Rowan

Thanks everyone. Getting back on the bike, even for such short periods, was a major achievement for me, despite having ridden the Ti full-frame bike on an indoor training system occasionally since my release from hospital.

I informed one of the rehab hospital staff yesterday about my big weekend adventures, and she was hugely positively surprised -- it was something that she wasn't expecting to happen for quite a few weeks. I did say that it was so important to me, and Machka, because cycling does mean so much to me,

I really liked riding the Bike Friday, and that helped answer some of the queries from the hospital person about how safe I possibly could be. That and her questions about the intensity of other users on the road and cycleway.

sevenmag

I'm amazed every time to come to this thread. So happy to hear about every new success.

Dave Cutter

Awesome! It must have felt great on several levels. Very nice to read about also. In many ways.... life is always about growth and change. The fact that the two of you are riding together again... means something is right in the world.

79pmooney

I have just been recalling some of the angels in my life since my head injury 40 years ago. One was the bike mechanic, Jim Heaney, who quietly made it a point to look after me. I had recently rediscovered the bike shop he worked and lived at, Open Air, that was a regular hangout the summer before. Friday, February 15, 1978, I was there. It was three days after the blizzard that had shut Boston down with 2 feet of wildly drifted wet New England snow. (Every house had a spot of bare lawn at one corner and snow up to the eaves on the next. Parked cars got snowshoed and skiied over.) I had walked there and it was now 10:00pm. Jim suggested I take the circa 1930 Raleigh DL-1. The mechanic of my workplace the previous summer would escort me on his Raleigh 3-speed. (This was an absolutely safe time to see if I could and wanted to ride again. The clearest streets had 10" of hardpack on them and nobody was driving, Nobody. The streets were empty.)

I took that heavy truck of a bike and rode. It was easy! Best human powered vehicle ever invented up to that date for the conditions! Like it was designed and built specifically for 10" of hardpack with potholes to the pavement. (Now Michael, the mechanic, completely had his hands full and went down several times on his lightweight - by comparison - 3-speed despite being a far better off-road rider. I had to stop and wait for him.) I got home, high as a kite and totally in love with riding again!

Jim also teamed up with his brother to get me job at Boston/Cambridge's best bike shop (and my club's sponsor) to basically intern and learn to use my hands and use tools again. He really was my angel.

Ben

Reynolds 

Getting back on the bike so soon is fantastic! Cheers Rowan!

Hondo Gravel

Machka 

Well ...

Rowan (and I) have done 6 rides outside so far since he started riding again.

I've added the time, distance and elevation and these are the totals for those 6 rides:

Time: 3:52:05
Distance: 58.87 km
Elevation: 571 m




Rowan is still attending Community Rehab about 4 hours each week, working on exercises for his left leg and right arm, etc. and he's doing more things around the house. Making progress!

Machka 

Also ...

I took Rowan to the hospital to visit the Neuro ward on Friday. What a nice welcome! They seemed so pleased to see him!

Rowan had fuzzy memories of the ward and I wanted to show it to him, but we also went to see if any his nurses were there, and to thank them.

berner

Long ago, about 1965, my then business partner, who was also a psychiatrist, wrote a book entitled "The Art of Growing". The theme of the book was that throughout life it is necessary to continue personal growth. As children we face many small challenges with the help of parents. This prepares us for the major challenges we may face as adults. From where I sit, you two are doing extraordinarily well as individuals and as a couple and a fine example for others who may face similar challenges. Well done.
Bern

2manybikes

Very well said.

Kabuki12

Power to you!! My sister and brother in law are life partners( married since teenagers) and several years ago had a similar tragedy. They are avid hikers and while hiking at Prairie Creek Park Humboldt Northern California , he was attacked by a mountain lion . We almost lost him, he was put in a coma for a while and had to be pieced back together. The lion ripped the top of his head off right to the skull so normal grafting would not work. Well after a lot of physical AND emotional healing they are still hiking the mountainside together here in California . He is 81 years young and my sister is 77 . Keep it going, it is worth it- my wife and I have been together over 45 years and I would fight anything to save her . Joe

jim p

I am very sorry that you and Rowan have had to endure this tragedy. I am extremely pleased to hear that Rowan is doing so well. My prayers are that he will make a 100% recovery and you and he will have many happy bike riding miles ahead.

I have admired you guys for quite a long time. Your past long distance riding and extreme cold weather riding always fascinated me.

79pmooney

I went back to my neurosurgeon 3 weeks after my hospital release, then, like you and Rowan. went to the IC and the corridor of the rest of my stay. Knocked on the steel door with a small window to the IC. A very stern looking nurse came to tthe window, looked, opened the door and asked what business I had there. Told her I wanted to see the room I was in, She asked my name and was blown away when I said it. She didn't recognize me at all and I was her charge. She took me to the room. It brought back nothing, Between her not recognizing me and me seeing nothing familiar in a place I spent a week, well that told me loud and clear just how much of a mess I'd been in.

Now, visiting the nurses at the ward was a lot more fun. I didn't remember them; the one I had memory of had moved on, but they remembered me well and with some fondness. I was the "problem" who used to leave his room and disappear. First time to a hospital-wide alert. They found me wandering the top floor. Seems I would go to the stairwell. Confronted with "up" or "down", I would always choose "up"because I dind't have the muscle control/coordination to go down with any confidence and I had the bike muscles to go up. 4 flights to the top floor - not an issue. After that first time, the nurses would just grab the elevator and come get me. Upon leaving, I saw the window at the landing on those stairs. Yup, I remembered that view.

Ben

Rowan

Everyone who posted in this thread has been so kind to me. Recovery is moving along well, but I will take some more time to get the fitness I lost back into my life. Machka has been remarkable in her attention, care and attention. She has continued open contact with providers, and has told me that they are happy to show the brain X-ray to explain the damage.

Ben, you have been an entire inspiration to me about your own efforts. And Kabuki12, your post just proved to me that recovery is a real deal irrespective of age and cause. Thank you you both, and to everyone.

Rowan

On Thursday, I and Machka met with a chief guy in the second hospital that I recovered in to have a look at a series of hugely detailed X-rays taken of my brain after I was admitted to the emergency hospital on 22 March. The damage shown on my left side of the brain was clear and indicates how lucky I was to recover after being discovered in the workplace by my associate.

The guy also went into a second detail of the damage that was done initially to the inner part of the brain that co-ordinates its use and the distribution of information in and out.

I really do consider myself very lucky to have made a recovery that will eventually return me to reasonable normality. And Machka showed me before the meeting a picture of the actual medical helicopter as it waited at the orchard where I was picked up and transferred to the hospital the day it happened.

I have no memory of what happened that day or for weeks afterward -- and likely never will -- and I have been hugely grateful to see these pictures.

GailT

I'm relatively new here and was just starting to get to know you and Machka by reading some of the old posts, including the great thread on how you found and recovered her stolen bike, and then I saw Machka's first post about the accident, when it seemed uncertain if you would survive, so it is an enormous relief and pleasure to see you posting now about riding and recovering your fitness. It's very inspiring and I wish you and Machka all the best!

davester

I love reading this thread because it is so gratifying. I realize that it was born of tragedy, but its very encouraging to continue reading about Rowan's recovery and Machka's amazing support. Keep on going guys, you're one of the most uplifting couples on the internet (and in the biking world, which goes without saying).

Rowan's helicopter post has relevance to me because one of my bike riding buddies was helivaced to a hospital after crashing in a remote area on his mountain bike (his second helivac in similar circumstances years apart). He is now doing extremely well and riding his bike just as he did before (as I am certain Rowan will).

Hondo Gravel

woodcraft

yves845

I'm very happy to see that you're doing so well in so little time, Yes, you are indeed lucky : you live in a place where you have access to high tech medical facilities and they could treat you in time, all that at a "stealing" price. But it's your sheer will power that made your recovery so easy : at your age you are physically in good shape because you exercise regularly and you wanted so much to go back on your bike with Machka that you went trough the rehab so well.
Congratulations

Dave Cutter

Memories can be highly over-rated. Many of us have missing periods of time. For me... it's no big deal. Everything that really matters is happening right now.

Machka 

To sum up ...

Rowan had an accident at work on March 22 which resulted in a severe brain injury and a few other injuries. He was in a coma for 2 weeks, neuro ward for a long time, then rehab.

Rowan returned home on July 2 and commenced community rehab. On Thursday we had a big meeting to discuss it all, and he was discharged from community rehab!!

He still has some Dr appointments and will move into another system which will assist with higher level recovery, but he has done better than expected and he has amazed everyone.

There were a lot of people praying for him from all over the world ... and here too.

He also had health and fitness in his favour.

• I was told that if he had been a smoker, he would have likely died or been in a vegetative state. But he had quit smoking over 20 years ago.
  .
  
• Alcohol really slows brain recovery and causes numerous other problems ... but his alcohol consumption had diminished to just a few drinks a year, and he hasn't had a drink since the accident.
  https://msktc.org/tbi/factsheets/Alc...c-Brain-Injury
  .
  
• His fitness level was good. Yes, he lost a lot of fitness, but he started at quite a high level. And there's evidence that exercise helps the brain.
  https://www.brainline.org/blog/getti...ou-should-care

Also I'm not sure if it helped or not, but I kind of pushed the limits with him from time to time. For example, they told me to play him only really quiet instrumental or classical music. I did play some of that, but also played some of his favourites from the 70s. And he wasn't to watch TV when he was coming out of PTA, but I put it on for a little while each day anyway. I watched him and if it seemed to bother him, I'd turn it off, but there were times when he seemed interested and other times when he would laugh at things in the shows.

And I had him out walking up to about 2 km (with breaks, of course) when one of the OTs told me I could start taking him for 300-500 metre walks.


So ... it's good. Much better than anticipated.


Meanwhile ...

At home, Rowan has been doing a lot of gardening (our place has a complicated, multi-area garden) and he has even started cycling again, carefully on the cycleway using his step-through Bike Friday.

We'll both be at the Northern Nouveau Series, an Audax cycling series, in northern Tasmania on the weekend of Oct 26-28, organising and supporting the rides. He's been helping me prepare, and I am so glad that he'll be able to be there with me!!

If all goes well, I hope that we'll be able to do some cycling there too ... there are lots of quiet country roads in northern Tasmania where there might not be any traffic at all, or perhaps just a car or two.

BobbyG

Amazing!

justtrying

locolobo13 

Happy to hear this.