Imagine being a normal kid for eleven years and then due to an unbelievable rare condition, spending the next four years of your life literally trapped inside your own body inside a hospital, unable to communicate with the outside world, suffering through non-stop seizures, while your condition worsens and the doctors offer no sliver of hope to your family…all the while you’re still lucid in mind and spirit, desperately trying to get back to the life you once knew.
At the age of eleven, Victoria Arlen developed two rare conditions known as Transverse Myelitis and Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, which rendered her “locked” within herself. She went from being a completely healthy, normal kid to a complete vegetable in three months. She lost the ability to walk, talk, move and function. Everything began to shut down, including all of her cognitive abilities.
Victoria Arlen not only suffered and survived through this unbelievable battle, but has gone far beyond the norm to thrive and has mastered the “never quit” attitude to fuel her extraordinary accomplishments.
She is a current television personality for ESPN, as well as an actress, speaker, model, and World-record setting Paralympian swimmer. Hear her compelling story in this podcast interview with hosts Marcus and Morgan Lutrell.
In this episode you will hear:
- The toughest climb has the prettiest view. When you feel like you can’t climb anymore, keep climbing because the view, once you get the top, is going to be worth all the pain and all the toughness and all those moments of questioning and worrying.
- Your setbacks are setting up a greater comeback.
- The breakthrough is coming but if we spend all our time fighting the breakdown, we’ll never have our breakthrough.
- Believe in a miracle.
- Write your own story. This isn’t how your story ends.
- Lean into your faith.
- When you can’t verbalize what you’re feeling, no one can read your mind.
- If you find your faith, your story doesn’t end in defeat.
- Use your voice to make a difference.
- Tomorrow’s not guaranteed.
- There’s power in leaning on others.
- Your setbacks can bring out a testimony of how good God is.
