Yahoo Finance Buddy Valastro Says the Nerve in His Hand 'Feels Back to Normal' 1 Year After Gruesome Injury
Buddy Valastro/Instagram Buddy Valastro
Buddy Valastro is still on the road to recovery, but closer to the finish line than ever.
A year after crushing his hand in a gruesome accident at his home bowling alley, the Cake Boss star told Today on Tuesday that while he "might have to get another surgery over time," he's nearly back to better.
What does he owe that to? "The technology" used by his doctors and surgeons, Valastro said.
"I had nerve damage and she repaired the nerve," he explained. "These fingers here, for like a year, just felt tingly and asleep, but now the nerve's starting to regenerate and it actually feels back to normal. It's so crazy what we can do today with technology."
"You have such a different respect for the doctors — not that I didn't respect them before but when it happens to you, you just think of all those people who helped you get where you are and recover," the Food Network star added. "And through COVID! They really were truly heroes."
RELATED: Buddy Valastro Isn't Sure He Will Bake Again After Bowling Accident: 'My Hands Are My Lifeline'
“I really had no idea what I was going to get back to.”
Buddy Valastro (@CakeBossBuddy) joins us to share a health update one year after a severe hand injury threatened to end his career. “I’m about 95 percent back,” Valastro says. pic.twitter.com/lX3SKKYsLz— TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 5, 2021
RELATED: Buddy Valastro Says His Hand Is 'About 95%' Healed, 1 Year After His Injury: 'I'll Take It'
Valastro, 44, injured himself on Sept. 20, 2020 when his bowling alley's pinsetter malfunctioned while he was spending quality time with his family. As he fixed the issue, his right hand became lodged in the machine and a metal rod impaled his hand three times between his ring finger and middle finger.
After undergoing five reconstructive hand surgeries and physical therapy, the celebrity baker has steadily improved — though looking back to his first surgery, he admitted to TODAY he "really had no idea what I was going to get back to. At that point, I don't think the doctor even knew."
"It was really scary because that's part of me that I call my inner child. When I think about Cake Boss, or I think about these cakes that I make, I think that anything in the world is possible, and then I go and make it happen with my hands. This is what I do," Valastro said. "And I felt like part of that might not ever be there again. It was tough."
He documented his journey on a TLC special called Buddy Valastro: Road to Recovery, and even filmed a third season of his Food Network and discovery+ series with Duff Goldman, Buddy vs. Duff (which he won).
"The fact that I'm here talking to you guys today doing what I'm doing?" Valastro said, with surprise.
"I don't think I'm going to be a hand model," he joked.
RELATED: Buddy Valastro Says His Family 'Stepped Up' to Support Him After Hand Accident
Buddy Valastro/Facebook Buddy Valastro in the hospital on Sept. 23.
In September, Valastro appeared on The Rachael Ray Show where he said he was "about 95%" healed.
Last year, days after his accident, Valastro told PEOPLE that the injury was "the worst pain that I've ever encountered in my life."
"I looked at my hand and blood was gushing everywhere," Valastro recalled. "It looked like a Halloween movie. .... It was all a nightmare."
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His family — wife Lisa and their four children (daughter Sofia, 17, and sons Buddy Jr., 16, Marco, 13, and Carlo, 10) — all lent their support to him throughout his recovery.
"They definitely stepped up to the plate," Valastro told Entertainment Tonight in July. "In times of crisis, you don't know what people's reactions are going to be. 'How are we going to do this?' 'What are we going to do?' We all came together and I am so proud of my boys and thankful to my whole family."
