He wasn’t able to take his first step until Jan. 5.

He hadn’t been able to do that since he was paralyzed from the neck down after a body surfing accident in Maui July 3.

Recovery is going too slow for Duitsman, who admits he isn’t a patient man. The 46-year-old father of three used to be always on the go. When he wasn’t selling properties as a Realtor for Keller Williams in Marysville, he was coaching at least one of his kids in soccer or basketball or playing sports himself.

“I went from being able to do everything to being able to do nothing,” he said. “It was humbling.”

Despite the drastic change in his life, Duitsman remains amazingly optimistic. He said he has always been able to control the way his mind thinks so he can be upbeat. He said he never has been down about his condition or asked, “Why me?”

“I have a choice, and I choose to be happy and positive,” he said, adding as a Realtor and former Amway salesman he has heard a lot of negative, and he has a special ability to tune it out.

A competitive man by nature, he is determined to beat this.

“I’m getting better all the time,” he said Jan. 6.

Duitsman works two to four hours daily trying to stretch the limits of movement with the help of a physical therapist, occupational therapist and trainer.

“And I’m constantly moving on my own,” he said as he bent forward at the waist while in his super-duper wheelchair.

His wife, Tammi, said she was ecstatic when he took his first step.

“Day to day it’s hard to see,” she said. “But when I look back and remember how far he’s come it’s amazing to see.”

Now that Duitsman has taken his first step, his goal is to take “more steps; to keep pushing the boundaries. I want to take steps, not just slide my feet. I want to dance with my wife.”

He is excited about a new treatment he is going to take on in a few weeks in Bellevue. He is going to be placed in a harness and put on a treadmill.

“It’s such a miracle. The body is amazing,” he said.

The accident

Last summer, Duitsman, his family and some friends went to Hawaii to celebrate his daughter graduating from Lakewood High School. He got off the plane had some lunch and went body surfing with friend Barry Gould, the boys basketball coach at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

Always the competitor, he was trying to beat Gould on who could ride a wave the farthest.

He started to go on a big wave, but then saw the next one was even bigger. So, he jumped on that one and turned into a “human dart,” being shot headfirst into the sand. Gould had to carry him out of the water.

Duitsman was fortunate that he didn’t break his neck, and that his vertebrae did not have a fracture or contusion. But there was tremendous swelling between the third and fourth vertebrae. Because they were floating, they had to be clamped.

Doctors said it could take two years for that swelling to go down completely in the spinal cord. Once that happens, he will know how much movement he will have in the future.

Duitsman said he knew he wasn’t going to be completely paralyzed about two weeks after the accident because, “I was able to wiggle my toes.”

But even though he felt that way, the doctors weren’t as confident.

“The doctors do a pretty good job of not saying you’re going to get better,” he said. “It’s murky. They don’t tell you they don’t know.”

When he was first hurt he didn’t have any pain medication for five days because he wanted to be able to feel everything. A nurse finally made him take medication when he thought he was going to die.

“I had a lot of flam in my throat, and I couldn’t even cough it up,” he said. “Doctors are important, but nurses make or break you.”

He said his wife of 22 years is his best nurse of all because she pays attention to details.

“I’m not very patient. I’m a control freak in the real world,” he said. The accident “took away my ability to control. My wife has to feed me and floss my teeth.”

But even though she’s known him since she was 5-years-old, she still can’t read his mind. So it can be an irritant when she gives him a bite of something when he wants a bite of something else. He so badly wants to do it himself.

“I typically don’t ask for help in my life. It goes so deep it’s crazy,” he said.

Tammi said even though Duitsman said he lacks patience he is a great patient.

“He encourages me. He’s easy to take care of because he’s so positive,” she said.

Duitsman said he always thinks he’s going to win, even when he’s losing. He said he lost everything financially when he was 30 and again after the accident but he still is confident.

“She’s way more realistic,” he said of Tammi.

He also said he doesn’t know what he would do without friends Gil and Dorris Palafox, who took the Duitsmans into their home after the accident.

Duitsman said he can’t feel sharp pain as his feelings are fuzzy. But when he thinks about movements, he can do them.

“Ever since the accident happened I always thought I would walk again,” he said. “I have dreams about walking.”

He said he has visualized running down Mount Pilchuck in his mind.

“Now, in the middle of the night, he will run while in bed,” Tammi said.

He also visualizes tossing a ball from one hand to the other. He doesn’t use an actual ball, but he can make some of those motions.

And he visualizes himself healing. He sees thousands of minions cleaning up the problems in his spine, and saying, “We’ve got it from here.”

The future

Duitsman is wondering what to do now with his life. Whether it involves selling real estate or something else, he knows it has to involve people.

“Human beings are very, very precious. Life is amazing,” he said emotionally, smiling with teary yet twinkling eyes.

He recently has done some inspirational speaking, first at a business convention and then at his church. He said he told them he’s not just a “slab of meat with a head.”

“I want to affect people in a positive way,” he said. “This has given me a tremendous amount of time to think. The Lord has blessed me.”

What impresses Tammi the most about his talks is that the focus is not himself, but “how he has learned to love others through this.”

Duitsman said he wants to write a book. He has a phone on his wheelchair that he has learned to manipulate so he can talk, and it will take notes for him. He said he also would like to coach high school basketball someday.

Duitsman said he has always been a compassionate person, but the accident has heightened his feelings.

“We all have a soul, and we decide if we want to caress and touch it to make it burn brighter,” he said.

For a video on Todd taking his first step, go to: