Five Years Later: Still Worth the Wait
This is a follow up story from It’s Worth the Wait, published March 30, 2021
In March 2021, her world changed in an instant.
After undergoing spinal surgery to remove a tumor, she woke up partially paralyzed in her left leg, unsure if she would ever walk again, let alone return to the field hockey goal. Yet even in those earliest moments, her mindset never wavered: she would find a way back.
Five years later, Caylie McMahon’s story isn’t just about a comeback. It’s about redefining what perseverance truly means.
Following surgery on March 12, 2021, months of rehabilitation stretched into the late summer as she relearned how to navigate everyday life. With no feeling from her knee to her ankle in her left leg, even walking required intense focus. Mirror therapy helped retrain her brain, while hours in physical therapy rebuilt muscles that had significantly atrophied.
By the time she arrived on campus at the University of Michigan that fall, she redshirted her freshman season — not as a setback, but as a necessary investment in her future.
Although she was medically cleared by her Boston Children’s Hospital doctors that July, the Michigan Athletic Training staff implemented a more gradual return-to-play protocol to protect her long-term health and allow her to fully heal while rebuilding strength.
She spent that first year patiently recalibrating her body, working on stationary clears, footwork, strength training, and nutrition before finally being cleared for full contact in October 2021.
“It wasn’t always about playing in games,” she said. “My comeback was about playing the game I love and being with your teammates.”
Caylie’s sophomore season marked another step forward as she split time in goal with a fifth-year goalkeeper. But recovery is rarely linear.
Fatigue lingered as her body continued adjusting after all the muscle atrophy, and the mental demands of returning to elite competition proved just as challenging as the physical ones.
By her junior year, she earned the starting role — a milestone that reflected years of persistence and she experienced significant growth both on and off the field. Still, injuries resurfaced. A groin strain in the offseason forced her to once again lean into the resilience she had spent years developing.
Then came her senior season — the lowest point of her collegiate career.
Just two days before preseason, Caylie pulled her quad, sidelining her for six weeks. Shortly after returning, a high hamstring tear kept her out from October through April.
Doctors later attributed the injuries to muscle imbalances stemming from her original back and leg trauma, with much of the strain shifting to her right side.
“It was a wake-up call. I leaned on sport psychology and nutrition and really had to rethink how I was caring for my body. I knew I didn’t want to leave Michigan, not playing and especially injured in my senior year.”
But the setbacks reshaped her understanding of success.
“When I was younger, I pictured this insane comeback story where I’d be an All-American. After everything, my definition of a comeback completely changed. It became about being the best teammate I could be and playing with my friends. I’m not going to miss keeping the ball out of the cage, but I’m going to miss competing with my teammates.”
After rehabbing her hamstring appearing in the team’s final spring game in April 2025, another unexpected hurdle emerged.
On April 20, Caylie began experiencing numbness and tingling throughout her body. Her hands stiffened, and her roommates rushed her to the University of Michigan hospital. While waiting, her feet went numb — “like they were asleep.”
She spent four days undergoing MRIs and testing before doctors diagnosed a rare neurological disorder that can cause her brain to intermittently paralyze parts of her body.
“For a moment, it felt like déjà vu.”
She relied on a cane for about a week after leaving the hospital and immediately returned to physical therapy, spending nearly four months, from April until when season started again in August, regaining full use of her hands and adjusting to the lingering sensations in her feet.
Even today, those sensations occasionally remain.
Unable to play until July, she worked closely with Michigan’s strength staff to retrain her running gait, improve spatial awareness, and incorporate sensory exercises to “wake up” her feet.
Heading into her final season, the priority was simple: stay healthy enough to compete.
“I went in with the mindset that I wanted to bring energy and be a great teammate and the playing would come on its own. Having a new setback come in April right before my final year was worrisome, I kept thinking is this going to happen again?”
Despite every obstacle, Caylie achieved the goals that once felt impossible back in 2021: she returned to the goal.
“To me, getting back on the field was everything. Being able to share that with my teammates meant more than anything else.”
Michigan stood firmly behind her throughout the journey, supporting her recovery while helping her manage the realities of competing at the highest collegiate level. Regular follow-ups, continued rehab, and communication with the medical professionals who first helped her in 2021 remain part of her life today.
And while she still competes without feeling below the knee in her left leg, it has become simply another aspect of her game — something she has learned to adapt to rather than fear.
In May 2025, Caylie graduated with a degree in statistics and is finishing up a one-year master’s program in business analytics while exploring careers in finance and consulting.
For the first time in years, she is allowing herself a moment to breathe, spend time with family and reflect on just how far she has come.
But her story with Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital is far from over.
On April 20, 2026 —five years after her surgery and exactly one year to the date of when she was hospitalized again— she plans to run the Boston Marathon, raising funds for the hospital that helped change her life.
“I want to give back to the place that gave me so much.”
Field hockey will always remain part of her identity. She currently coaches with Fer De Lance in Ann Arbor, Mich. and hasn’t ruled out playing again someday.
Because if her journey has proven anything, it’s that her relationship with the sport extends far beyond the circle.
Caylie’s story is no longer defined by whether she made it back.
It’s defined by how she kept showing up. Through paralysis, setbacks, reinvention, and uncertainty, she always choose the harder path again and again.
The comeback she once imagined may look different than expected.
But in every way that matters, it was still worth the wait.
