Wouldn’t it be nice if you could live with no bad days? What a concept! Julie Maddaleni joins us to share about how even after a life-altering accident that left her boyfriend Cody paralyzed, they’ve continued to remain positive. How? Through the power of mindset.
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Meet Julie:
Julie Maddaleni is creating a life she loves, an athlete, adventurer and dedicated girlfriend. Her boyfriend, Cody, was in a serious accident and she has been by his side cheering him on to reach his goals while continuing to work. It hasn’t been easy, but her attitude, well their attitudes, are amazing and they share their joy in the journey on Instagram and TikTok, @the.gypsy.sole.
Cody’s Life-Changing Accident
Julie and her boyfriend Cody have always loved going on adventures together! As an avid runner, Cody was on a mission to break under a 5 minute mile—his record is 5:02. Unfortunately, one morning while Cody was at work, he was hit by a car while driving a golf cart.
Julie got a phone call at 6 that morning from Cody’s mom—at the time they didn’t know all of the details outside of the fact that the accident left Cody paralyzed. After franticly panicking and pacing around her room, Julie went to the hospital. Cody has a C6 incomplete spinal cord injury that left him with paralysis from the shoulders down.
Julie has continued to work full-time since the accident alongside supporting Cody through his recovery. In the past seven months, Cody has regained function of many motor skills.
A Positive Mindset
While the doctors have been vague in the potential recovery to avoid false hope, Cody has stayed positive from day one. The first words out of his mouth to Julie were joking with her asking if she was still going to go to the Dolphins game without him that weekend.
For Julie, the underlying message was that he would never walk again. In the beginning, Julie was caring for Cody in every way—brushing his teeth, scratching every itch—but they met some people who changed their entire trajectory. They said that after a while of being taken care of, you’d just feel like a sick person. The hospital gave them adaptive equipment, but never encouraged them to try to go back to the way they were doing things. Cody decided right then to start trying things on his own.
For 30 days, Cody moved nothing—now he’s taking care of himself and there is very little that Julie has to do for him.
No Bad Days
When Cody and Julie first met, he would always say something along the lines of, “It’s going to be a great day today!” He’d say this even with nothing exciting happening. That attitude and perspective was so special to Julie.
So when the accident happened, they agreed that they wouldn’t have any bad days. They can have bad moments, but no bad days. What happened to him sucks, but he still has good days every day.
Now they’re sharing this message with others around them.
Unfortunately, insurance is not covering all the bills and if you would like to support this amazing young man you can donate any amount to Cody’s Go Fund Me page. All gifts go towards covering expenses of Cody’s journey to walk again.
Connect with Julie:
https://www.instagram.com/the.gypsy.sole/
https://www.tiktok.com/@thegypsysole
Review the Transcript:
Susan Crews
No bad days. That’s the mantra Julie Maddaleni and Cody live by as they push through his journey to walk again after a tragic accident. Stay tuned and join Julie and I as we talk about that power of mindset Are you dreaming of having the time and energy to create a life you love? Is your calendar full of events? And you’re thinking, there’s no time for me? Do you look like you have it all together on the outside, but on the inside, you’re a hot mess. You’re frustrated and tired all the time. Susan Cruz shines the light on successful women in a few men who have busted the exhaustion cycle by prioritizing herself, released any guilt and have found inner peace while creating a life they love filled with harmony. Join Susan’s candid conversations to learn how these successful women illuminated their inner life to create a radiant life. Welcome to the radiant soul sisters.
Susan Crews
Listeners I am so excited today because I have one of my fellow adventurers. We were at hell on the hill together and at ICE camp together. Her name is Julie Matt aleni. Julie is an amazing young woman who loves to live life to her fullest. And she has a fantastic boyfriend named Cody. And we’re going to share their story today in just a few minutes. But Julie, I am so glad we have finally been able to connect.
Julie Maddaleni
Yes, thank you so much for having me. And you’ve been so patient while I’ve been on this roller coaster and I’m so appreciative.
Susan Crews
Oh, you are welcome. I have mentioned to you in our text or our messaging through Instagram, wherever we happen to be chatting at that at that point in time. I am so excited to have you here on the show. And one of the things that I really would like to do is to share your story as you are Cody’s supporter, Cody, as I mentioned, Cody helter is her boyfriend he too is an adventurist and was an avid runner, I believe, Julie, how fast can he run a mile?
Julie Maddaleni
He got down to a five minute and two second mile. He was trying to get into four minutes, he decided we watched a documentary of the iron cowboy, right. And when we were done watching it, he looked at me and he was like, Well, I feel lazy. And he was like I’m gonna run under a five minute mile. And for 100 days straight. He ran a mile. And he didn’t try every day to get under five minutes. But every Saturday, he would try to break his record and there were only so many treadmills that he could get on that would actually allow him to run that fast because the didn’t go high enough. Wow. And one time we were in Mexico, or we were in Mexico for a friend’s wedding. And he was so excited because the treadmill went up to the proper speed that he needed. And then it broke and the lady came over and she was like, oh, people don’t normally run that fast. And then the second time that he thought he was going to do it. He was at the gym early on a Saturday morning all the treadmills were empty. And this old guy got on the treadmill right next to him. And he was so confused why he was there and it threw him off but he got down to a five minute and two second mile just casually like let me see if I can do this.
Susan Crews
So amazing. So Cody is a big runner. listeners. Julie is working full time. I’d like to give you a little background here. She is working full time she has continued her job after Cody’s accident. I’m gonna let her tell you a little bit about that. And then I want to talk about Julie’s support role and about all the amazing things that they are doing together as a team. Julie, share a little bit of the story with us.
Julie Maddaleni
Yeah, so it was September 19 of 2022. I was actually in Austin, Texas at Cedar trunk ranch the weekend prior and my flight was delayed coming home. So Sunday night probably will say around maybe 9pm. I had connected in Charlotte. And we spoke briefly because he was getting ready to go to bed. He gets up real early for work. And he said I told him I was getting on the road for work. get nine o’clock in the morning. And he was like, Oh, I have to go to Miami. So we’ll talk then, you know, have a good night, said goodbye. My flight ends up getting super delayed. And I landed. I only know the time because you know, when these things happen, you go back and look at them. But he gets up for work. He was getting up around to 230. Sometimes he sneezes, and I landed and I was I had fallen asleep on the plane and I woke up, I was so exhausted. And so I tried to call him on my way home just to try and stay awake because I had about almost an hour drive. And he didn’t answer and I thought maybe he snooze, you know, whatever. So I get home, I get into bed, probably around 330 In the morning, and I’m dead asleep. And I am woken up by my phone ringing and I see his last name on my phone. And I thought Why is he calling me at six in the morning. He note we discussed that we were going to talk at nine o’clock. And I in my sleepy stupor, realized that it said Mama culture. And immediately I knew something was wrong. So I answered the phone. Of course, you’re wide awake at this point. And his mom is just this really sweet, really calm. She just like has a way of she’s she’s such a beautiful human. And she just said, Hey, I’m so sorry to wake you. She said I just want you to know that Cody was in an accident. And he can’t feel his legs. And at the time, we didn’t know exactly what had happened. We thought that he was in a car accident in his car. So immediately I’m just crying. I said let’s just pray. We prayed on the phone. And I think she didn’t want me to be frazzled. So she said, she told me where the hospital where she was at. And she just said, I’m fine. You know, I’ll just call you, you go to work, you take care of things. And I woke up and I just started pacing in my room. And don’t ask me why. But I was like, I need to get in the shower. And in the shower, I’m just crying. And I’m like, I have to go down there. I can’t wait. I have to go down there. If she doesn’t want me there for whatever reason, you know, I’ll I’ll leave but I have to go. So I get in my car drive down there. And at this point, they had run a bunch of tests on him did a bunch of scans and everything. And his mom called me and I immediately told her Hey, just so you know, I’m here. And she said, Oh good. He’s asking for you. And so I said okay, what’s going on, and by the time I was able to get up and see him so she called me some around six in the morning. By the time they got him out of tests and everything I went upstairs into he’s in the ICU. And I did not realize at the time but they had shaved above both of his ears and like implanted something into his head and they literally bolted him to this really like psycho crazy looking bed because they didn’t want his head to move. And then his arms were in their own compartment. His legs were in their own compartment and the whole bed very slowly just tilted back and forth to keep his blood pressure moving. The Miami Dolphins had just had this amazing fourth quarter comeback the day prior. So I walk in to see him. And the first words out of his mouth to me were we were supposed to go to the dolphin spills game the following Sunday. This is Monday morning, his accident, the first words out of his mouth, where are you going to go to the dolphins game without me? And I was like, are you okay? So we find out he’s got a spinal cord injury, the technical term of his injuries. He’s a C six incomplete spinal cord injury. And he had paralysis from the shoulders down basically, um, his wrists and his biceps were not compromised. But other than that, he couldn’t move a thing. He had about 60 staples in the back of his head, we think from where he hit the golf cart on the way out. Sorry, I totally skipped over what actually happened. He was in a golf cart at work in a car hit him right in the dark. In the dark. It was four o’clock in the morning, he flew about 30 feet in the air, landed in grass. Thank God the kid who hit him pulled over he wasn’t drunk, everything was fine. He was really cooperative and we’re so grateful because he was in a residential area. And I don’t know how long he would have laid there before. Someone would have found him the kid called 911. And
Susan Crews
so here you go. You have this super healthy boyfriend who is on this track to run a mile in under five minutes. That’s his goal right now in life right? And you all are really live in a fabulous like doing some great things together to see him him in the hospital in this? I forget psycho bed or crazy bed, whatever the term was you Yeah. Because it’s got that big halo on him where, you know, they don’t want him to move anything. And what were he wanted to know where you’re going to go the football game app without him. But also what is so amazing are some of the other words that come from Cody’s mouth. When they told him that he probably would never walk again. What were the first things he said to you?
Julie Maddaleni
Well, they never actually, everybody’s been really ambiguous, very vague. They give you this, like, we don’t want to give false hope and whatever. But you can read between the lines. Basically, what they told us was just everybody’s different people recover different, you know, but then at the same time, they’re telling you, but there’s a lot of great people who live a great life in a wheelchair. So, to me the message was, you’re never gonna walk again. Gotcha. Okay, um, thank you. So yeah, yeah, a lot of people. A lot of people say that. But nobody ever actually told us those words.
Susan Crews
So how many days now we are in 200 days, 150 days since the accident.
Julie Maddaleni
We just hit the seven month mark. So I would say somewhere around probably like 225.
Susan Crews
Right. Right. And so you know, here Cody was in this bed. But we are in an amazing space, what is he doing now?
Julie Maddaleni
He is able to oh my gosh, he’s able to do so much. I was brushing his teeth, flossing his teeth, scratching every edge, we met these amazing people. And they really kind of changed our TeeJet trajectory. And one of our friends are now friends said to us, listen, maybe you like it, maybe you think you’re a king, you may be like having your teeth brushed and everything done for you. But I promise you after a while, you’re just gonna feel like a sick person. And we went back to our room that night. And he was like, give me my toothbrush, I want to do it. Because the hospital kind of gives you all this, like adaptive equipment. And like, you know, they make you feel like you need to use this. And I think there’s definitely a time in place. Nobody was having him, you know, try anything on his own. So we really just started kind of taking our own separate journey, if you will, and he’s able to stand up with his walker, he’s able to walk on his own. They have this little track, I think it’s 160 feet in the in the gym where he does therapy. And every Wednesday, he walks around it with his walker. And he’s started out at 11 minutes. And he was like, I’m gonna break that record. He got down the next week to 850. And then this week, he was down to like, 612, I want to say, so I put his socks on. I put his shorts on. I don’t really actually you can get into the chair on his own now to there’s not a whole lot that I do for him anymore. Isn’t the he brushes his teeth? You? It is it’s so exciting. It’s so exciting to just watch him for 30 days, he moved nothing. He couldn’t wiggle a toe. He couldn’t I mean, he was he was paralyzed from the chest down. And to even we were just talking the other day saying if someone would have told us then that we were going to be here now. Like, I can’t even imagine. And then I’m like, what is it going to be in seven more months? You know, so it’s exciting. Julie, one of
Susan Crews
the things that I’ll make up about that is I’ll make up that it’s your attitude, and Cody’s attitude, and put them together. And it’s a powerful source because I know you have been an advocate for Cody, you’ve been behind them. You’ve you helped to find the right therapy. And you you’ve been there with it, right. Meanwhile, you’re still working full time. But you’ve been there, what you shared with me before I started recording something that you all agreed to in the very beginning. I would love for you to share that with our listeners about having a bad day.
Julie Maddaleni
Yeah, so let me go back to when I first met Cody, we would talk in the mornings and he would be like, it’s gonna be such a great day today. And I was just getting to know him. So I’d be like, Oh, what’s going on today? Like, clearly something has to be happening, but he’s like, so excited. And he’d be like, I’m gonna go to the work to work. I’m gonna go to the gym. And then I’m gonna go shoot hoops and I’m gonna play kickball tonight because we met playing kickball, and I was like, Okay, so, so it’s just a regular day and he’s like, yeah, it’s gonna be such a good day. And he just has He just has that attitude. And I do as well. But his perspective on life is just, it’s something really special. So we made an agreement that we can have bad moments, and we have to have bad moments because this sucks straight up, it sucks. However, however, we are not going to have bad days, we have our moments. And when we’re done with these moments, he will say to me, Okay, I’m done being sad, like, what do you want to do? Do you want to go do this? Do you want to go here? Do you want to go for a car ride? You know, it’s over. Like, we’re not going to let this overtake us. And we do. We I think we do a pretty good job, even though it’s it, it gets to you sometimes. But overall, I think we’re doing good.
Susan Crews
I think you are doing awesome. I don’t think it’s good. I think it’s awesome. It is it’s so much inspiration in both of your stories, right. And there also is so much love behind the stories that you know, I get cold chills as I say that because this is what the world needs. The world needs more goodness, more love more kindness, right. And I do believe in the way that you guys are sharing everything that’s happening, that it’s just another bright light shining in our world. And in you mentioned it at the beginning of the show, you know, I have have chosen to be flexible with getting you here to record because I can’t even imagine what your day and your schedule looks like between trying to work and trying to eat and trying to take care of yourself as well as be all that you want to be for Cody. Right. And I started to mention that I think I completed it. You know really, Julie, I really want my listeners our listeners to get to know you as a person and into follow along on the Gypsy Soul on Instagram and on Tik Tok, right. Yes, yeah, it took to get to know you as a person. But also, I wanted to share with everybody that you know, if you want to learn more of Cody story, please go to Julie’s social media on Instagram or Tiktok at the Gypsy Soul and you can follow along and learn it too. But to also understand that, you know, here’s one amazing human being that has been unfortunate to be in this accident, and he cannot work right now. And he has this mindset that he’s going to walk again. And I just know that Cody is going to do great things you both are going to do great things with this story. But we need to support Cody. And so I choose to support by donating to your GoFundMe page as well as I don’t have it on today. But I support my Kodi strong T shirts, so others can. And those links will be in the show notes. Julie, what is one thing that you try to do every day for yourself?
Julie Maddaleni
Oh, I’m terrible at that
Julie Maddaleni
the amount of people who say make sure you take care of yourself, make sure you take care of yourself. And it’s all with good intention. And I’m so grateful that people are looking out for me on this journey also. But I actually have a friend who had someone very close to him have a spinal cord injury as well. And he actually gave me the best piece of advice. And he was like, listen, all these people are going to tell you these things. Nobody understands nobody is there every day. Nobody understands what you’re going through, ignore them. And that actually really helped me because I was feeling guilty for not taking care of myself. We were training for a marathon. Prior to this accident. We were up on Saturday morning running 10 miles and you know, then all of a sudden, it’s like, you feel guilty for leaving him or you feel even when he’s like he’s so supportive when when ice camp came up. I said, Do you mind if I go and he just cried and he was like, I want you to go, please go. And it’s like he wants to be there with me. But at the same time, like he knows that it’s good for me and but it just breaks your heart. It breaks your heart and you feel bad, you know while he’s there. So I wish I could tell you there was something I do for myself every day. But recently I have felt like I’m slowly coming back. The more he recovers. The more we kind of move on from this phase work is wrapping up for me from the year. I’ve really had to relearn A new lifestyle. My whole life is completely different, completely different from what it was. We played sports every night of the week. You know, we’re training for this marathon, I have a huge work territory. I’m out on the road all the time. Now, we just like live in this bubble. And if we get out and go to target, we think that we’ve just had the trip of a lifetime, you know?
Susan Crews
Wow, interesting how perspective done, perspective changes, you know, with things when things happen. But I would probably say the one one thing that you did to take care of yourself as you listen to your friend who has been in the same situation, because wow, what good advice, you know, and in like, like I told you, you know, I was willing to be flexible, because I can’t imagine, I can’t imagine. Right. So that’s it. Julie, I am so thankful that you have taken time to be here with us today. And I hope that you have a great trip overnight, with your with your family, and you will enjoy that. And I hope that we will get some more followers on your socials as well as people who will choose to be supporting Cody strong T shirts, or visiting the GoFundMe page.
Julie Maddaleni
Yes, thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this. You’re so sweet.
Susan Crews
You’re welcome. And I hope to see you soon in an adventure somewhere in the world.
Julie Maddaleni
Yes, you will. We will. We’ll be there. Then getting out there both of us.
Susan Crews
That’s right. Thank you again and have a wonderful day.
Julie Maddaleni
Thank you. You too.
Susan Crews
Bye. That was a fun episode of the radiant soul sisters. Thank you for choosing to tune in. Be sure to join me next week when I shine the light on another beautiful woman. Till then I’m Susan cruise, your host and be sure to check out my website at Susan cruise co.com where you will find all the podcast episodes and resources for our community.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
