March 24 to April 14,
2013
Read a book, The Long Run, by Matt Long a New York City
fireman who was run over by a bus while riding his bike. The bus had to be
lifted off of him with a crane and the seat post went up his butt and came out
through his stomach. He had many shattered bones and required 42 surgeries and
62 units of blood to put him back together. He was a marathon runner and an
Ironman triathlete and his fitness level kept him alive. It’s strange how we
differ in handling life changing events. Matt Long was driven to become an
‘athlete’ again and through absolute determination with a few hic-cups along
the way, he was able to train and run his first mile in 17 minutes and complete
a marathon in 7 hours 21 minutes and then complete an Ironman in 16:58 with a
cutoff time of 17 hours. Well done Matt Long.
It was interesting to note that
he gave up for a while and was wallowing in self-pity. He wouldn’t let his
friends come and visit him, the same thing I did during my depression. Our only similarity. Then his
Mother got fed up with his whining and yelled at him and that was incentive to
get going again. He had a great support network with all the firemen, the mayor
of New York, the Governor of New York to mention a few. Support groups are so
important for recovery and rehab and nothing beats mine. He had firemen driving
him around, I have friends from the Silver Spokes Cycling Club and Martial Arts
Canada drive me to London. It also helped that he was a cocky New Yorker with a
fairly big ego that was a major factor in getting him going again.
He played
the blame game. He blamed the leader of the New York Transit workers Union for
his injury. If there hadn’t been a transit strike at the time, the commuter bus
that hit him wouldn’t have been on the road. It seems he was meant to live; his
fire truck was late getting to the Trade Towers on 911 as they had to wait for
one of their buddies. They got there as the first tower came down. If they hadn’t
been late they would have been in the tower. Hmmm guess it wasn’t his turn. That is where we differ, I don’t have anyone to blame for my
crash, ‘shit happens’. I think it would be good to have someone or something to
vent on about my condition, not that I am frustrated about crash but Matt Long
was very angry with the union leader. Don’t know if that helped or hindered him
in his recover. Matt’s driving force was to do the marathon and Ironman again.
Although from doing marathons, they are hard but you just put one foot in front
of the other ‘til it’s done. Same with an Ironman, I found the transition to be
the best part when you could tell yourself, I am finally finished the swim and
you can’t wait to get on the bike. After the bike it feels good to start the
run. Now the hard part would be doing it with all of Matt’s injuries and big kudos
to him for finishing the Ironman in a grueling 16 hours 58 minutes. Again he
had a support group. He had one of the top female triathletes come out and run
with him which helped him make it under the 17 hour cut-off time. Wonder what kind of mind games he had to play
to get through it.
I am going to go to Grand Rapids to pick up my bike, opps
that’s trike not bike, on April 27th. I have started riding the trainer
again and did 28.3 k this week. Just hoping the muscle tone goes away on the
trike. The seat will be at a different angle and the tension will be different.
Now, here’s my long term goal, to do the National 24 Hour Challenge in June
2014. To be able to ride all night, I will have to do the big loop of 200 k,
then at least one middle loop of 35 k and as many of the night time loops of 13
k as I can get done. The start is at 8 o’clock on Saturday and the finish at 8
on Sunday morning. Since Darcy says I can’t ride alone, a couple of the Silver
Spokes said they would accompany me. The course has some little rollers and
climbing hills on a recumbent is a little more difficult than climbing hills on
an upright bike. You can’t use your body weight to turn the pedals. It’s like
doing a leg press…going to be interesting.
Therapy has been going well. There are bad days and good
days. Usually, Monday’s aren’t the best after 2 days rest. You’d think it would
be different that the 2 days rest would be beneficial. Perhaps it is that the
brain forgets how to walk in 2 days. The treadmill program is going to end on
April 23rd. I will really miss it. I believe I have come a long way
in the program. I can now get my legs walking even though they move my legs. On
occasion they stop moving my right leg and at slow speed I can take steps with
it my right with no assistance. I can’t do it with the left as the left leg is
week and I can’t bend my left knee very well so it is hard to take a step.
Instead of bending my knee and stepping, I try to lift my left hip to get my
foot off the floor. The hamstring is very weak and because it’s weak, I try to
use all other muscles to lift the foot. It is actually quite funny as I try to
use my neck, it turns on. I lift my
right shoulder and I even move my jaw to help get the foot off the floor. Makes
for very strange facial expressions.
When the treadmill program ends, I am going to join the
Anytime Gym by Sobeys. Darcy had a look around and it is wheelchair accessible.
I should be able to use some of the equipment. The benches are low so I’ll need
help get on and off them…we’ll see. I need to do to do some work on my right
arm, because the arm is getting weaker it feels heavy to move around. I’ve been
concentrating on the legs and forgot about the arms. I figured by using my
right arm to move me around was enough to keep it strong. It may also be
missing some wiring and it may need work all the time to keep it strong. After
the treadmill program, I will be going back into the regular therapy program
with the Laura, the same Physio I had before. It will only be twice a week but
that will give me time for the gym and oh yah I’ll need time to train on the
trike as well.
After reading the Long Run there were some pictures of Matt
before and after. I am going to put some pictures and videos in to show the
then and now. One ‘big’ difference is weight. I was 175 pounds when I went into
Toronto Western and then all the muscle fell off and in a month I was down to
159. At Parkwood they wanted me at 190
pound and I managed to get up to 175 pounds. Now I am at a svelte 220 pounds.
That is the first time ever that my weight has started with a 2….grrrrrrr. If
you do the math, I‘ve gained 61 pounds….yikes! Unfortunately, I have the same
appetite and burn off a fraction of what I did in the past….go figure.
Although, they say that people in my condition fare a little better than skinny
folk.
Oh yes, just in, I got another challenge that I can’t pass
up. A friend of mine needs to lose some weight and needs something to motivate
her to exercise. She knows I am getting a trike and she challenged me to train
and do the MS ride with her from Grand Bend to London and back for a total of
150 k. A piece of cake…hmmmm…we’ll see. And another, ‘Oh yes’, I’ll be coming
after all of you for donations. I will need to raise $300.
The pictures got out of order when I uploaded them...
The pictures got out of order when I uploaded them...
In Toronto Western
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| A nap in the chair |
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| No neck brace...ah relief |
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| With Ron and Evonne in sling getting into bed |
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| With neck brace...grrrrr |
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| In bed for a rest |
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| IN sling at Parkwood- Oct 2011 |
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| Working ou in OT |
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| going for a ride in a cab |
Video on treadmill in March 2013
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| At home for a visit Jan 2012 |
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| At home on the trainer - May 2012 |
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| With the perpetual motion machine on the bum leg- Jan 2012 |
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| Sitting in physio..Dec 2012 |
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| With John, Grandpa and Sarge in background-April 2012 |
thanks for listening....
