Sorry again folks, a long time between posts ……. a few technical issues getting ourselves setup in the new condo — it does have high-speed internet as promised, however, it doesn’t have the modem that you need or the setup details to actually use it!!! Anyway, after a few days of floundering around with that we finally found somewhere that would sell us a wireless card and after a few goes we even got it working!

And since then we have been busy, busy, busy. Mike is flat out at Project Walk 4 days a week and pretty exhausted once he is done there. Ash and I have been busy exploring Oceanside (where we have moved to). It is a fantastic spot except for one small (or very large and heavy) detail — the fact that we are about 20m away from the main Amtrack train line …. i don’t think I have slept for more than 2 hours at a stretch since we got here — the 4:30am service is a our personal favourite – you could used to the sound of the trains but the noise level of the horns that they seem to constantly toot is something else again — I swear the walls shake! Anyway, we are here and there is lots more space and Ash is very happy having a bit of room to move around. Her only complaint is that there is no pool! There is a massive ocean out the front but in her defence it is freezing and not exactly beautiful but we did have a pod of dolphins playing out the front the other morning so definitely a very peaceful spot – well, between trains it is anyway.

Speaking of things sea-like we have managed to drag Mike along to a bit of sight-seeing since my last post … we have been to San Diego Zoo, Sea World, Balboa Park and Old Town. Old Town is my favourite but I need to get Ash eating mexican food (or take a packed dinner for her so we can enjoy a restaurant or two. I can safely say that Ash’s favourite outing so far has been seaworld – although I am not so sure that the Killer Whale will be as fond of her ….. we had been there all day, seen all the shows and were pretty tired when Ash decided that she wanted to see the killer whale show again….. (it is called Shamu – Believe). Anyway, Ash says, no mummy I don’t want to go home yet (mind, she is in her stroller by this stage, with it tipped back and 3/4 asleep and Mike is nearly out in his chair) “I want to see the black and whites again”, when I asked what she meant she said, you know that one with the black and whites and they do swimming, you know, the one called shampoo! Mike and I burst out laughing and decided we had to take her to just one more “shampoo” show. Too cute!

Other than that, lots of time at the playground at the beach (it has the advantage over fun parks of being free!!).  Also, there is another little girl whose dad is at Project Walk on Tuesday and Thursday so I am taking them to the park and for little play dates – was nice to see Ash playing with kids!! I think she is sick of hanging out with mum and dad! Also, she seems to have turned over a new leaf and is keen to try lots more things and is much more confident – maybe my mum was right all along, I should have just bored her to tears so that when we went somewhere half fun she would clamour to have a go. Anyway, she is trying lots of new things and is happy to give most things a try – going on rides by herself and even different foods!! (will wonders never cease!). She went for a ride on “Cowboy” a little pony at the local market last night. Except for the trains, we are enjoying where we are and having a good time.

But just to finish off, had an embarassing little effort late yesterday, bringing Mike home from Project Walk, I decided to drive him down to the harbour so he could see it … he is usually too tired to get out and about much so hadn’t been exploring much. Anyway, I took a wrong turn (easy to do on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road!) and ended up at the army base at Camp Pendleton — oopla! Arriving at the gate with two armed troopers I did a hasty explanation about how I had managed to go the wrong way but was really trying to get to the harbour … they were remarkably good humoured about it – clearly had me pegged as a complete airhead (which I decided was fantastic as they didn’t seem inclined to arrest me!) - embarassingly, they stopped 8 lanes of traffic (at the top of their lungs) so that I could do a u-turn  …. how embarassing! Anyway, gave them a wave and we were back on our way – phew! Needless to say, Mike enjoyed the harbour!

Take care and look forward to seeing you all soon. Video has been taken and has been downloaded (or uploaded) on to you-tube … a couple of links below. More to come soon …

Sit Ups

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=assbZnzRelo

Squats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q2_bg93sxo
 

Not such a great couple of days – so thanks for the messages of support, they mean a lot and keep us sane.

Mike made a start on the promised message but some pretty vicious stomach cramps and body spasms meant it didn’t get finished off today…. oh, and my technical incompetence with getting video clips and photos from his camera might also have contributed! I promise it will be worth the wait!

Hopefully a good night’s sleep tonight and tomorrow will be a better day so we will get to complete the message and post it later in the day.

We have a fundraising meeting tomorrow so hopefully some more details will be available soon as I know lots of people are asking me for details.

On the positive front (btw, that particular front is a bit thin on the ground at the moment), Mike managed to do a bit of one-finger (well really one-splint) typing today which was pretty cool to see and we have some good physio goals to try to cover off in the next 6 weeks. We have also managed to convince the nursing staff that we are OK to be out in one of the units for a couple of nights for Mike’s birthday at the end of the month. Even though they are only a few metres from the ward and there will still be nursing staff in and out all day and night, it will be so nice to finally have some time where it is just the three of us and a shut door for a couple of hours! Apparently there are all sorts of checklists that we have to “pass” before we are allowed out of the centre but if there any important dates coming up please let me know so that we can add them to our escape (i mean, day leave) list. Apparently there is also a whole lot of education stuff that we need to get t!
hru – hopefully someone will start doing this soon so we can get another tick! I think Mike is pretty keen to just wheel himself out to the boathouse cafe and forget to come back!

OT are coming out to the house next week to see what mods we have to get done so will try to knock that off the discharge list asap too.

We had our ‘goal planning’ meeting yesterday which was a bit dis-spiriting. They ‘reckon that Mike needs to be at Talbot for 6 months. They have given a suggested discharge date of 11th Feb – we said no way and gave a suggested date pre-Christmas. At a minimum we are taking a leave day to get Ash to the Wiggles concert and I plan on at least spending Christmas day at home! No chance that summer will be wasted there – besides, it will cost me about a million dollars in petrol to drive there everyday between now and then, plus I need to get back to work! Obviously they have not taken the ‘Forbes-factor’ in to consideration when establishing that date. I guess it is good that they think they can teach Mike stuff for that long — although surely a compressed version would suffice (not that I am impatient or anything)??? Will see how Mike is progressing and what the program is looking like to see what other gains can be reached vs getting home before Ash turns 4. In the mean-tim!
e, we’ll keep feeding him good food and keep him as fit and healthy as we can.

Thanks to Michelle, Cam and the girls who keep coming in with food and for dinner and just hanging out. Also to Jack, Daina and the girls who are our Wednesday night dinner companions. Finally to all the visitors – many who bring yummy and nutrious food – thanks for keeping our spirits up and keeping us up to date with the outside world. Oh, and to my mum for cleaning the house today – thanks mum!

Ash and I back at Elwood …. Mike has his New Computer – Nearly back online

Ash and I are back at the blue house in Elwood. It is very hard being so far away but I think Ash is liking being home. At the moment Mike is much more stable so it is probably a good time to head home and get Ash back to a slightly more normal life. Lots of driving which is tiring but I think Charli and Russ are happy to have us home again.

This will probably be my last posting for a while, Mike has received his new computer which Tim has setup with the voice recognition software — a massive thanks to Tim (and his family for putting up with him working on this stuff for the past two weeks – thankyou!!).
Mike has been doing a bit of training with it over the past couple of days and we think he sent an e-mail tonight (it was to work to see if they have the software licence for Dragon!).
I think his aim for tomorrow is to post a message himself.
We are going to try to get a consultant in later this week who specialises in the voice recognition stuff to get him fully operational on the new machine.

Next target is a voice recognition phone — even though he assures me is fine to use skype. Telstra has done some investigation for us (thanks again Virginia) and recommended a couple of phones to try so will endeavour to get on to that this week.

Mike spent lots of time in his chair today which is great. We need to talk to the physio’s about how to manage his posture as his left arm is clearly heavier than his right and he gets a bit of a lean going which in turn hurts his back and neck. It is a miracle that he can drive it — I took it for a whirl last night and nearly took out my knee-caps on the wall (and I have hands and forearms that work!)!

We are still on operation “fatten-up” and he has another couple of appointments this week with the speechie to hopefully get the OK to eat most foods. Thankfully chocolate, muffins and biscuits are all considered ‘soft’ so they are OK!

On Friday the lovely OT ladies built Mike a splint for his left hand so that he could hold a pen or texta. He drew his first ‘humpty dumpty’ (bit of a standing joke with Ash). Anyway, it is up on his wall and we are hoping to post a photo of it with some video of him eating sometime tomorrow — please be warned … neither the drawing or eating can be considered pretty but we are very, very proud!
When asked whose humpty’s were better Ash just laughed/snorted and said hers were — I think she is probably right but she isn’t trying to draw them with her shoulder!

We are very excited about a delivery due at Talbot this week – a FES bike. It uses electrical stimulation to the legs (and possibly arms) to turn the pedals. Will see how Mike goes … I am almost convinced that his legs will just know what to do all by themselves!! This is one of the items on the projects list so it will be great to see how it works before we try to raise some funds to buy one. I am hopeful that he will be able to use something like this to do a bit of fitness work and to keep a bit of muscle tone for when those miracles turn up.

Will post the details of Mike’s schedule for this week sometime Monday (yeah, yeah – I forgot again. …. something about being a bit tired and having a few things on my mind??). He is quite busy tomorrow and Tuesday but we are trying to get him up in his chair each night for an early dinner with Ash so feel free to drop in then. Will see how he goes with some back-to-back therapy time over the next few days.

Thanks for the continuing messages of support and for his visitors – he really enjoys the interaction (I think I am getting boring!). Will be calling on a few folk to be in with Mike over the next few weeks as I need to spend some time with Ash and I need to get moving on the house cleaning and house mods.

Hi All,

Thanks again for your visits and messages of support.

Mike is much more settled in at Talbot now. The nursing staff are fantastic and we have had a couple of great physio and OT sessions. Pretty sure we are driving them mental with how much we want to jam in to a day but ….. it is supposed to be re-hab after all, and it is Forbesy!

A couple of big wins but one big loss in the last few days.

Look out – he is back on food in a big way! Jane – we might be calling on your cooking skills! After a fairly depressing day with his pressure spot, Mike has been all guns blazing for the last couple of days after his eat-feast. Still needs some fattening up but he looks a bit better in the face.
The pressure area that was of concern seems to have cleared up so back to spending a few sessions a day in the chair which is great.

He fed himself today – using this groovey pocket thing and a bent fork he ate a roast lamb lunch! (sorry Erin for the non-technical explanation!). It was unbelievable ….. let me assure you that if you haven’t seen Mike highly motivated before you need to check out his eating. He was amazing, managed to get quite a few mouthfuls (I have video proof) and didn’t spill a drop. Also, he didn’t smash his teeth, eyes or other body parts with the fork which surprised me. Unfortunately he has to engage the activity muscle by muscle which is quite time consuming and (he assures me) very frustrating, so he has started singing to himself to get them working – a bit tragic for the rest of us but it is working a treat for him.

Anyway, he is not getting nearly as many headspins as he is hoisted up and down during the day which is great and his attitude remains amazing … he is thinking of selling his new diet regime – he needs to wear a thing called an abdo-binder for blood pressure help. He is convinced that this means that he can only eat enough to fill his esophagus. Then he figures it takes so much effort and energy to get a mouthful of food to his mouth that everything is negative calories anyway! Needless to say, once he gets back to bed and gets the binder off we try to fill him up!

A special mention tonight to Jo, who bought Ash a “lovely” Dora chair which is outrageously noisy and incredibly irritating! When she dropped it off on Monday night she laughed and said that Mike would have his own room within 24 hours – well she was right! Mike has moved to bed 8. This is still a shared room but at the moment no-one else is in there. It is lovely as he has a view of outside and gets plenty of natural light and bit of space around the bed. We have been shamelessly bribing the wonderful nursing staff with chocolates!

The only loss for the week is that due to staffing issues the hydrotherapy pool is shut-down. We are not yet sure whether this is short term or longer term but for all of you who know Mike and his love of water this is a huge disappointment. We are going to chase up any options we have in this regard. Hopefully we can at least sit him down near the pool where he can absorb the chlorine and feel a bit more like himself! Be warned, I might be needing everyone reading this site to petition the government to get this re-instated!

Will see how he (and his program) goes but it looks as though we might be trying to set aside some rest time in the middle of the day to make sure he is well rested for his physio sessions.

More OT tomorrow with the lovely Erin. His new computer is on order – a huge thanks to Pete and to the good folks at Dell who have rigged up a machine which doesn’t have heat-sensative keys so Mike can use a pointer. He is hoping that sometime next week he will be able to type you all a message – or at worst use some voice recognition software to speak you a message …. btw I love the voice recognition stuff – I am definitely going to nick his computer!

Keep thinking positive thoughts and sending lots of positive energy.

Mon

Hi All,

Just a quick update.

Mike is settling well at Talbot. Disappointing day with his first proper program day being spent mostly in bed with a bit of a pressure sore. He got up for 30 mins in the chair but there is a bit of confusion about whether he needs to wear a hard or soft collar.
The wonderful doctor (Allaedin) came in to have a chat and we should have a clear answer tomorrow or at worst Thursday.

Anyway, Mike spent the morning being a grumpy bear after the freedom and fun of his chair “runs” on the weekend. He decided after having to have a shortened physio session that given how pear-shaped the day was going that he would dedicate the rest of it to eating. Got a bit of a shock yesterday to weigh only 61kg fully dressed so we are trying to fatten him up a bit! You will be pleased to know that once he set his mind to that as his task for the day, he excelled!!!

Although he spent much of the day being a bit of a grump, we did decide that all in all it wasn’t too bad a day:
- we bumped in to the OT rep for Mike and she had a phone he should be OK to use. Very excited about that as it will hopefully help remove the “dead” time he has in the morning. Poor Erin, she has no idea what is about to hit her when she has her session with him tomorrow ….. he wants to read, set up his computer and get the phone sorted! Oh yeah, and he wants to feed himself, shave and brush his teeth too!
- we got agreement that he can wear his soft collar when in the chair so he can see where he is going!
- we had a date together to watch GNW
- he ate heaps of chocolate
- he got approval from the lovely speechie (Ruth) to have Bombay By Night – as long as there is no rice involved and he chews carefully and separates out the meat and sauce.

Also, had a great visit this morning with “the ladies” who have loaded us up with lots of fruit and chocolate!
Mike has decided that he can definitely join us on our next night out ….after all he is already legless so he will fit right in! (His gag, not mine!).

All this on top of scratching his own nose yesterday …. it wasn’t very graceful (and I’m not convinced that he got the right spot!) but he got his finger to his nose! And his newest party-trick of slight movement in his right thumb (we are talking very marginal but he is claiming himself back as a primate!).

Thanks for all your thoughts, support and visits. Hoping for a better day tomorrow and that the pressure sore sorts itself out so he can get some sleep!

Mon

A huge week. Mike has a fridge so thanks to all for offers.

Thanks to Elwood Children’s Centre for the fund-raising tonight – it was fantastic.

Tough week for us with the move to Talbot. Settling slowly but OK, hopefully a better weekend and here’s hoping Mike will be busy next week! He is rearing to get going.
A big thanks to Physio Mel for fitting Mike in for some sessions this week and giving him so exercises to practice — I’m sure if he has dark hours overnight or in the morning waiting to get up and going he will be practicing! He spent his first time today on a special table that elevates him slightly in a lying back but standing position – he did OK on it today and probably got to about 30-35% before head spins. His new chair is fabulous (now that he has the hang of it) and he has been playing chasings with Ash around the kitchen area!

It has also been a very tough time over the last few days as Mike has remembered more and more details of his accident. It is very distressing for both of us, particularly for Mike. We have a few people helping us try to get any video footage still available which will confirm his memory beyond any doubt. Mike remains in a pretty good frame of mind but I would still ask that we try to follow Dr Mitch’s earlier advise – Mike will talk about the accident if he wants to, otherwise he would rather focus on the future and positive thoughts.

I am extremely grateful that his skill as a rider means that he is still with Ash and I. We will have a different life but I know it will still be a great life.

Thankyou to everyone who is doing so much for us and for all your thoughts and prayers …. although those damn miracles still haven’t arrived!!

Please ride safely and wear all your protective gear (I am sure Mike’s helmet saved his life).
We have already targetted a number of projects that we want to champion once Mike is out of re-hab to further the safe cycling message and to make beach rd a safer place to ride.

I forgot to bring his program home tonight in my rush to get to the bogan bingo night so will publish details of the times he is out of action next week sometime tomorrow or on Sunday.

Cheers,
Mon