Well Monica, Ashley and I returned from holidays late last week and I began my rehabilitation routine for 2010. It has been great to have a break from the routine but I discovered that my body needs regular manipulation and movement in order to not rust and be thrown in the scrapheap! By the end of the holiday my shoulders were basically seized up and could barely move.
There were however some great achievements from our holidays from my perspective. It was wonderful to revisit the wonderful holiday home of my parents-in-law who worked for months to modify the home so I could stay and they did an amazing job. In addition to this they worked tirelessly to help me have a break from my regular care routine and be surrounded just by family. The best addition to their home was a custom-designed set of stairs which was about 40 cm deep and 10 cm high a step. This allowed me to walk from the ground level to the upstairs portion of the home almost independently using my sticks. It really was invigorating! In addition to this, with help from my brother-in-law Simon in particular we had regular trips to the beach where I walked on the sand and sat in a camp chair to watch the kids play in the water for hours upon hours. I even had a dip in the water myself on the odd occasion. This was not at all graceful but very pleasant nonetheless. A far cry from the long ocean swims and body surfing that I’m used to but I can’t complain.
The worst part of the holiday and the reason we need some cheering up is my poor wife Monica has come down with a severe case of pneomonia which she contracted just prior to Christmas. The truth is it has been coming on for some time because she has worked so tirelessly since my accident. We are doing whatever we can to help her get back on her feet so please feel free to send your best wishes to her. She is getting better and is certainly through the worst of it but needs to be careful for the next month at least. Trying to tie Monica down is probably the greatest challenge that I have ever had so please help me! If you see her out and about trying to knock off one of the 20 things she puts on her list every day please send her straight home. My mother is down with us at the moment which is fabulous.
On a lighter note please find a video clip below. With close friends of ours who have a daughter the same age we have a competition each year to buy each other the noisiest present. This year was hilarious as we both bought exactly the same thing for each other… a drum kit! Here is Ashley strutting her stuff and I think there is a real future there. Listen in particular for the crescendo!

Keep well,
Mike.

A great week again at Project Walk particularly with my brother and dad here to help and encourage.  I have been able to add a lot of other therapy and movement at home, and when we are out and about with two strong sets of hands around.  The highlights for the week have nothing to do with project walk but outings we’ve made.  On Saturday we went and watched the redbull air race which happened to be on in San Diego, where Pete and Dad helped me to walk onto the beach. And even though I couldn’t feel the sand with my feet, it was invigorating.

The other highlight was this morning when again with their help I had a shower without involving commode and stood up for a shower.  It felt pretty good after having sat down for a shower for the last 10 months.  There is a rail out the front of our condo, that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, here is a picture of me standing up holding the rail (sort of) and looking back towards Oz.

At project walk we started to get more focussed on what is weak, with plenty of work on my shoulders and arms, and also on my right hip flexor.  If my body is feeling good, you can definitely feel and see the improvement in the way my body parts are working together.  It has been very frustrating at times as I cannot imagine why my body won’t work the way I want it.  It is a game of patience however, and it is not going to happen overnight or without a lot of effort.  I am putting up with enormous amounts of pain as my bodies nervous system reconnects itself, and I literally have to convince that it wants to.  My time off from project walk over here for the past two weeks has had to involve resting to make sure that I am ready for the next session.  I have one week to go, and I am determined to get to the end of my time without missing an hour.

I am interested to what we will work on this week with it being the last week before we do train-the-trainer.  I am very tired, and physically sore from the work done so far and hope that we can continue to work on the bits that are weak and come home with them as strong as they can be.

I have included a clip on YouTube of me walking with sticks, with hand grips and a trainer assisting me to make up for my weak shoulders, hands and wrists.

I have just finished week 4 at Project Walk and I’ve been really happy with my progress.  I have been working really hard at getting the bits that are working well to work better and the bits that are working badly to work at all!  My walking has been going really well still with plenty of assistance and finally my left glute muscle is doing its job and supporting my body weight when I try and take a step with my left leg planted and stepping with my right.  The next problem is getting the right leg to come through as it is supposed to!  This is where I am sending out a telegraph for my right flexor to join the party!  This muscle group is needed to lift the leg and pull it through so you can place at ready to take a step with the other leg.  Monica and I have placed some more video on youtube with me taking some assisted steps.  One of the videos will show you exactly what I mean.  One of the physical trainers at Project Walk is assisting my right leg to come through straight and telling the hip flexor to do its job.  If you do a search in youtube for “MichaelForbes.org project walk” you get a list of videos that we have taken and posted to this point.

Guided Steps


Climbing Machine


I would like to thank the people that have contributed to the extra sessions that I have been able to take, by Friday afternoons I am completely exhausted.  After the session on Friday, I came home and slept for three hours, got up at and ate dinner, went back to bed and slept for 10 hours!

I have two weeks of therapy to go and one more week working with Moni and Patrick where they will be being trained in how to help me when I return home.  In that two weeks I have high hopes of what I’ll be able to achieve before I return home.  There could even be something as exciting as being able to walk independently with a set of sticks!  The only problem will be how do I hold the sticks with wrists and hands that don’t work?  Maybe we will come up with a solution and maybe not.

Tomorrow my brother and father arrive to give me some assistance for the next 10 days.  I am really looking forward to their arrival, but I think Moni is looking forward to it more.  It has been really hard work for Moni as little Ash has needed entertaining every day.  So guess what Pete, you have a job when you arrive!  We are also hoping to get some more video up on youtube with some extra hands around.  Following Dad and Pete will be Moni’s mum and Patrick to get us through the final stint.  So the next three weeks should be good fun and a lot of hard work with some extra company around.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the posts as much as I am enjoying making improvements each day.  Keep well everyone and see you all soon.

Mike.

Following the amazing weekend last weekend with the boys doing the charity ride to help me get to Project Walk in the USA in early February, I was finally discharged from hospital on Wednesday.  It was an amazing feeling to leave and head to the outside world with Moni and Ash by my side who have supported me unbelievably from the moment I landed at death’s door in hospital on the 28th of June last year.  I think the most pleasing thing for me is that the word “can’t” will no longer be jammed down my throat by the wonders of the public hospital system that we have in Australia.  There is a wonderful man who works at Royal Talbot who I’ve talked about before and it is Campbell.  Campbell is a paraplegic and he has really helped show everybody out there that dealing with this condition is all about what you can do.  It is a real shame that the system that he works in continually tells you what you can’t do.  I will leave it at that, but now it really is about what can I do!

I would like to thank individually the boys who did the charity ride in my honour last weekend.  Their efforts have allowed us to stay for an extra three weeks in San Diego to attend Project Walk and I do not intend to disappoint them giving the best effort that I can give to the program whilst I am there. So thank you to Peter Grant, Mark Mathews, Adam Conquest, Andrew Leyden, Kent Cuthbert, Nathan Gridley, Paul Grant, Graham Gee, and Mark Crudden in an amazing effort where they covered nearly 400 km in two days to help me out.  An absolutely humbling experience.  It was awesome to meet up with these guys in Port Melbourne and do the last 8 km with them.  It was absolutely appropriate that it was headwind to plough into to finish and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was absolutely buggered with about 2 km to finish!   The day itself was an amazing milestone for me knowing that I was checking out of hospital three days later I look forward to going for a ride of my own while guys like this go for a ride of an appropriate distance and meet them at the end of their ride a lovely cafe breakfast! Now this is living in anyone’s language!

Now for Project Walk.
With six weeks intensive physical work I am aiming to be able to use my function to transfer in and out of the wheelchair.  To go from bed to chair or chair to couch or chair to car using my own function will mean a massive life change.  I’m also hoping that this sort of function will be a stepping stone to greater things.  My goal over the next year is to be ready to walk my daughter to school on her first day in late January 2010.  I will need to cover the distance of 200m, but luckily friends of ours (Cam and Michelle) have bought a house exactly halfway between us and Elwood Primary School.  It is very considerate of them as there is no doubt I will need a rest halfway!  At the very least, I will need a refreshment!

Also a thankyou to Anthony for his work in organising a benefit dinner, of which you will hear more in the next couple of weeks.  The dinner will be held on 28th March as a bit of a welcome home when we return from Project Walk so pop that date in your calendar and hope to see you there.  Oh, and a last quick note: the wonderful cycle kit that appears in our photos is available now at Spoke(n) and both the CBD Cycles stores in the city.  Thanks to the guys who run these stores for having the gear for display.  Get in there and check it out.  It is selling really well and I look forward to seeing more of it out on the road.

Thankyou to everyone for all your support, visits, food, good wishes, thoughts and motivation since my accident.  I look forward to seeing you all when I get back.  So I look forward to joining you on a ride the cafe pitstop upon my return or seeing you at the dinner to really celebrate life and what it has to offer despite the odd bumpy road.

Keep well.

Welcome all to my second post.  In this post I wanted to try and thank everyone who has helped me get to this point.  From the events that have been relayed to me of my first 12 days this would be an impossible task without missing anyone.

So rather than attempt to do this please take this e-mail as heartfelt thanks to the people that helped me including the ambulance officers, doctors and friends and of course family that are the reason that I am here today so thank you, thank you, thank you.  

I have been humbled by the wonderful assistance and the willingness of my friends to move heaven and earth to help my lovely wife and my daughter to manage this ordeal.  I simply have been unable to believe the way people respond to such adversity and help people in need.  I cannot possibly describe my gratitude even close to how I feel so please just take this as thank you as I know you have helped our wonderful family. 

I’m not yet familiar with the full response of the community of my cycling friends, work colleagues, mother’s group friends, triathlon friends, university friends, and school friends but I’ve certainly had communication and some wonderful encounters with friends I have not seen for years.  It has been overwhelming and wonderful relief from the daily grind of getting this wretched body going again.

I’m now well settled into the rehabilitation routine and am enjoying the small improvements that my body is making everyday.  There are some wonderful signs with my body with some movement in my legs, abdominal muscles, and even my thumbs.  I’m aiming to make the most of any movement I get in any limb.  It requires a lot of effort and most of all patience.  You would not believe the concentration it takes to move a muscle that used to move of its own volition just 1 mm.  it is so rewarding when you focus your mind and get something to move that has not moved for two months.  This condition is about setting a new baseline for your body and celebrating every little achievement like it is the biggest achievement in your life.  It has been very helpful to have some past achievements of mine to compare this to. As silly as my small achievements seem, they must be celebrated.  I’m not trying to pretend that all these achievements are my own.  Despite breaking my neck in two places, I certainly have been a little lucky with my injury.  My injury is giving me a chance to use parts of my body again.  I intend making the most of this chance.

Before completing this message, you would not believe the thanks owe to my family.  My wife, has been simply amazing as a lot of you already know. Quite simply I owe her my life.  My lovely mother and father and my parents in law have basically given their lives away for long enough for me to get back on track.  The love I feel for all of them is amazing.  Families are wonderful and don’t forget your own as you read this message.  During this ordeal my grandfather has passed away.  My grandfather died at the age of 96.  Certainly a very full innings to say the least.  He lived life to the absolute fullest and everyday was a fantastic day.  As sad as I am to have missed his funeral I’m taking the spirit in which he lived his life and applying it to my own.

This Sunday is my 36th birthday and to celebrate my first bonus birthday we plan on having a nice quiet barbecue at the rehabilitation center.  If you would like to attend please feel free to drop in from 11:30 onwards.  Come and say hi and have a snag and maybe some cake if there is any left. 

Regards,

Forbesy.

email: Michael@monichael.com.au

A busy couple of days so not much time to post anything.

Lots of visitors on Friday and then over the weekend too, so thanks to everyone who came in — especially the lovely Julie who came equiped with lots of yummy treats and who managed to get Ash to play and talk to her! See – Miracles are possible!

A good day for Mike today, he’s still resting his weary shoulders and just trying to spend a bit more time each day in the chair. He has mastered the art of “what’s the time Mr Wolf” even though Ash thought it was a ‘leg game’.

Last Thursday Talbot received a FES bike for trial which we had been looking at for Mike anyway. They use electrical stimulation to trigger muscle groups in an order such that you can “pedal” the bike with your arms or legs. You sit in the wheelchair and roll up the machine, get hooked up and off you go. Mike managed 15 mins on his arms last week – video to follow shortly and 15 mins today with his legs — surely there is some muscle memory there and they will just start peddling on their own???

Suffice to say that Mike felt and looked much better after a spot of ‘exercise’. It must have been good for him – he ate for Australia that night. He has already been hassling the physio’s to get use of it each day. If not, we have to buy one for his room! On another good front, they are doing some tests that mean he might be a step closer to hydro – that damn super bug they gave him in hospital seems to be a bit of a stumbling block at the moment so fingers crossed all.

Most importantly … on to a HUGE list of thankyous: Danny for organising pickup and availability of some fantastic items for auction at the recent SKCC ball, SKCC committee for letting us auction said items at the ball, Spoken for donating a frame and jersey for auction, Giant for donating a bike, Matt Lloyd for signing and sending over a jersey for auction, Firinn (by Chloe Elizabeth) for some wonderful jewellery pieces, the fundraising committee for all their time to date, Jules, Lorian and Pete for whipping up some brochures at the last second, the Belgian Beer Cafe for buying the frame and giving it back for us to re-auction, Pro-Motion for buying the jersey and donating it to Mike — it is up on his wall at the Talbot and gives him a huge lift — youandiride.com for donating a pro-ride day which was a huge crowd pleaser, and Baden Cook for offering to come on the ride day with the highest bidder. Oh, and to the SKCC club champ (who shall remain nameless) who allowed himself to be auctioned off for a blind date! Also a massive thankyou to Inner Circle and ANZ for their amazing and humbling contributions. And of course a huge thankyou to all the people I have forgotten to include here. The usual suspects who just hang out and keep us company so that Talbot doesn’t seem so much like a hospital, to Harri, Chris and Scott for the fantastic work they are doing with Mike, and to those who keep cooking for us. And to all of you who keep posting messages of support – thanks!

Ash and I did our first ‘normal’ think since Mike’s accident yesterday when we took Charli to the park and for a play. She loved it so might have to make sure I do that a little bit more often over the coming weeks.

The OT’s are heading out here on Wednesday to check out what modifications we need to do to the house so better race off and de-clutter! Look out neighbours — stray pieces of furniture and some boxes might be landing at your place tomorrow in an attempt to make the house look wheelchair friendly!

And lastly a confession ….. I had trouble working out how to post messages on the site (to those of you I work with, this in fact will not be at all surprising) so the catchy, journalistic titles are all thanks to Sparky (Mark Mathews) and nothing to do with me. I am sorry to say that I will fail dismally but hopefully Sparky will come over the top and tidy up my poor attempts!