It was Labor Day, 2009, and I stepped out of my car in NYC to see the US Open.   As an avid tennis player and a member of a nationally ranked doubles team with my oldest son, we had had a good summer on the national father-son tennis tour.  Much to my surprise, I was unable to walk.  My feet burned, my legs were turning blue, and I was unable to feel much below my waist, aside from pain.  To say the least, I was frightened.  My wife and two boys were stunned — they had known me as a very active athlete and healthy person.  “How could this be?” we all wondered. What was wrong with me?  What had happened that all of a sudden I couldn’t walk?

Within 6 months, I was an invalid.  My strength had dissipated to the point at which I could no longer feel my legs.  I lost most of my feeling below the knees and what little feeling I had was unbearable!   I was sick and isolated.  None of my friends had ever had a problem like this, and my doctors couldn’t figure it out.   My wife wheel chaired me around to 20 plus specialists at the best hospitals in Boston – Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, and Beth Israel Deaconess.  We saw neurologists, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, as well as vascular specialists.  My differential diagnosis included, among other conditions:  multiple disc ruptures in my spine; dual tarsal tunnel syndrome in my ankles; late onset Diabetes; as well as a rare version of late onset Muscular Dystrophy – the outcome of some of these conditions being that I would be unable to walk for the rest of my life.  My wife and I didn’t know where to turn, whom to trust or what to do.   My boys were panicked and my parents were grief-stricken as they watched their oldest son suffer with a set of debilitating symptoms no one could diagnose.  In short, my wife and I were alone and afraid.

To add further insult to injury, my father-in-law, whom I loved dearly and who was my ‘buddy’ for the last 27 years, died the night before I was schedule to have surgery to correct the disc herniation that some doctors believed was causing my problems.  WOW.  Was that a terrible set of events?  That next morning, when I went in for surgery, the surgeon told me I would walk out that night.  Rather than walking out, I fell to the floor, having lost power to my legs as a result of the surgery.  Six weeks later, after multiple additional consultations, I had my second back surgery.  This surgeon told me that if all went well, I would walk again in 6 months. Can you believe it?  Six more months of not walking!   I couldn’t believe it.

It is now 22 months since the beginning when I lost all feeling in my legs.  If you are wondering how I am doing – I can tell you that I am recovering – but not fully recovered.   I wouldn’t want what happened to my family and me to happen to anyone else.  My life as I knew it is over due to a combination of factors – many of which will never fully be understood by anyone – even the best and brightest doctors that Boston has to offer.

But there is a bright side:  I was given a new lease on  life — not my original life, for sure, but a new and emergent life; an unexpected life where I can ‘pay it forward’ and return the amazing gifts of CARE I received from the people all around me. They include:  My entire family (Ellen, Michael and Adam), my parents, a friend who injured his back the same time I did, two physical therapists, one hydro (water) therapist, an amazing pair of yoga/meditation instructors, one Myo Fascia therapist, three doctors who wouldn’t give up on me, and a group of elderly men who have been cheering me on in my efforts to rehabilitate daily.

How will I pay it forward you ask:  Simply.  I am going to use my social technology investing, corporate director and advisory skills to help boards and their leaders realize their full potential by more fully connecting and empowering their constituencies.

To begin, I left the company I started (a large social enterprise software company) to work on and with Boards of Directors that wanted to build social networks of customers and employees, partners and investors to create new products and services that create a better world.  In healthcare, I believe we can use social technologies and open innovation to develop new therapies, prevention networks, and congressional changes based on the power of the network.   For example, I joined the US Against Alzheimer’s Network’s board, because its founders and board members believed that they could stop Alzheimer’s by 2020 by embracing today’s technologies to change the playing field.  Together, US Against Alzheimer’s Network is building a network of people, including researchers, caregivers, and Congressional Leaders, who want to make a difference in a dreaded and personal disease.

Now I don’t have Alzheimer’s, but I surely know what it is like to lose a loved one (my father-in-law, pictured), to be isolated and in pain, and to have to assemble a care group on one’s own, just to make it through the day.  I believe that lonely journeys can be averted.  All we have to do is care, use the power of today’s social networking software and create a movement to challenge the status quo. You can join the US Against Alzheimer’s Network and make a difference.  I hope you will.  I know that, together, we can ‘pay it forward’ to the generations that will follow us.  It is our opportunity.  Let’s not waste it.  Let’s build a Network of US that stops Alzheimer’s by 2020.