Facing Fears, Together

Tyler Wolf has a tattoo on his arm that reads, “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”  He and his wife, Star, have certainly had to rely on that inner strength, each other, and family over the past few years.

On Jan. 30, 2020, Tyler sustained multiple injuries, including a high-level spinal cord injury while at work as a forklift technician in Macon, Georgia.

After three surgeries and a week in the ICU at Atrium Health Navicent in Macon, Tyler transferred to the ICU at Shepherd Center on Feb. 7, 2020.

It wasn’t the first time Tyler, who grew up in Monticello, Georgia, had heard of Shepherd Center. A year before, a police officer in a nearby town sustained a brain injury, and Tyler, an avid motorcyclist, participated in a benefit ride to show support. He also had a friend who was a Shepherd patient shortly before he arrived at the hospital.

“It was on the radar from the very beginning,” Star explains.

Tyler spent most of the year at Shepherd. He had several medical complications requiring surgeries, so until he could go to the gym for therapy, his therapists worked with him on stretching and range of motion exercises in his room.

Once he started at the gym, Tyler recalls fear was one of his biggest challenges.

“I was scared to try a lot of things — like I knew if I fell, I didn't know how to get back to sitting upright if I were to fall a certain way,” he explains. “A lot of it was just being scared of something happening while I was trying to figure out how to do things with what I had.”

Star, who was his fiancée at the time, says she saw the therapists build trust with Tyler while they pushed him during therapy sessions.

“They were a pain in his butt most days,” she laughs, “but he would call them for anything now.”

She says they still lean on what they learned at Shepherd Center even four years after Tyler's injury.

“We still say Maddie would say this, or Christina, my respiratory therapist, would have said this. I feel like they were awesome,” Star reflects. And she says the care extended to the whole family.

“Dr. Rahman was his mental health counselor. She's amazing. Not only did she check in with Tyler, but she would text me,” she recalls. “She still texted me after we left to make sure that I was okay too or that his mom was okay. They're really good about checking on the whole family because it is a big change.”

Because Tyler was at Shepherd during the COVID-19 pandemic, outings weren’t as feasible, but the staff set up some date nights, including a movie night and bowling date for the pair, who have been sweethearts since middle school.

When Tyler finished inpatient rehabilitation at Shepherd, he continued rehabilitation in the Day Program. Six months after discharge from inpatient, Tyler and Star married in his grandfather’s backyard.

Since then, they bought a house where you’ll often find some of his seven siblings, who live nearby, hanging out. Tyler likes to cook and play Xbox. He especially enjoys cooking meat on a smoker which he controls from his phone.

Star is a math teacher at the high school where they graduated, and she says she often drags Tyler along to school events. They’ve also made trips to the beach, where Tyler uses an all-terrain track chair. They document some of their adventures and experiences on TikTok @thewolfs0612.

This month, Tyler’s looking forward to a different kind of adventure — completing another tattoo — his sixth.

Other plans for the future? “That I don’t kick the bucket no time soon,” he laughs. “We do a lot of dark humor here.”
 

Written by Ruth Underwood