I really haven’t been using a computer or my phone much the past week or so. I’m having crazy severe headaches, which makes reading things pretty undoable. I can only hope that this whole thing clears up quicker than slower.
I guess the deal is that my skull is cracked pretty good. Good enough that there is a fair amount of swelling that makes a day super long and painful. I haven’t done a CT scan for since late last week, so this week I should find out if maybe things are getting better. Because this headache thing is pretty debilitating. Like I’m not really sleeping at all and just lay around with a crazy pain just about everywhere in my head.
I hope to eventually go and read all the emails and texts, etc. I’ve received the last week. I have over 700 emails now, but can’t really put much effort into trying to read them. I’ve got a ton of texts too. Lance sent me a text, which was pretty surprising. I don’t really answer any, but plan to in just a bit.
I was planing on going out to LA and do the Donut Ride last Saturday, along with the South Bay Award Ceremony that Seth puts on. That didn’t happen. I guess I’m not supposed to ride my bike for at least 4 weeks, maybe 8. Man, that seems like forever, but it has been 10 days so far and I’m still at square one, so 4 weeks might come along pretty quickly.
I’m taking a bunch of different medicine. Anti seizure medicine, pain pills, stool softeners, you name it, I’m taking it. And it really isn’t working nearly as well as I had hoped. Hopefully when the swelling get less, these headaches will go away and everything will seem much better. Until then, I’m just going through a day an hour at a time. I really haven’t slept in a week, which is getting pretty old. Hopefully this will all change pretty quick and I can sleep all day and night and get feeling better quickly.
Okay, this is about all I can write this morning. I’ll try to post more often, when things gets feeling just a tad better.
Tucker has been super. He has been just hanging with me, waiting until I feel better.
Keep recovering, Steve! We are pulling for you!
I pray for you with belief and expectatation. Just believe.
Just put your considerible energy into healing.
We’re here for you and Trudi.
Either way, you’re still my mentor. Heal up.
Tucker knows what’s up
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-do-dogs-see-with-their-noses-alexandra-horowitz
Heal quickly. Your bikes are waiting.
Quit posting, your brain needs the rest!
you are healthy and will heal much quicker than most. hang in there.
Activate text to speech on your Mac. You highlight the text and it will read it for you.
get well soon… can’t be easy going through that. Life sometimes throws curve balls that’s for sure.
Hang in there Steve and hope you can get some rest.
I love reading your blog, but if you don’t post another word for a year, I’ll live.
Leave your screens alone and get your brain some rest.
Doctor’s orders.
Trudi, Victor and the rest of your crew can keep us updated.
Get well quick and let your batteries recharge. If you don’t get on a bike til the New Year, you’ll be just fine.
Hang in there, Steve. I hope you experience a turnaround soon.
I’ve been reading about your crash since it happened. I’ve been reluctant to respond, even though I was in a similar accident 16 years ago — but I was wearing my helmet.
I don’t remember anything about what happened, but when I woke up in the trauma center with about 10 people staring over me, the first thing they asked me is if I could move my legs. I looked down and saw saw my arms and legs covered in what looked like a hamburger/dirt/blood slurry. I moved my feet and legs with no hesitation, but when I tried to respond to the staff I wasn’t able to speak, as I had bit my tongue in half, and my top lip was severed and my face had swollen up. I quickly passed out again, regaining consciousness a few hours later.
Once I awoke and was coherent enough to tell them that I had a list of emergency numbers in the back of my cycling jersey that I was laying on, they rushed me in for a CAT scan, to reveal a severe concussion. After I was stabilized, they sent me into surgery to put my face back together and pick the myriad of rocks and other junk out of my face, arms and legs. When I went into the bathroom the next morning, I didn’t even recognize myself in the mirror — I looked like something out of a B horror movie. My face was still swollen and bruised. Somehow my teeth were fine, which I would have smiled about if I could have.
My forearms suffered abrasions from my wrists up, especially bad on the left side of my body where I seem to have fallen towards. My legs were just about as bad, but didn’t hurt too bad compared to my face and my head.
My insurance company made the decision that I was well enough to be sent home. They loaded me up with every kind of Oxywhateverdone drugs they had, which made me feel much much worse. I stopped taking them after two days of being home and just kind of put up with it.
I went back to see my plastic surgeon a week after he put my face back together. My recovery had been pretty quick, and I even went back to work a week later.
My speech has never been the same, but that’s mostly from scar tissue and numbness around most of the lower part of my chin and jaw. I don’t care about the scars on my face and arms, as I’m pretty thankful to be alive.
To bookend this, I was told by the doctor in the trauma center that I most likely didn’t have any other of these kinds of concussions left in me, and that I should reconsider getting back on the bike again. I considered it for about a second and was out riding about 3 weeks after my crash, but still with the thought in my head that another crash could be the end of it. Of course another crash happened, but this time I was on my mountain bike, but I fell backwards off of a cliff when some very narrow singletrack gave way under my bike. It was a stupid thing for me to try and ride, but I did it and it was my fault. It was yet another concussion. The one after that was a crash that happened when I was riding the Levi Trow Mounds in Wisconsin. I was riding too fast and biffed it into a tree, getting knocked out yet again.
So that’s it. I’m done riding now. I always take risks and know I’ll do it again, so the best way to avoid it is to stay off the bike entirely. I am however thinking about getting a tadpole recumbent bike and hitting the bike trails on those. If I crash, I won’t have very far to fall, if at all.
I’m sure you’ll find your own road to recovery and you’ll find your way back onto the bike in your own terms.
Glad to get this update steve- I know this must suck but I hope you are a speedy road to recovery
Get well Steve, and give yourself time to get well. The bike will be there 8, 12, 16 weeks, however long it takes. Besides, the longer you let yourself heal, the more riding you can justify when you do get back on.
You’re in our thoughts and prayers.
Get well soon man, lot’s of positive thoughts headed your way.
is medical marijuana a realistic option to help some of the pain and sleeping problems ?
I rushed back to the bike after a very bad concussion last year–the bike always made me feel better when I was sick or injured or down. I’ll never know if it hurt me or helped me, but probably the most important thing is that in the year after I did not receive another head injury. Balance and concentration can be severely compromised after head injury–I would highly recommend the trainer and/or hiking or other low-risk sports until things come close to resolving. Just take it slow!!
Not in Kansas
Sounds like you are making positive steps towards moving forward. Don’t worry about the pressure to post…we will all be here cheering you on whether you post or not! Just concentrate on healing right now. Hope you headaches lessen and you can sleep…gee that must be awful. You have one hell of a fit body which should help you heal faster than us mere mortals. Hang in there Steve, heal, heal, heat!
Go hang out with vincent in Colorado – see what your docs think about medical me…