Below Deckviewers haven’t seen the last ofLee Rosbachthis season just yet.
The longtime yacht captain had to unexpectedly depart season 10on Monday’s episode due to nerve damage in his left leg, withCaptain Sandy YawnfromBelow Deck Mediterraneanstepping in to relieve him. But, he tells PEOPLE exclusively, he’ll be back later this season.
“That was a very proud moment for me,” he adds. “I wanted to be able to finish what I started.”
Karolina Wojtasik/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Rosbach still doesn’t know what caused his nerve issues, explaining that doctors have determined that two previous operations — one on his back and one on his neck — both went “extremely well” and didn’t impact his nerve.
Regardless, things got so bad for Rosbach over the course of his time aboard theSt. Davidmotor yacht that he wasn’t able to feel anything on the left side of his body, making it impossible for him to stand and keep his balance.
“My mind’s there, my heart’s there, my body just won’t cooperate,” he said on Monday’s episode. “I’ve never quit, and this time, I have to.”
“I finally gave myself a plane ticket home, but it’s round trip,” he told his crew. “I’m going to go back to the States, get this straightened out and as soon as I do I’ll be on the first plane back here and tell whoever’s on board to get the f— off my boat.”
Walking away from the show wasn’t easy. “That’s something I’ve never done in my life,” he tells PEOPLE. “I’ve never quit. I’ve never had to say I quit. And it was really, really hard to admit, especially to myself, that there’s something out there that kicked my ass. That was a hard pill to swallow.”
Captian Lee Rosbach.Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
So how did Rosbach get back on board? Turns out, extensive physical therapy helped him strengthen his muscles so he could work around it.
“Gosh, the progress with nerves is really slow,” he explains to PEOPLE. “Nerves regenerate about four millimeters a month. And if I wanted to get back, I had to bust my hump and not pay attention to the nerve issue, but pay attention to getting the muscles stronger so that I could physically perform my duties. Because I had atrophy, where my muscles had weakened because of underuse. So that’s what I concentrated on; the muscles. The nerve, that’ll happen when it happens, and it’s going to be slow.”
Rosbach says he sometimes went to physical therapy as many as six days a week. “If they were open, I was there,” he says.
A massage therapist and a clinician would come to the house, too, as part of his treatment.
Captain Lee Rosbach.Laurent Bassett/Bravo
Indeed he did. Rosbach says he’s now feeling “great,” adding that “right now, everything’s in a good place.”
“It was a bit of a rough patch there,” he says. “I felt like Chester inGunsmoke!”
He’s especially grateful to his wife, Mary Anne, for being a “tremendous support” during his healing, as well as fans for all the love they’ve shown him.
“The outpouring of sympathy was just overwhelming,” he says, joking that there was so much kindness coming his way, “I thought I died!”
“But I’m still here,” he jokes. “It’s going to take more than that to stop me.”
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Below Deckairs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
source: people.com
