about sevenyears training these animals on
these various commands beforethey would introduce them into
someone's family.
And Melanie is still around.

(52:38):
She's still alive.
She's back in Boston.
It got to the point where, aftera decade with me, I realized
that she was a great, greatanimal and she had put her time
in and they live anywhere from35 to 45 years in captivity.
But I wanted her.
She was getting ready to turn40.

(52:58):
And I wanted her to be able tojust hang up her worker's badge
and go enjoy her life.
So she's living her best life.
I keep in touch with the folksthere and, from what I hear,
she's certainly the alpha queen.
She gets plenty of grooming andlove from about a dozen other
monkeys she lives with.
She gets three full squares aday plus a lot of treats

(53:23):
obviously the greatesthealthcare and she's got a lot
of enrichment activities thatthat she's able to take care of.
So but the law was that rightbefore I had gotten melanie back
in uh, around 2010, 2011, inohio, there was an individual
down near the zanesville ohiocolumbus area who had a lot of

(53:45):
exotic animals and he was havingsome mental issues, it sounds
like, and came home one day andjust let them all loose into the
city and then ultimately endedup shooting himself.
But I mean no joke.
They had lions and tigers andbears on the loose in columbus
and they were eventually able toround some of them up.
Unfortunately, some of them hadto be put down, but I was all

(54:09):
set to get Melanie and then theysaid no, you know, we're not
allowing this anymore.
I do think certain serviceexotic animals like this should
exceptions should be made andthe benefits they can provide

(54:32):
for individuals withdisabilities like myself, and
fortunately that it was passedin the law that that I would be
allowed to have an exotic animalafter all.
So that was, that was a chanceto have a great impact on, on
something that could help othersas well, and also a chance for

(54:53):
me to open up my home to to livewith, uh, you know, a little 12
pound kind of crazy littlecapuchin monkey.
So, um, it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Problem solver.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Well, I don't know if I was much of a problem solver
as Melanie, because she found away to weasel treats out of me
all the time and then kind ofget the best of others, but I
have always enjoyed finding away that there's a challenge.
There's certainly more than oneway to overcome it, and
discovering those has alwaysbeen a rewarding, rewarding

(55:27):
pastime for me.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
You can go to Scott's website, scottfadorcom, to read
some of the blogs that he'swritten, and if the answer is
yes to this, I will wear it.
Okay, but do you hopefully youdo realize the irony in the way
that you titled your Tellagetalk a deep dive into my mind?

Speaker 3 (55:49):
um well, john tell it .
He titled it that, but he did hetitled that, but when we were
talking he certainly um, he hadbeen a former sportscaster,
sports anchor in cleveland.
So he obviously, from ajournalistic standpoint, very
smart, intelligent guy.
And you know he was eventalking about the title of my
book and how much he loved theplay on words with my book

(56:12):
Headstrong Yep.
And so when he did title it adeep dive into my mind he
certainly knew what he was doingwith that title.
But yeah, I'm glad you did comeacross that because he's
another amazing guy and when Iwas growing up playing football
he was one of the localsportscasters that would follow
our team.

(56:32):
So there was always a littlebit of that connection there.
And then all these years laterwe got together and I was able
to share my story and since thisI haven't shared this, but
since that time I have spokenwith him and his wife and we've
been kind of trying to put ourheads together on other ways to
not just help getting back upbut kind of help other

(56:54):
individuals with spinal cordinjuries outside of the things
that health insurance or thegovernment might help provide.
So how do we kind of get moreresources towards individuals to
allow them to live in acommunity to live in, a, you
know, a home of their choosing,as opposed to being

(57:15):
institutionalized.
So it wasn't just a guy thatshowed up and did an interview.
He really kind of picked up thetorch and carried it forward
and he's just, he's just anamazing guy.
But yeah, when I first saw that, what he titled it as well,
okay, so you chuckled too.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
I was like I chuckled .

Speaker 3 (57:31):
No, I was like I see what you did there, john, I
appreciate it and, yeah, Icertainly enjoyed the irony and
the poetic waxing of the titlethat he came up with.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Well, scottfadorcom is where you can go to read
these blogs and to see otherconversations that Scott has had
, because you put them up onyour YouTube channel.
And then also the book isHeadstrong how a Broken Neck
Strengthened my Spirit.
It's available on Amazon.
It answers the question thatyou were proposed to you by the
doctor Do you want to live?
At which time you, in your mind, said I don't, but Michigan has

(58:09):
a law.
I didn't know about thisMichigan law.
Please tell.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Yep, you're right.
So after I got hurt again, Iwas in the hospital a couple
days and you know I thought mylife was over.
Even though I was paralyzed, Iwas still in a tremendous amount
of pain and just all the demonsthat were going through my mind
and the horrible thoughts andthe ways of thinking this is
what my life's going to be like.
I was just praying dear God,please just help me find a way

(58:44):
to die.
Will that, if an individual ison artificial life, supporting
means or other means,extraordinary means keeping them
alive, and they're lucid and ofsound mind, they have that
opportunity, from the onset tobeginning, of choosing whether
or not they want to expire or ifthey want to continue to live.
And a doctor came into me and,matter of, I mean, I didn't even

(59:07):
get that proverbial 1% chanceof walking again.
He just laid it right out there.
He's like Scott, you've had ahorrible injury, you broke your
neck.
You're never going to walkagain.
You're never going to breatheon your own again.
You're probably not going to beable to eat or swallow, get out
of bed for more than a couplehours.
Life, as you know, it is goingto be all about trying to be
comfortable.

(59:27):
But any semblance you have hesaid this to me of a normal life
, you got to come to grips withit.
It's gone.
And you know, I kind of wasalready telling myself that in
my mind.
But when you get hit with thatby a doctor, a medical
professional, wow, you know, itjust felt like I just got a

(59:47):
death sentence.
And he wanted to make sure thatI understood it all and I was
like I said I couldn't breatheon my own at the time, I was
very weak, couldn't, didn't havethe voice, so I was blinking my
eyes.
He's like blink yes once foryes, twice for no.
Do you understand what I'msaying?
And then he finally said I knowI want to ask you a question
and you know the question youalluded to he.

(01:00:08):
He said do you want to live?
And by all intents and purposesI was fully prepared to say no,
but again, divine intervention,and not just divine
intervention, but having a voice.
The first word I spoke was yesyes, I want to continue to live
and I don't know where it camefrom, other than the Holy Spirit
.
I will believe that till theday I die, and can I have a

(01:00:32):
chance to have God tell me yep,you're right, those were my
words.
I'm not done with you.
So, yeah, I talk.
I really talk about itextensively in my book about do
you want to live.
And then that became for me, asI detail my recovery in the book
and where I'm at with my lifetoday, not just a one-time
physically thing do you want tolive?

(01:00:54):
But, like I said, when you getup every day and what we choose
to do and the events or theexperiences that I choose to get
involved with and throw myresources, my time into, I mean,
do you want to live and throwmy resources, my time into, I
mean, do you want to live?
Do I just want to go throughthe motions or do I want to find
a way to continue to helpothers, continue to help myself,

(01:01:15):
continue to try to gather upthose inches and move along and
not just go through the motions,appreciate the things that I
was told I would never be ableto appreciate again?
So in a sense, I feel like I'mforcing myself to answer that
question every day.
Do you want to live?
Okay, go prove it now.

(01:01:35):
So again, like that Dennis Birdmoment, that do you want to
live?
Conversation with a doctoragain was something that there's
no other way for me to explainit other than divine
intervention.
You know, there's no other wayfor me to explain it other than
divine intervention.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Well, I found it.
I found it interesting when Iread that question do you want
to live?
Would your answer have beendifferent had they posed it?
Do you want to die?

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
because that's on your mind, it's a great question
um, the short answer me wouldsay no, because I believe that
the divine intervention stillwould have come in there.
But I think it does just go tothe psychology of.
You know, the psychologicalaspect of the way we frame
things, the way we look atsituations that we're faced with

(01:02:24):
.
Are we kind of, you know,seeing the, the positive and
what can be, or the negative andwhat won't be?
And, fortunately for me, andmaybe it was also divine
intervention that God had withthe doctor and the way he had
the doctor choose to answerthose.
But you know, fortunately itwas proposed from a positive

(01:02:45):
slant.
But that is a great questionbecause, yeah, yeah, at the time
I did want to die.
Whether or not I would havesaid that, you know, who knows.
But, um, I think the the reallesson and what you just pointed
out there is how you choose tolook at things, because do you
want to live versus do you wantto die?
Those are two totally differentframe of mind, totally

(01:03:09):
different ways to go throughlife, and it again just shows
how powerful the mind is and howpowerful having the right
attitude is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
So how grateful are you today that you made that
answer 15 years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
Absolutely, I mean I can't even put it into words 15
years ago.
Absolutely, I mean I can't evenput it into words, as I always
tell people, especially when I'mspeaking and they may look at
me, I'm like, don't worry, thestory has a happy ending.
But I had to go through quite alot to get there and I don't
think I ever would have realized.
I may have started to realize,okay, I can have somewhat of a

(01:03:47):
good life again, but I don'tthink I ever realized, like, how
great of a life I could have.
And don't get me wrong, I wishthis had never happened.
You know I'm not like.
You know, thank you, jesus, forbreaking my neck and putting me
in a situation.
But, you know, thank you, god,for being with me, for giving me
the strength and for helping meget to where I am today.

(01:04:08):
And thank you for giving,allowing me, that ability to be
able to appreciate where I amtoday, because I do love my life
.
And certainly there's things Istill want to accomplish, still
want to do.
May never do, who knows, butit's not going to stop me from
going after them.
And I never thought I'd be.
I thought I might've gotten toa point where, okay, things are

(01:04:34):
getting a little bit better, butno, if you would have asked me
laying in that bed, or evenmonths afterward when I was in
therapy, are you ever going tobe able to thrive?
I thought no, if I was justsurviving, that would be enough.
But but the situation I findmyself in today is what is
what's just absolutely amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
You know, here's what's impressive about that
answer is that you said thereare things that you may not get
to do, but there are things thatyou may get to do.
You know, we're seeingadvancements in exoskeletons,
we're seeing advancements inbrain implants.
How, in tune to that, are you,and are you at the forefront of
helping that happen?

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
I'm.
I'm very in tune with it, tothe point where I actually had
spoken with, uh, elon musk'scompany, neuralink, and was with
them as they had reached out tome about being one of the early
participants.
Um, for those that don't know,neuralink was putting chips into
individuals' brains that wouldallow them to use their thoughts

(01:05:32):
to control other things, andthere's other reasons why I
didn't choose to go through withit at that point in time, still
very intrigued with whatthey're hoping to accomplish in
the future.
But that's just one way ofsaying yes to your question.
I'm very involved, or very intune with different things that

(01:05:55):
are happening out there and I dofollow them.
But a big change that I made inmy attitude was I don't hang on
their words or let my outlookon life or my ability to want to
do things be controlled by howfeasible some of these

(01:06:15):
exoskeletons and other thingsmay be.
I'm going to live my life eachday.
I'm going to wake up, be happy.
I'm alive and do things, andgreat if there's advancements,

(01:06:40):
whether it's in medicine,science, biomechanics, whatever
that can help me, then certainlyI'm open to that and, so to
speak, and my strength and myattitude through things, I think
that are much more importantand things that are within my
control, as opposed to howquickly science advances.
So I'm certainly a proponentand advocate for science and for

(01:07:04):
a lot of these groundbreakingtechnologies and hope they
continue to get the funding, thesupport, the resources they
need and, to a certain extent,understanding from the federal
government that it's okay towant to try different things
that might seem moreunconventional because there
could be a possible cure or away to help other people out

(01:07:27):
there.
So I'm a big cheerleader forall of that.
But I don't wake up hanging myhat on or my hope or letting my
attitude be dictated by whetheror not that does happen, and
that wasn't always the case.
Shortly after I got injured,all I wanted to do was read
about stem cells and all thisother stuff.

(01:07:48):
But I finally learned andtaught myself that acceptance of
something doesn't mean you'regiving up.
And accepting my injury,accepting my situation, doesn't
mean I'm giving up.
It just means I'm now able toposition, to understand what I'm
up against and work through itand work through it.

(01:08:09):
And for a while I did strugglewith that and that's why I was
really in into trying to find acure.
You know, and um, and you know,uh, a cure from outside rather
than from my mind, or or frominside, because you know I had
to accept that things weredifferent and that made all the

(01:08:31):
difference in the world, as youcan imagine, kevin.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Well, I hope that you'll accept this, that you're
even more of a badass now that Iknow you than you were before
we started this conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
Brother.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
I can't thank you enough for joining me.
I can't thank you enough forsharing your story and yourself.
I said it before, I'm gonna sayit again You're going to
inspire me to look at my ownlife differently and on days
where I don't want to go on, I'mgoing to say you know what,
Think about Scott Fedor.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
Well, I appreciate that, you know, and I wish you
obviously all the best in yourcontinued journey and you know
all your listeners that are.
You know, we all struggle withchallenges and adversity and, uh
, you know, if it helps to thinkof my story, think of your
story, think of others that theymay have come across that
inspire them.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
You know, it's not so much.
It's not so much thinking aboutyour story, scott.
It's about thinking about whathappened after your story, about
how strong your mind is, abouthow grateful you are.
You know, that's what.
That's what I'm going to bethinking about.
I'm not going to be thinkingabout scott in a wheelchair.
I'm going to be thinking aboutscott thriving well, I

(01:09:38):
appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (01:09:39):
I uh, you know it's.
I'm glad that you're able to touse that.
I really am and it's humbling,you know, to hear, to hear you
say that.
But, uh, I certainly appreciateit and thank you for the kind
words and certainly for thisopportunity just to hopefully
reach some more people that areout there listening, that could
use it and making a new friendwith you in the process.

(01:10:02):
Like I said, it's a lot ofrelationships otherwise might
not have been able to ever comeacross had this not happened.

Speaker 2 (01:10:10):
How about that?
One of my favoriteconversations ever.
Scott's book is Headstrong howa Broken Neck Strengthened my
Spirit, and it's available onAmazon.
To support Scott's organization, go to gettingbackuporg and
Scott's website very simple,scottwfedorcom.

(01:10:32):
Bookmark it so you can get hisinspiring blogs as soon as he
posts them.
My thanks to Scott for joiningme and my thanks to you for
listening.
Tuesdays are about inspirationand overcoming Wednesdays.
Wednesdays are all aboutlaughter and comedy, which is
what you get with the Tuttle andKlein podcast.
Listen to it on the sameplatform where you're listening

(01:10:54):
to this now.
The Fuzzy Mike is hosted andproduced by Kevin Klein.
Podcast voice is Zach Sheeshfrom the Radio Farm.
Social media director is TrishKlein.
Next week, kind of a milestoneepisode, episode number 100.
I won't get into thestatistical weeds with you right
now about the significance ofthat number.
I'll save that for next week.

(01:11:15):
Ooh, stats and numbers, klein.
Wow, I just can't wait, I know,but I will say that only 6.73%
of all podcasts, of which thereare over 3 million, reach 100
episodes.
It's kind of exciting.
Oh, and I'll be joined by arelatively well-known blonde

(01:11:41):
actress who was in Playboyseveral times.
Oh, and she also starred inBaywatch.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
See you, then, and I'm grateful for your time
thanks for listening to thisepisode of the Fuzzy Mike with
Kevin Kline.
Check back often and stay fuzzyfriends.
Fuzzy Mike is a presentation ofthe Kevin Kline Fuzzy Mike
Industry Incorporated LLC.