'It was a freak accident,' said Jeff as he plans his return to WRAL

Jeff Hogan will be back on the air Monday morning after a bodysurfing accident more than two weeks ago.

"This is just a bump in the road," Jeff told Renee when she visited him at a recent physical therapy appointment. "This is a challenge for me, I approach everything as a challenge, and I will conquer it."

The challenge Jeff is now trying to work through now is numbness and stiffness in his fingers. Those are nothing compared to the challenges he faced after the accident on July 28 -- including a head gash, a concussion and temporary paralysis.

"It was such a freak accident that I can't get it past my head, like how this all happened," said Jeff.

Jeff and his daughters, Kate and Skyler, were bodysurfing at Wrightsville Beach when they all caught the same wave. Jeff hit his head on a sandbar.

"I was completely paralyzed facedown in the water," he said.

"A wave came over him, a whitecap completely covered him, so I freaked out and then I turn around and Kate had him and then I grabbed him and we held him up until we could get help," said Skyler.

Jeff's daughters pulled him out of the water with help from others, and his wife, Jeanne, rushed to his side.

"Skyler was saying, 'Look Mom, he can hear, he's blinking to let you know he's here,' but he couldn't move anything," said Jeanne. "So I just grabbed onto a police officer who was there on the scene to hang on and pray that he'd be able to move again."

Day after day, Jeff could move a little more.

"Tying my shoes was a big day, that was great," he said. "Buttoning a button was awesome."

The accident jammed Jeff's neck, so he has to wear a neck brace.

"The doctors said, 'You're 50 Jeff, but you looks 40, but your neck is 65,' so I need to take care of my neck like it's an old man," said Jeff.

When Jeff was asked why he was in the water on a red flag day, he responded:

"Thousands of people were in the water that day. Not that that makes it right, but there were no rip currents in that area at all. It was such a freak accident that I don't second guess the decision to be in the water.

This has been one of those things that makes you think about life a little bit, makes you think about how precious it is -- and it's been eye-opening."