@quintjl Yes. The lesion on my spine in October 2021 rapidly paralyzed me from the ribs down (I walked into the ER on a Monday morning using a cane for balance, and woke up from a nap Friday afternoon unable to move my legs at all, except for a slight movement of my right baby toe).

They rushed me into the OR for 10+ hours of emergency debulking surgery, but it was weeks before I could do more than move my toes slighly, months before I could sit up unassisted for long or bear weight on my legs, nearly a year before I could move around outside much using a walker (rollator), and nearly two years before I stopped using a cane.

I can now walk, climb stairs, and even ride a bicycle, but I don't have full sensation (I can't always feel if my legs are hot, cold, or fatigued until I start staggering), and I had to recruit other muscles and neural pathways to get back to mobility. It was a grueling 2 hours/day of physio exercises at first, originally lying in the bed, and I still need to do 30 min/day for maintenance or my mobility starts decreasing.

I don't want to sugar-coat this. Many people who get paralysed by a cancerous lesion on their spine never regain mobility, but also, many do. I was lucky (most of all), but also, I had a world-class orthopedic surgeon and rehab facility, I was young (56 at the time) and otherwise fit, and I was insanely/obsessively motivated to walk again, sometimes to my detriment (by overdoing it and backsliding for a couple of weeks).

But the main point is that one can come back from it. It might mean life in a wheelchair (I was mentally prepared for that), or using a walker or cane, but all of those still mean independence.