Hi All,

Apologies for the lack of comments in the last few days…. a couple of good and busy days, but a little set back today.

The swallow seems to be coming along OK but with the gastro last night / today, the scope test to give an official verdict has been delayed until tomorrow.

Mike had a good day yesterday with two sessions in the chair. He drove the chair by himself and will graduate to his own chair tomorrow so hopefully will spend some more time upright.

Most importantly Mike managed a “whizzy woo” spin around in his wheel chair — the smile on Ash’s face was worth a million dollars.

A huge thankyou to Telstra for organising a 3G card to get me online at the hospital which is fantastic.

Also a big thankyou to Sam and Jenny Bailey. You might remember their Australian Story episode. I have struggled to put the copy of ‘Head over Heels’ down since it arrived.

Finally, the usual huge thankyou to all the staff at the austin – you are all amazing and we cannot thank you enough.

Tomorrow will be quite busy with the scope and kinesio session – will give update tomorrow when we see if he keeps any “food” down tonight.

Thanks to everyone for your messages of support, for the visits that keep Mike’s spirits up and for respecting when he just needs to let his body heal itself.

Thanks,
Mon.

Hi All,

Ash and I have finally made it home (to the ‘blue house’ as opposed to the ‘house near daddy’) for a night. Feels funny being so far away.

Click here for larger image of Lesley, Mike and Ashley

Another good day, he is exhausted and being sensible (which makes a nice change!). Thanks for letting him rest today. He loves his visitors and gets lots out of seeing everyone and all your support but really needed a rest today. He is completely focused on doing everything he can to aid whatever recovery he can get.

Hopefully trachae out tomorrow which is a huge step. He can’t wait to eat some food — the weirdo wants to eat fruit so I have promised to have watermelon and grapes on tap once they give the go ahead.

Just wanted to post a quick note to thank you all for your support – even though we are not yet online out at the hospital (due to technical difficulties — ie, me!) we get lots of updates and printouts come in that we read out. It is truly amazing the support that Mike is receiving. He is, I think, a bit over-whelmed and desperate to keep track of it all so he can pay people back.

We cannot thank everyone enough for their thoughts, prayers and well wishes …. although the cheeky part of me is still waiting for a couple of miracles and a powerball win!

On a more serious note:
We cannot thank everyone enough for everything that is just happening to allow me to concentrate my energy on Mike, and for Mike to concentrate on getting as much recovery as possible.
This is going to be a long haul and I want to thank everyone from the bottom on our hearts for their help and support thus far. I, for one, would be completely lost without it.

Too many people to thank. Special thanks to Sparky, EJ, Rob, Bedri and Noz for all their work on this site, legal stuff, money stuff and fund-raising stuff. Jules for research extraordinaire. Chris, Cam and Danny for the enduring visits and general stuff. Mitch and Sammy for making medical stuff mean something to me. Michelle for continuing to be Mike’s second (and far better) wife and for organising my life, making sure I get fed and that I feed my child something other than chocolate. You are all amazing.

Dear Triathlon/Cycling Community,

As many of you may know, Michael Forbes was involved in a serious bike accident on 28 June whilst riding by himself in Brighton East. At this stage, the details of the accident remain unclear. He has not been able to fully disclose an account of the accident, due to the nature of his injuries which require support with a breathing tube and ventilator.

Michael has suffered a severe and likely irreversible damage to his cervical spine (neck) which has left him paralysed in both the arms and legs. He underwent surgery on 30 June to help stabilise the region of the injury. As is normally the case with this procedure and situation, he remains in a serious condition in the intensive care unit. Despite his injuries he remains fully conscious, and is communicating through non-verbal means- and even managing to crack the odd gag and a smile.

He and his wife Monica wanted to let everyone know of his progress and thank everyone who has called, texted or visited during the past few days. It’s understandable that we all have questions regarding the ultimate outcome for Michael but, at this early stage, his prognosis is unclear and difficult to accurately predict.

Plans are underway to utilise a webpage to provide ongoing updates and as soon as this is available we will provide a link from this website so that you may follow his progress. He and his family will require much support in the short and long term. If you have any queries or messages for Michael and his family, they can be directed direct to Monica or through CBD (anth@cbdcycles.com.au) or to Sam (schume@yahoo.com) or Mitch (mitch.anderson@optusnet.com.au)

Regards
Sam and Mitch