SuperSprint Degani Kinglake Ride is on this Sunday.  Come on up and join the fun.

Many of you will be aware that over many years,Mike has been a regular participant (and podium finisher!) in the SuperSprint Gatorade Triathlon Series. The team at SuperSprint have very kindly offered to help Mike, Mon and Ash through the upcoming Degani Kinglake Ride, a new recreational ride to be held this Sunday 21 September.  Many of Mike’s friends will be taking part in the ride and will be around at the finish at Whittlesea Showgrounds. 

Monica and a few others will be up there on Sunday selling Raffle Tickets in support Mike’s Projects.  Not only will tickets help Mike and Mon move towards these project goals, it will also give someone a chance to win a Giant OCR-1 Road Bike worth almost $1300.   Many thanks to Giant Bicycles for donating this great bike and helping us out.

We’ll be hanging out near the CBD Cycles tent and will also be wandering around the Showgrounds chatting and urging you all to dig deep.  See you Sunday.

This was something that Mike said very early on in the acute spinal unit and it came back to me today when Mike returned from his weights session buzzing. He had managed to leg press 120 lbs with his right leg and 20 lbs with his left leg …. Ok, so the left leg has some catching up to do! He cannot feel his legs and (unless told) has no idea where they are but he is managing some limited controlled movements. They spasm lots (and lots and lots if you have seen them dancing around) which I think he finds both irritating and painful and do not function remotely ‘normally’ but still ….. if they can be made to be useful in some way that would be great!

Oh, and in a huge surprise to any of you who ever saw Mike ride and who have read anything about muscle memory - in the same session today, Mike turned 50 revolutions on bike pedals. Obviously it is a special wheelchair friendly setup that he can just drive up to and have his his feet clipped onto but still – I was very impressed!

Obviously a weekend at home was just what the doctor ordered and had Mike firing on all cylinders. We had a great weekend in the Blue House and surrounds, although we need to talk to the bakery and local supermarket about better access so Mike doesn’t have to hang outside while we duck in. It was great to be home together and to have people popping in and to see the kids playing in the backyard. I think Charli (the dog) was quite happy to see people around most of the day but Russ (the cat) seemed to like the peace and quiet of the past few weeks a bit better. We are so lucky to live where we do, to have such fantastic neighbours (and by that I mean the whole street and surrounding streets) and amazing friends. Mike and Ash had their much anticipated quiche and milkshake at Elwood patisserie but it was a bit windy for much park time. All in all, a great weekend so hopefully many more to follow.

To change tack … As any of you who have visited the donations page will know, the wonderful people at SuperSprint (thanks Chris) are helping support us by including details of this site in their e-newsletters and also by allowing us to run a raffle and collect donations on the day of the SuperSprint Degani Kinglake Ride this Sunday. As such …. I need 10 volunteers to help me out up at Wittlesea showgrounds. I will need people for a couple of hours anytime they can spare between 9:30am and 3:30pm, but particularly between 12 and 2. If you think you may be able to help out please contact me.

Oh, and a massive thankyou to my girlfriends – an amazing bunch of girls. In the last week they have visited, looked after Ash, shopped for me, helped me tidy and cooked meals for the week – you are all amazing but special thanks to Michelle, Mel and Rosa.

And to my folks who are off galavanting in KL …hi, and mum, I heard about your back and hope it is OK?? and on the mend … I know some great spinal physios.

Most importantly – HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE. We hope you have a very, very special 4th birthday and can’t wait to see you. We might even have birthday cake when you come in to visit. We hope you have a fantastic birthday morning and look forward to seeing you Tuesday afternoon – Bov has a couple of presents he picked especially for you! Ashley and I are helping him wrap them up for you.

Monday 15/09
9-10 – Complementary therapy
10:15 – 11:30 – Nursing
12 – 12:30 – OT
1 – 2:30 – PT FES
2:30 – 3:30 – Weights

Tuesday 16/09
9 – 10:30 – Nursing
11 – 12 – OT
1:30 – 2:15 – Dr Ward Rounds
2:30 – 3:20 – Nursing Ed
3:30 – 4:15 – PT

Wednesday 17/09
9-10 – Complementary therapy
10:15 – 11:30 – Nursing
12 – 1 – OT Wii
1 – 2:30 – PT FES
2:30 – 3:30 – Weights

Thursday 18/09
9 – 10:30 – Nursing
11 – 12 – OT
1:00 – 2:00 – PT
2:30 - 4:00 – Hydro

Friday 19/09
9-10 – Complementary therapy
10:15 – 11:30 – Nursing
1 – 2:00 – PT FES
1:45 - 2:45 – Weights
Later – back to the blue house for the weekend!!

Saturday 20/09
4:30 – 7:00 - Kinesio appt

Sunday 21/09
Supersprint King Lake ride ….. Moni heading up. If anyone wants to volunteer to help sell raffle tickets or take donations that would be great. Please let me know. Mike undecided as yet so may be after company at the blue house.

The last 24 hours have been all about water – a bathroom mod, hydro and plenty of tears.

As our neighbours will know (sorry guys, I promise it was a once off), we now have a disabled access bathroom for Mike to use on weekend leave. A massive thankyou to Stu Rose and Danny Cohen for their marathon effort on Wednesday night to convert a pokey laundry / bathroom area in to a fantastic open space with an interim but big safe shower area and new shower head and rail. The guys worked 7 hours straight (after their normal work day) and did an amazing job….. although I am a bit worried about Stu – he is a plumber and he arrived with all the right equipment and cleaned up after himself! Thankyou so much guys – this was an absolutely amazing transformation and I know that Mike’s shower this Sunday morning will be the sweetest yet! Stu also organised for an electrician to come out and install an big IXL-tastic light to keep the non-insulated laundry nice and warm. So thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

Then yesterday afternoon Mike hit the hydro pool. I think it was quite bittersweet. The last time he was in the pool prior to yesterday he swam 6kms before work. He looked great in the water - got a lot more range from those poor, poor shoulders and just seemed to relax right in to the water. In the end he was in for nearly an hour and his back and shoulders seemed to love every second of it. His legs spasmed from the second that they got in but hopefully they will learn to relax a bit more in the water and he can start the timetrial for the “scull the length of the pool” that he has in mind. I think they just wanted to kick but couldn’t get the message right.
A massive thanks to Mel and Alice who managed to still run the session even though they are staff down due to sickness.

Bruce and Les are about to do a bit of a furniture de-clutter to make more space in the house for Mike to move around so that he doesn’t feel that it is quite so small when he is home this weekend. The bed and hoist have arrived (thanks heaps Erin and Teresa for organising this), we have a temporary bathroom and I am hoping to get some door wedges today – so home to the blue house for the weekend. Here’s hoping Mike can be up before mid-day on Saturday to get to Ash’s first fairy ballet lesson!

And don’t drop in at Talbot on the weekend — all going well today – we won’t be there from early Saturday to late Sunday! Thanks to nurse Ashley for the advanced education that he slotted in this week so that I can safely turn Mike and watch for pressure areas and for the care plan he has provided; to Teresa for the hoist training so I can get him up and back to bed; and also a huge thankyou to Di at Care For You for organising a carer for this Sunday morning at 7am so Mike can get up and in to the day.

Hoping for a more positive day today – after all – it is fun-day Friday. Oh, and not sure if I should jinx the swans for tonight or not?? What the hell – go the swannies! Let’s hope we can stay a bit late tonight with Mike to watch it.

Tuesday 09/09
12 – 1 – Kinesio
1:30 – 2:15 – Drs Ward Round
2:15 – 3 – OT
3 – 3:30 – on-bed procedures
3:45 - 4:30 – PT

Wednesday 10/09
11 – 1 – OT cook group
1-2 – PT
2 – 2:45 – Nursing ed
3 -4 – OT

Thursday 11/09
11- 11:30 – weights\
1-2 – PT
2:30 – 4 – Hydro (yip, yip, yipppeee!)

Friday 12/09
11 – 12 – weights
12:30 – 1 – SP
1 – 1:45 – PT
2:15 – 3:15 – Cranio sacral

Saturday 13/09 – Sunday 14/09
Home to the Blue House, as long as Mike is well

Firstly, Mike is sick. NO VISITORS PLEASE ,just for a couple of days so he can rest. Mike has been a bit off colour since Saturday – we are still not quite sure what is wrong.

In true ‘never say never’ fashion, Mike headed home to ‘the blue house’ for the first time in just over 10 weeks to spend fathers day with Ash. A very emotional and tiring day but I think well worth it. Realistically was going to be hard whenever it was done …. as Mike said – ‘I left home 10 weeks ago on my bike for a quick ride before a fun weekend and now I am home in a wheelchair’. The good news is that he got around the house really well — although as he says ‘in a wheelchair the house is tiny’. Access through the back was great and he could get around the main rooms and down the side of the house really easily. He took Ash to the park – again very emotional – the last time he took Ash to that park was the morning of the accident when he decided to stay a bit to play with her and ride later. All being well (ie, Mike being well) we are planning to be home for Saturday night this weekend.

I can’t finish off this post without a huge thankyou to “The Fairies”. Those of you with young girls will know how important ‘the fairies’ are in Ashley’s life. Although Mike is a bit fond of ‘Bubbles the Beach fairy” he wasn’t so fond of his iPod in ICU being overtaken with fairy music every time Ash came in, nor is he thrilled each time he tries to watch something on tele when Ash comes over and pops on her fairies DVD’s. Those of you that saw the photo’s from Mike’s birthday would have seen some of the fairy gear that gets a regular run at Royal Talbot (and any other venue we happen to be at). Obviously the fairies are a BIG part of our lives (whether we like it or not!). Yesterday a big box arrived addressed to Ashley – it was from the fairies – she loved it and felt incredibly special. She is convinced that they “knew” about ‘daddy’s accident and are trying to fix him’. She can’t wait to watch the new DVD with him and was absolutely thrilled with the pink letter that they sent her – it is up on Mike’s wall! Thankyou fairies – it was a fan-fairy-tastic surprise!

Here’s hoping that there are fairies out there and that they are giving their wands a big dust-off ready for some serious magic!