Hey Everyone,
It has been a long time since I posted. I really didn't have anything exciting to post up....
I am going to write about my experiences since the accident. I was in my neck brace for 5 weeks straight no breaks for showers, sleeping, anything! Yes the collar was looking pretty nasty by the time I got into VGH. Those weeks of waiting feeling lost in the medical system scared me the most as I sat waiting and waiting. Those who have talked to me know the headaches I went through just to see a doctor.
The last 3 weeks since being told I was able to gradually take the collar off have been up and down. My first day I could take my collar off I took it off for 15 minutes maybe before it hurt to much. Each day I worked to take it off longer and longer until at this point I can now go all day without to much pain. After being immobilized for all those weeks my muscles in my neck and back had experienced a lot of atrophy making me to weak to hold up my head. Shortly after the doc at VGH spinal said I would be fine I tried riding my bike on the trainer and remember thinking I needed to go back to vgh my back hurt so much. I stopped riding the trainer or doing much at that point it was to painful. After a few days off again Brian got me back trying to train. It was hard to take a step back and look at what I COULD do not what I thought I SHOULD do but this made all the difference. I am not kidding when I say I rode for 15 minutes some days and would lay on the couch in agony for a couple hours after.
At that point I was back riding which was great but I couldn't really challenge myself that much without my back giving me a lot of grief. Talking to Emile he said going for walks was what helped him last season when he broke both his arms and collarbone. I tried it and man did that make a difference, I experienced less pain and was able to challenge myself more.
The last 10 days I have seen a huge improvements since being able to alternate hikes and riding the trainer and rollers. Yesterday I finally rode a bike outside! I took my mountain bike for a ride on a paved path for an hour, the upright position of the bike made it much easier to ride than my road bike.
Looking back on the last 7 months I have learn't a lot from my first crash in October, the Concussion in December to this. Everyone says I have the worst luck which could be true but I try to look at it as I have pretty good luck. Things could have been so much worse and I am super lucky I can still walk and will be able to return to normal life over the next few months.
As always I have to thank everyone who has supported me, I am worried I have left some one out the last few months are a bit of a blur. Not because of hitting my head or anything like that just all the events seem to clump together.
Shout outs!
-My folks for dealing with me and taking me to all my appointments over the last 2 months
-My brother for driving me to work, support, etc
-Boris for all his support all while working more than anyone I have ever known
-Meghan Grant for all your advice (I probably asked a ton of really dumb questions)
-Jesse McD for keeping me stoked
-My Coach Brian Walton
-Aidan Caves
-My team mates who by the way have been killing it on the bike all season!
-Barry and the local ride crew (Julian, Rich, Mel, Meghan(listed above), Reddys (listed below) Mags, pretty much everyone thanks for the support)
-Bill of Golden Ears Physiotherapy
-The Mulder Family + Eddie ( hilarious snap chats made many of my days)
-Gord and the Reddy Bros
-All my UBCSCC buddies
-Everyone on Escape Velocity
-All the dEVo riders (Brendan, Tess, T-pain)
-Jeff Ain
The list could go on forever these are the people that stand out in my mind right now
Please check out our team page(link below) and like on Facebook, follow on twitter for updates hopefully I will get to represent the team this summer once I am recovered fully and fit! My new Tarmac will hopefully do most of the work for me its unbelievable how light this thing is!
http://www.russhaysracing.com/
Also if you haven't had a chance check out www.velofix.ca give them a look. Boris has brought my previous bikes back from the dead many times. Awesome mechanic and a great guy!
Thanks for reading,
Mike
