Swim, Bike, Run

With part two of my amazing interview with Johanna, I started the post label, Competitive Sport. I made it a label as I planned to add more posts about my own experiences trying to play competitive sport post-accident. Now, Johanna is a special person and what she has done, post-accident, is absolutely amazing! Unfortunately, I cannot claim to have had anything like her success, but my sport is a big part of me and something that has been and still is a very big focus of my recovery.

My sport has three disciplines: swimming, biking and running; yep, I'm in to triathlon. In this post, I wrote about being close, prior to my accident, to racing in the New Zealand Ironman triathlon and how I am very keen to have another go at the race. That keenness has meant I've started a very big process of relearning to do each discipline. Funnily enough, that process has involved relearning each in the order they actually appear in events: swim, bike, run.

Physically, swimming is the easiest as it involves no weight bearing at all. No surprises I relearnt to do it first. Initially, I had problems with breathing, but they were solved once I learnt how to keep my breathing smooth by taking a breath and then releasing it slowly each time. Next came biking; as with swimming, I needed to learn how to keep my breathing smooth here too. I also needed to learn more about my balance and about not riding when badly fatigued (in the post, Mike's Regrets, you can read how I found out my balance while biking is much poorer when I'm tired).

Last, but not least comes running! Running is by far and away the most difficult discipline, physically. All three disciplines require rapid muscle movement, but only running requires it while the muscles are bearing weight. As with my walking, I had to start from scratch and completely relearn it. To help me do that, I needed to see a physiotherapist working in Australia. He specialises in brain injury and running and gave me valuable exercises to help me, but I am still very much relearning this discipline now.

To have another crack at Ironman, both my fitness and my technique have to be top-notch. That means I have a long way to go, but I will, of course, keep you updated on my progress as it relates to recovery from TBI.

Cheers,
Mike

Why Am I Recovering Well?

Making My Recovery Count

In this earlier post, I talked about how I felt better able to cope with the weight of my recovery because I felt so lucky that my accident wasn't worse. I am aware, however, that there is still the question for some of exactly why wasn't it worse. Why did I survive? Why am I recovering well?

A couple of years ago, I met a Canadian couple who had an extremely close shave on the island of Koh Phi Phi, Thailand during the 2004 tsunami. They were swamped by the wave, but very thankfully survived by climbing on to the third floor of their hotel. Having such a lucky escape, though, the issue they had to deal with was, why did we survive while so many didn't? I guess this idea extends to brain injury. Why did I survive? Why am I recovering well when others are not? What stopped me ending up like them?

I don't have much opinion on any question of why things happened the way they did. If you've read some of my other writings on here, you may have guessed that, when I'm involved, an opinion is never far away! :-) Now that I am recovering well, I fully intend to make it count. I feel like I've been given this amazing gift, this strong recovery. Now it's up to me to use it how ever I please. And I am determined to use it and use it well!

Making my recovery count is a one reason for writing this blog. By simply reading this now, you are helping me make my recovery count further. So thank you.

Cheers,
Mike

Let's Talk About It

I had a diffuse TBI and that means it's difficult to know which areas of my brain are affected. That makes it almost impossible to guess, beforehand, how my brain might respond in different situations. Will I react properly? Will I properly understand what's happening around me?

Of course, I'm always accumulating experience. That means, over time, I get better at judging what I'm ok with and what I need to be aware of. But, to help me recover better, any new situation requires something else. And I have been lucky enough to have access to that something else, someone to talk about things with.

I am particularly lucky because my someone is, in fact, two people: my wonderful parents. With them, I can talk about who I saw each day, what we discussed and, most importantly, how they reacted to what I said and did. That's important because I need to make sure that I'm responding as best I can, both in many social situations and in many working situations.

I am also lucky because my brain injury has left my personality largely unchanged. That means, in most situations, I am usually just the same old Mike I always was. Many TBI recoverers might find that their reactions, before and after their TBI, are sometimes very different. I hope, however, that those recoverers also have someone to talk with about stuff and to listen whole-heartedly to what they have to say.

Cheers,
Mike

Recovery from Any TBI

The question I set out to help people answer with this blog was, how do I to recover from a TBI? And, by that, I do mean any TBI. I suffered a severe diffuse TBI, but I certainly don't think that sets me apart from any other TBI recoverer. I once talked to a friend of a friend who suffered a TBI from walking through a heavy door with her arms full. The door swung closed behind her and connected with the back of her head and neck. Compare that situation to my own of going from 40 kmh (about 25 mph) to zero in an instant against the side of a van. Yet, she was still unlucky enough to suffer from difficult problems with fatigue afterwards!

Every TBI presents differently and no two TBIs will be the same. Just because one TBI's severe, however, and another's not won't mean much at all about what each recoverer experiences, how each copes and, at the end of the day, how each recovers. The way I see it, the thing with a severe TBI that's really disruptive is simply the number of problems it causes rather than the size of any one problem. I think that because learning to deal with a lot of fatigue, for instance, isn't much more difficult or disruptive than learning to deal with moderate fatigue.

I know, I know... even aside from severity, right now it's basically only one TBI recovery I focus on - my own. That means I might not cover topics very important to other recoverers. Still, I hope that, by writing about how I dealt with my problems, I will stimulate further thinking on ways of dealing with other issues. I also hope others might contribute discussion of the issues they face as they recover. If you've got an idea for one such topic, please read this post.

So, just because you suffered a different TBI to me, please don't think this blog mightn't be useful to you.

Cheers,
Mike

All That Matters Is, How to Recover

In comments on this post, I talked about how I didn't want to use this blog to focus on anything except recovery. I don't think it really matters how I injured myself; whether I hurt myself out cycle training for a triathlon one morning or, as in Tracy's example, driving drunk one evening. Nor do I think it matters, who I was before my accident.

All that matters, I think, is how I recover; what have I done since my accident? How many doors have I kicked down? It's not, how did my accident happen nor who was I before my accident.

If you're thinking about contributing to this blog, please be aware that what I want to focus on is TBI recovery.

Cheers,
Mike

Your Thoughts on TBI Recovery Are Welcome!

I've said that every TBI presents differently and I've only really experienced one - my own. That means there will be many issues that I won't write on, not because I don't care; this blog's about recovery from all TBI, so of course I care! But I certainly don't have the experience to write about every TBI recovery topic others feel are important.

Instead, I really hope others will contribute ideas and writings for this blog. I want this blog to be bigger than just myself - so it would be absolutely awesome to hear how others approach the different aspects of TBI recovery.

I've added the stories of two friends that particularly influenced me during my recovery to this blog. I would now like to add the writings of other recoverers in a similar way. So, if you have any topics on which you want to write, please get in touch with me by email. Please be aware that, for this blog, I'm most interested in stories focused on recovery from TBI, not on how TBIs happened or what people were before their TBI.

So, if you have any idea you think worth talking about, please email me.

Cheers,
Mike