Just a quick post to give you an update of the walking. My lovely Mum took a video last time she was down to visit. It gives you an idea of the improvements I have made since being in the US.

The biggest improvements for mine are being able to do it without gloves, being able to talk whilst I walk, and not having to lock my knees with every step. Aside from this I can turn around and walk a lot quicker and have just started learning how to do steps.

Enjoy,

Mike.

Apologies for it being a month since my last post but it has been a difficult month for me to write a post as the legal proceedings between myself and the TAC were held last week. As a result of this I have not been posting information that may have jeopardised these proceedings coming to an end. Finally some closure has been achieved in relation to the accident. Since my accident I have been going through a process with TAC where they are given time to investigate the accident, its cause and its effect on me as a victim. This process culminated last week with a mediation hearing between my lawyers and the TAC and I’m happy to report that the process is now over. My lawyers and TAC have been wonderful to deal with in this process. With this process now complete I am free to discuss the accident and participate in organisations that are aimed at improving road safety, cycle safety and awareness. My initial aim will be directly related to improving the way Beach Road can be shared between cyclists and motorists. I want to address the us versus them mentality by drawing people’s attention to the fact that most cyclists out there are motorists as well, pay their taxes and car registration so from every respect have every right to use the road from a motorist’s perspective. As we all know there are many aspects to this argument and one that I would like to see become not an argument at all but a recognition between cyclists and motorists of how to share a road in a safe manner. Motorists need to recognise that a collision between a motor vehicle and a cyclist is likely to result in a catastrophic injury like mine or even a fatality. Cyclists need to recognise that breaking road rules and not being considerate to a motorist and their passage on the road may not result in them getting injured but will anger a motorist that may result in another innocent cyclist becoming the victim of an accident.

Enough said on this matter for now, I don’t want this to become just words. I am hoping to get to act on these words in the near future and be a big part of improving what has become a wonderful recreational activity, whether it be training to race, keeping fit in a great social sport, or just earning that big breakfast on a weekend morning.

Now for those of you who are not familiar with my accident, I will give you a brief synopsis of what has been accepted to have happened. I was performing a training ride on Beach Road in June last year. I was about 5 km from home having completed the hard riding in my training ride and was cooling down. As I was heading up a small rise I heard a large vehicle from behind approaching me. There was a parked four-wheel-drive in front of me that I needed to go around. The truck struck me on the right hand and wrist towards the tail end of the truck. This caused my hand to be dislodged from the handlebars and I lost control of my bicycle. I remember the sheer fright at this point and nothing thereafter. Evidently following this loss of control I collided with the parked four-wheel-drive and broke my neck and jaw. My stay in hospital is what followed including an induced coma for 12 days.

There are a number of things about this accident that I think could have been avoided. One is obviously the use of Beach Road by a truck on the weekend, the other is the issue of cyclists needing to duck in and out to go past parked vehicles. It is this last issue which I believe creates a lot of frustration for both the cyclists and the motorists. There are many other issues at play as we know but we need to start somewhere.

As some of you may be aware Magda Szubanski had a few things to say about cyclists on Beach Road during her appearance on Good News Week last Monday night. Her words even though they were on a comedy show showed a lot of anger and have fuelled the debate once again. Given the nature of my accident on Beach Road this obviously angered me greatly. So you are all aware, I am trying to meet with Magda and work with organisations such as Bicycle Victoria, the Amy Gillett Foundation and the media to discuss this issue and hopefully turn it into a positive for both motorists and cyclists who use Beach Road. Watch this space!

Beach Road is a wonderful recreational facility that both the motorist and cyclist can share. I would like to think that Beach Road could become a blueprint for how to set up a road for sharing by applying rules for its use during the times that it is used for recreational purposes. I believe that as cyclists we could lead the way by following a set of rules that are appropriate to allow motorists clear passage and in return motorists can show consideration to cyclists who are training, riding recreationally, keeping fit as well as the obvious environmental benefits that cycling as a mode of transport offers. The key to a resolution with the issue of sharing a road such as Beach Road will be working positively with both sides of the argument with clear knowledge of the consequences of a collision between a motor vehicle and cyclist.

I hope you are all well as I look forward to the next chapter of my life with the legal proceedings relating to my accident behind me. It is energising me to think once again and hope that I can provide a service to the community by discussing my accident and my condition and using it to make Australia one of the safest communities to breed road cycling champions like Cadel Evans, and a fit healthy community that uses nature as its gymnasium!

Mike.

I apologise for not posting for a few weeks but it has been a difficult few weeks where I’ve been in a lot of pain. I’ve not missed sessions but when I have not been at the gym or visiting therapists I have been resting to deal with the pain in my back and shoulders. I do not think it is a bad thing that pain at the moment as I can feel my body changing just a little bit. As I gain more strength in areas that are weak, the spasms in those areas particularly the shoulders are also getting stronger. I am hoping it is a phase that my shoulders need to go through to learn how to behave more like normal shoulders. I’m hoping this anyway but I will have to monitor it over the next month or so and will put up with the pain that comes with it.

It was great to celebrate my first birthday at home and not in hospital! The day itself was nothing special but we finished up with some local friends over who have been a great help since the accident happened. It was a very normal day that finished with a wonderful piece of chocolate cake.


Monica gave me the best present as you would expect which was a handle that sticks to a shower wall using suction. I had my first stand-up shower since the accident. Not only was it invigorating but it meant the shower took about 10 minutes less! So every second day now I no longer need to use the uncomfortable shower chair can avoid it altogether by standing up to be showered and dried before I get dressed. A small thing but a big change to the daily routine in terms of time usage. It also makes a difference with what I am trying to achieve to be able to stand up as much as possible.

I have also had a bar installed at home that I can stand up and hold onto. This allows me to do squats, leg raises and sideways leg movements and also stand-up to talk to people. It is really important that I do this to get my body used to standing for periods of time to improve blood pressure. As a part of this condition your blood pressure falls through the floor and you have to retrain your nervous system to get it back to normal levels. Of course it also allows Ashley to practice her ballet moves as shown in the photo.

Whilst I am making progress and need to keep encouraging myself to work every day to get better you can see it is not all beer and skittles. I am dealing with a lot of pain and you still get slapped in the face every day with what you can’t do. It is taking every ounce of my patience and determination to keep my head up and keep working every day to improve. Luckily there are people around me to help me out during periods when I feel down. My family and friends are my greatest blessing.

Keep well,

Mike.

With the work that I’m doing in the gym and the physiotherapy no doubt contributing also I absolutely achieved a milestone last week. I can now stand up and let go of a handle on the wall after finding my balanced position and stay there without falling over! The work we have been doing has been strengthening those little muscles that everybody uses in order to not fall over when in a standing position. You would not believe how much I had have been watching people in a standing position and the way that the muscles flicker in order to keep you there. It would be very interesting from a physiological perspective if it wasn’t happening to me!

Here is a picture that was taken at the end of one of my gym sessions with Pat. Patrick is holding a little leather bound book which is a bit of a joke from Project Walk where my instructor over there Eric used a leather bound book and we used to wonder what the contents were. Now Patrick has the ability to do the same to me that Eric did when I was in the US.

In addition to this I visited a friend’s house on the weekend where there were no less than 40 steps to get to the first level of their house. Rather than be carried I used his assistance to walk to the top and then had a wheelchair carried up the steps for me to sit on once I was there. Going up the stairs was actually okay, but coming down was not pretty.

In other news I’m regularly taking Ash to kinder in the mornings riding my electric wheelchair. It is nice to contribute in some way to the running of the family once again.

Hope you are all well,

Mike.

I have now been back at the gym with Patrick for three weeks and have just started at the Epworth Hospital rehabilitation facility. Between these two I am getting 12 hours of activity a week. There are a few hours of other things such as massage, hand therapy and Feldenkrais physiotherapy that I’m performing each week that is making it very busy. Monica has also started back at work giving me my first taste of real responsibility with the family again. Ashley and I set off for kindergarten three mornings a week with me in the motorised wheelchair and Ashley riding on the back on one of those scooters that you see attached to the back of a pram. Our good friends Michelle and Cam bought this and helped us fit to the back of the wheelchair. It is terrific.

After my experience at Project Walk it has been great to get in the gym and start to keep track of my own progress in terms of strength and range of movement. Even after three weeks my strength is improving in leaps and bounds. I am working specific muscles in each session to get them to improve and I have noticed massive changes already. We are really working hard on the muscles that help stabilise you when you stand up and the ones you use to walk. With hand therapy involved also I am learning how to counteract the increasing strength so that my hands do not curl up. This condition is truly very cruel in that work I do to improve my mobility and strength makes my hands worse unless I counteract the work with stretching in the opposite direction. It truly is quite interesting if you ignore that it is happening to me!

We are heading to Sydney this weekend for my first attempt at travelling to our families’ homes in this condition. I’m really looking forward to it in particular seeing some of the people who have supported me and us throughout my recovery so far. And I would be lying if I did not say that I was looking forward to eating Chinese food at one of my favourite restaurants where Monica’s parents live!

That will do for now, I will keep it short and sweet. Keep making the most of what you’ve got!

Cheers,

Mike.

It might not sound like much but Mike assures me that yesterday was a landmark day – he managed to bench-press a broom-stick. Whilst this may not sound very impressive, it actually is on a number of fronts ….. let’s not forget that the expectation even until quite recently was that Mike would never be able to have full reach in his arms on any plane of movement. Firstly, there was a point in time that his arms all by themselves were too heavy for him to lift, and a broomstick weighs in at a good 5lbs! Secondly, whilst he has been able to sort-of benchpress the impressive weight of a broomstick for some time, the last little bit which requires some tricep assistance has been basically impossible. Thirdly, this means he can co-ordinate both arms to kind of do the same thing at roughly the same time! Let’s face it – once you can benchpress a broomstick the sky is clearly the limit!

After a pretty depressing weekend (one year since the accident), it is good be doing stuff again and looking forwards to being more positive again. On a more serious note, Mike is loving being back in to a full “program” and seems to be thriving on being at the gym and doing ‘exercise’ again. For any of you who have seen him since we have returned, he is sitting up so much straighter and has a much better posture. He is loving his morning “stroll” as he insists on getting setup with his sticks each morning and walking from bed in to have breakfast. Unfortunately with how long his morning routine takes, he is often left having breakfast on his own as Ash is already off to kinder but some days we all sit at the table together which is awesome. It is incredible seeing how much his walking is improving just taking a few steps each day. Obviously it is still a long way off being useful to him but if nothing else, it has got to be better for you to get up and move about than just sit around all day!

I haven’t managed to make it in to a gym session yet but I am assured by both Mike and his carers that there is plenty of equipment he can use and he and Pat seemed to have sorted out a weekly schedule with a couple of days of strength work and a day of co-ordination work.

In other exciting news, the hand therapist is awesome!! He has made Mike a couple of “torture” splints – well, that is what they look like! He has also shown Mike some massage and stretches to do and the wonderful Harri is all over these in her sessions with Mike so hopefully this will stop the fingers from becoming claws (as they have been threatening to do for some time now!) without having to increase the drugs any more. There are definitely some messages getting from brain to some of his fingers but it is just a matter of waiting to see if they can become useful. Can’t allow myself to get frustrated that we managed to come across this guy because we happen to have a friend who knows a few physios who recommended a physio who happened to know of a guy who …… anyway, you get my drift – you shouldn’t have to a wait a year to see people like this and you shouldn’t have to be so lucky to find them but anyway, enough whinging – this is one of my pet projects that I will just keep plodding away at — anyone with good political contacts let me know!

Not a lot else to report from here ….. still waiting on house mod stuff to come thru so that we can sort out the house and have somewhere that Mike can get around a bit more comfortably (ie, that he can get into without getting drenched as he gets bogged going all the way around the side to come up the temporary ramp out the back! and one that he can get in to more than 3 rooms in the house without taking out chunks of door frame!). Also, looks like he might be doing some ‘reading’ slots at kinder as some of the kids seem to think that because he is a chair he might not be able to talk!! Anyway, hopefully he can blow that misconception away quite quickly and I think when we sort out a skateboard for the back of the electric chair and he takes in the power-assist wheels that the kids will end up thinking that the chairs are actually pretty cool anyway!

A few interesting things on the agenda for us both which hopefully we will be able to give you more info about in the next week or two – some fundraising, some just fun and some that will hopefully help a whole lot of people with SCI.

Also, Mike’s computer is now setup (I know, only a year since the accident and finally he has something he can use!) and I go back to work in a few weeks so hopefully you will get all your updates now from Mike. I suspect he will be including some gym footage so you can see him in action!