HI guys.  I’m on such a different level that I’m fluctuating all over the place on an hourly basis, so I’m anywhere from sort of normal, which is a very short thing, to completely jacked, thus I can barely open my eyes and my head is throbbing like the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life.

It is so weird because I’ve crashed and hit my head on the ground quite a few times in my career.  Usually when this happens, I break my collarbone, shoulder, ribs, or something else that overrides the head issue.

This time all I have going against me is my skull being fractured.  Honestly, I actually haven’t seen a real image of how bad a fracture I have, but it is pretty bad.  At least the way my head feels, it is pretty bad.  Both my ears are pretty clogged because they are backed up with blood on the inside.  Thus, I am not hearing very well at any time.

I’m maybe sleeping around 4 hours a day now.  Usually at night I sleep around 2 hours before I wake with a crazy headache.  Then during the rest of the day, I sleep an hour or so a couple more times.

The only way I can sleep is when I take a Perocet an hour before I go to bed.  Perocet along with some ibuprofen give me a couple hours relief.  As soon as that wears off, then it is impossible to sleep anymore.  So, I listen to NPR and just lay around with a cat or Tucker, depending on what time of the day or night it is.

I don’t have another doctors appointment until next Wednesday.  I’m seeing the neurosurgeon on Wednesday morning, then going to an eye doctor to try to figure out why I’m not seeing very well out of my right eye as of yet.  I assume when the head swelling goes down, then the hearing and vision problems won’t be around, but that maybe an all wrong thought, I’m not sure.

I’m losing weight too.  Like crazy.  I think I’m already to about the lightest weight I’ve been the last 3 years and it is just falling a pound a day or so.  I guess I haven’t been eating that much, but can’t really get that under control as of yet.  I’m not exercising at all, which is officially against doctor’s orders.  Even if it wasn’t, I woudn’t be doing it.  My head is so sore that it doesn’t even cross my mind to exercise at all.

The neurosurgeon told me I couldn’t ride for 4 weeks, but he really meant 8.  It will be two weeks by Friday.  It hasn’t gotten any better, so maybe 4 weeks is going to be way too short.  My balance and head are so off that riding a bicycle wouldn’t be the best idea yet.

Yesterday I got a FedEx package from the guys at Strava.  I don’t really know those guys, but am really into going there sometime to check them out.  They sent a super nice t-shirt, plus a Strava jersey that is signed by all the guys at the Strava office, wishing me a quick recovery.  Pretty nice surprise.

Tucker has been super clingy.  He is pretty much following me anywhere I happen to be at.  He sleeps at my feet or my lap pretty much 24/7.  I would love to take him out to the country to let him run loose, but I don’t have that ability right now.  I plan on turning the corner on this stupid head pain soon, so walking in the country will be easy and a daily basis.  RIght now, it isn’t happening.

Okay, I made it until 1 am this morning, now have been awake and it’s approaching 5 am. Listening to the BBC is alright now.  They are sort of skipping the political stuff with Trump and Hillary, so the BBC is okay listening.   The next two weeks is still going to be way too slow for me. It has been raining  the last couple hours, with lots of lightening happening.  It makes the night more interesting.  I took another oxycodone, so I might be able to sleep a couple more hours soon.  Or not, it really doesn’t matter.

Strava jersey that showed up yesterday.

I crashed and fractured my skull two weeks ago today.  Man, has it been a long time.  Things have been going way worse than I’ve every experienced, so I kind of mixed up the recovery yesterday.  We’ll see how that goes.  So far, nothing new, which mainly means I’m at square one.

Yesterday, Stacie, my friend, and an orthopedic doctor from Louisville, called a neurosurgeon from Kentucky and talked to him about me for a while.  He told Stacie that I’m going to have this headache thing going on for a bit.  Maybe up to two months or longer.  So now I’m on a 7 day prescription of a pretty high dose steroid, along with Celebrex, which together, should reduce the swelling in my head and make it so I can sleep some.  Man, I can only hope.  This has been ridiculously frustrating.

Bill has ridden a couple times.  He is riding his MTB around town for a hour or so.  He has a bunch of broken ribs and collapsed one of his lungs, so he is going to be slowly healing too.  He is doing way better than me, but it is still going to be a while before he is back up to speed.

Days really are really long when I’m only sleeping a couple hours every 24.  Night especially.  I’ve been sitting in the kitchen, with my head on the kitchen table, listening to the BBC from midnight until dawn.  Last night, I might of slept another hour on the table, but my neck was so stiff that it wasn’t really an advantage.

Okay, all these posts just seem like the same thing over and over.  But man, I don’t remember being in a situation like this before.  Like I wrote yesterday, I haven’t seen a x-ray or CAT scan of my skull, so I’m not even sure where it is broken.  They said two different places, but the whole thing hurts so badly that I couldn’t tell you where it is cracked.  It really doesn’t matter I guess.

Trudi pulled the staples out of my head yesterday.  They had been there for nearly two weeks, so they should have been yanked out earlier.  They were loose, so it didn’t take long and didn’t hurt at all.  I tried to get my head surgeon doctor appointment moved up, but they didn’t seem to want to call back.  Maybe today they might move it up a day or two.  That would a nice , appropriate thing.

Kris sent me some photos he took at the crash.  I have no recollection of anything associated with it, so it all looked new to me.  KInd of surprised there isn’t a picture of the dog.  I don’t think anyone on the ride actually knows the dog I flipped over.  I surely don’t.   Okay, pictures are below.  I’d normally say thank god it’s Friday, but I hardly know that, so it is just another day of the week, the same as it has been the last 14.

Laying in the middle of the road. Bill ran into me from behind and is on the edge of the road.  They cut all my clothing off in the ambulance.

Loading me onto the stretcher.

I don’t have my bike, so don’t know what is the matter with it. Obviously the rear wheel is not good.

I guess I left a puddle of blood on the ground after I left.