Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
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Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Fri Mar 09, 2018 11:08 am
Just before Christmas 2017 I was diving at 18 metres of water on a wreck off Mooloolaba, Queensland.
I am a certified Open Water diver and the dive was complete normal.
At, or around, or slightly thereafter the safety stop as per the dive tables and our dive computers I suffered some sort of medical episode.
Seizure, stroke, bends, embolism, who knows. After 2 weeks in hospital, mostly in intensive care and the hyperbarics chamber I was released into the care of my wife.
What was known is that my heart stopped and remained stopped for a few minutes and if not for the quick acting team on the dive charter I would most certainly be dead (spoiler alert, I've been to the other side and there is nothing there).
I remember gulping in salt water until I couldn't any more and powerless to do anything very clearly remember saying in my head. "This is it, I'm dead". No flashing of memories nothing.
This lack of heart beat caused oxygen hypoxia resulting in significant brain injury.
I was effectively paralyzed with limited uncoordinated use of my hands. Very frightening.
Eventually the movement started returning to normal-ish state through out my body though was very unsteady on my feet for quite a while.
Long story short, I returned home and still had significant touch and sensation issues in my legs and feet, especially my feet where I couldn't determine hot and cold and everything felt spongy.
Not allowed to drive a car or ride a bike (I have a motor bike and pushies) I set up the air trainer in the garage and went for a gentle 30 minute spin. Noting that I had effectively had a pretty major stroke and they found a huge tear in my left lung I started out VERY gently.
After my little ride I took my bike shoes off and was walking around on different surfaces and the sensation in my feet was noticeably better, I felt OK, not dizzyness, no shortness of breath.
The next day I did an hour on the trainer, feet were feeling marginally better again.
Same the next day. another hour.
I took a rest day, noting I was supposed to have complete rest for 2 months and this was very early January.
The sensation described earlier in my feet started to creep back in - but not as severe.
The next day, I did an hour 15 minutes, upping the pace, next day another hour, bit harder.
Every time I noticed improvements in balance and the sensations in my feet.
Late January I got doctors approval to drive and kept up on the trainer. After a few weeks tested myself on a mtb around the block.. that was OK. Bit further, bit further. More trainer rides, light road riding.
I'm now back on my road bike and feeling much fitter than before the accident. I have lost 6 kilos since last December. Combination of a better diet supervised by my loving and generous wife and lots of opportunity for exercise.
According to Strava I have logged 511 kilometres this year - which are mostly stationary.
I still have lingering problems with the feelings in my legs and feet. But it sincerely reduced and gets better with each ride.
For a guy who was effectively dead just before Christmas, I'm doing pretty well and much better since getting on my bike(s).
I remember seeing a story on Sixty Minutes / Four Corners about Parkinson's Disease where chronic patients who couldn't walk were helped onto a bike and once getting going had incredible response to the motion of bike riding / pedaling.
I can tell you first hand cycling is fantastic as a recovery tool for a brain injury.
Cheers, Gerard
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby Tequestra » Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:12 pm
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby Alex Simmons/RST » Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:22 pm
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby find_bruce » Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:36 pm
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby fat and old » Fri Mar 09, 2018 2:54 pm
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby queequeg » Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:18 pm
Anyway, with a weight gain of 20kg since April last year, I have just decided "stuff it", and I'll be getting back on the bike next week and slowly ramping back up.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby g-boaf » Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:58 pm
It's a reminder not to take your health for granted.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby foo on patrol » Sat Mar 10, 2018 10:00 am
Foo
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Tue Mar 13, 2018 9:20 am
I couldn't even co-ordinate my brain to identify what the"Buzzer" looked like to call a nurse.g-boaf wrote:That's a great story. I watched someone recover from serious injury last year through cycling, going from a point where it was painful even to take off a shirt, even as far as hands being locked up, gradually becoming more mobile.
It's a reminder not to take your health for granted.
It took me hours to try to remember what it was called, more hours to visualise it, and then only to find that I was almost completely paralyzed.
It took me days of incredible struggle to even half prop myself up on my elbows. Every time I'd nearly get there and fall back down and have to start again. Absolute hell.
Days more, days to be able to throw my useless legs over the side of the bed. and all I could to to hold the bed frame to sit up. I fell back into the bed many, many times. But damned if I was going to be beaten. I annoyed the hell out of the nursing staff because flopping back kept pulling all the heart monitoring stuff off me and tubes out of my arms.
Rode this morning in the rain and was so thankful for the opportunity to be riding (and alive).
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Tue Mar 13, 2018 9:22 am
That sounds like bollocks, clots are usually a symptom of being sedentary; keep up with half an aspirin and shed loads of water to keep the blood thin.queequeg wrote:Good to hear this...as someone who has been off the bike for almost a year because of a stupid blood clot in my leg, with a doctor who insists on blaming the clot on cycling.
Anyway, with a weight gain of 20kg since April last year, I have just decided "stuff it", and I'll be getting back on the bike next week and slowly ramping back up.
BMC 4Stroke 03. (web nazis won't let me put a third picture up )
Voodoo Dambala 29er.
FELT AR4 Carbon.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Tue Mar 13, 2018 9:23 am
Thanks! very happy to be alive. Doc says there's no rule book on brain injuries and i might have these lingering issues, a few months, a few years or forever.find_bruce wrote:Fabulous story - when I saw the title I thought that you may need encouragement as rehab can be hard work, so great to hear that you are seeing immediate effects. Keep it up & don't get too disheartened if you hit a plateau at some time down the track.
I can live with it and my brain is already starting to ignore them.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby queequeg » Tue Mar 13, 2018 9:45 am
Doc still has me on thinners, so I’m supposedly all good with the clot prevention. Not knowing what caused the first clot is the issue. It certainly wasn’t lack of physical activity, as I had covered about 18,000km on the bike in the year prior to the clot.glawrence2000 wrote:That sounds like bollocks, clots are usually a symptom of being sedentary; keep up with half an aspirin and shed loads of water to keep the blood thin.queequeg wrote:Good to hear this...as someone who has been off the bike for almost a year because of a stupid blood clot in my leg, with a doctor who insists on blaming the clot on cycling.
Anyway, with a weight gain of 20kg since April last year, I have just decided "stuff it", and I'll be getting back on the bike next week and slowly ramping back up.
Anyway, my patience has run out. Life is short, I’m overweight and disconnected, and cycling is the cure.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby ft_critical » Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:04 pm
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby hamishm » Wed Mar 21, 2018 12:21 pm
Jesus. I've dived on that wreck, I wouldn't say it is dangerous at 18 metres. Good to hear you are recovering.glawrence2000 wrote:Just before Christmas 2017 I was diving at 18 metres of water on a wreck off Mooloolaba, Queensland.
I am a certified Open Water diver and the dive was complete normal.
At, or around, or slightly thereafter the safety stop as per the dive tables and our dive computers I suffered some sort of medical episode.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby RhapsodyX » Wed Mar 21, 2018 1:13 pm
It's four months since I trashed my lower back and went from 10+ hours a week to relatively nothing... although for the last couple of months to I've been doing about 3 hours of pool rehab (not real exercise) and in the last few weeks I've started riding a bit again ( < 75k/week). I've managed to keep the weight off by (1) intermittent fasting (18/6'ish) and (2) becoming even more strict with my "low carb" thing. At my latest check-in, I'm slightly lighter than before the injury and BF is still around 14%. As I often say to people - it's what you eat, not the exercise.queequeg wrote:Good to hear this...as someone who has been off the bike for almost a year because of a stupid blood clot in my leg, with a doctor who insists on blaming the clot on cycling.
Anyway, with a weight gain of 20kg since April last year, I have just decided "stuff it", and I'll be getting back on the bike next week and slowly ramping back up.
PS - not advocating low-carb as a solution, it's tricky to get right and only an advantage for the long sportive rides. Calorie counting also works, as well as an ability to make yourself suffer food deprivation.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby queequeg » Wed Mar 21, 2018 1:40 pm
I dramatically cut my food intake, skipping lunch at least half the days in the week. The weight stayed at pretty close to pre-injury levels for the first three months, then it's like my body just went "well, you're not doing any exercise, I give up!", and my weight just piled on...20kg in 6 months.RhapsodyX wrote:It's four months since I trashed my lower back and went from 10+ hours a week to relatively nothing... although for the last couple of months to I've been doing about 3 hours of pool rehab (not real exercise) and in the last few weeks I've started riding a bit again ( < 75k/week). I've managed to keep the weight off by (1) intermittent fasting (18/6'ish) and (2) becoming even more strict with my "low carb" thing. At my latest check-in, I'm slightly lighter than before the injury and BF is still around 14%. As I often say to people - it's what you eat, not the exercise.queequeg wrote:Good to hear this...as someone who has been off the bike for almost a year because of a stupid blood clot in my leg, with a doctor who insists on blaming the clot on cycling.
Anyway, with a weight gain of 20kg since April last year, I have just decided "stuff it", and I'll be getting back on the bike next week and slowly ramping back up.
PS - not advocating low-carb as a solution, it's tricky to get right and only an advantage for the long sportive rides. Calorie counting also works, as well as an ability to make yourself suffer food deprivation.
Hopefully getting back into the riding will reset my body's metabolism and start shedding the kilos. I am meant to be back on the bike this week, but naturally the weather is utter crap, and due to work I have not had a chance to finish off my bike after my bike fit on the weekend, so now it is more likely to be next week, which with it being Easter will mean only 1 day in the office, and hopefully some weekend riding to shock my body back to life.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby RhapsodyX » Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:12 pm
Alas, with weight gain, it's always a case of calories in!queequeg wrote: I dramatically cut my food intake, skipping lunch at least half the days in the week. The weight stayed at pretty close to pre-injury levels for the first three months, then it's like my body just went "well, you're not doing any exercise, I give up!", and my weight just piled on...20kg in 6 months.
Hopefully getting back into the riding will reset my body's metabolism and start shedding the kilos. I am meant to be back on the bike this week, but naturally the weather is utter crap, and due to work I have not had a chance to finish off my bike after my bike fit on the weekend, so now it is more likely to be next week, which with it being Easter will mean only 1 day in the office, and hopefully some weekend riding to shock my body back to life.
I tend to skip breakfast as it keep my fasting going longer, but I also try never to eat after 6pm. If you can do it, bring dinner earlier into the day, and try and make breakfast the bigger one. And avoid too much protein in any meal - excess just gets converted to glucose and the amino acids in meat protein (especially from beef & chicken) have a phenomenal impact on insulin levels. I suspect this is why Cadel has (by rumour) his protein in a different meal to his carbs.
Best wishes with losing the weight - I originally started off at 127kg and couldn't get below 100kg, even at 400+ k's a week and racing at A/B veterans level. It took a few tries at dietary manipulation before I finally found what worked for me in terms of hunger control & on-bike performance.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby queequeg » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:42 am
I have been here before, just as I first started riding. In fact, I am pretty much the same weight right now as I was before I first starting riding again. I know I can get the weight off, but will need to change my diet to get it off more quickly. I was only doing 250km a week to drop my weight off, with no racing or high intensity riding. Hopefully this time, with some actual focus, I'll have all the weight off again inside 6 months.RhapsodyX wrote: Alas, with weight gain, it's always a case of calories in!
I tend to skip breakfast as it keep my fasting going longer, but I also try never to eat after 6pm. If you can do it, bring dinner earlier into the day, and try and make breakfast the bigger one. And avoid too much protein in any meal - excess just gets converted to glucose and the amino acids in meat protein (especially from beef & chicken) have a phenomenal impact on insulin levels. I suspect this is why Cadel has (by rumour) his protein in a different meal to his carbs.
Best wishes with losing the weight - I originally started off at 127kg and couldn't get below 100kg, even at 400+ k's a week and racing at A/B veterans level. It took a few tries at dietary manipulation before I finally found what worked for me in terms of hunger control & on-bike performance.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby Mububban » Fri Mar 23, 2018 12:49 pm
If you don’t mind, are you willing to describe this a bit more?(spoiler alert, I've been to the other side and there is nothing there).
I remember gulping in salt water until I couldn't any more and powerless to do anything very clearly remember saying in my head. "This is it, I'm dead". No flashing of memories nothing.
Can you equate it to anything else? When you sleep, you kind of know you’ve been asleep and that some time has passed, but having been under general anaesthetic a few times, that’s really a “lights out/lights on” sensation for me, with no sense of time passing whatsoever.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby Kronos » Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:23 pm
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby P!N20 » Fri Mar 23, 2018 3:19 pm
I had a seizure a few weeks back - I was sitting in a meeting then suddenly people were hovering over me trying to 'wake' me. It felt like no time had passed, but I was convulsing on the floor for ten minutes. I've been under general anesthetic and it felt a lot different to this; GA feels like a really deep sleep to me, while the seizure was just instantaneous.Mububban wrote:When you sleep, you kind of know you’ve been asleep and that some time has passed, but having been under general anaesthetic a few times, that’s really a “lights out/lights on” sensation for me, with no sense of time passing whatsoever.
Gerard - inspiring story, hope your recovery continues to improve.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby Ivanerrol » Sat Mar 24, 2018 11:35 pm
Cycling is a real therapy for getting into that frame of thinking where a relaxed positive mind has a big placebo effect over physical problems and is a big part of the cure for any injury
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:19 pm
yeah going under with anesthetic is very similar. though (hopefully) without the sheer dread of the realisation of the finality of what's happening. Next thing I was aware of was squeaking noises of rubber on rubber, me being dragged into the boat, engines revving, radio comms, no sensation of feeling, couldn't see anything, was probably only half conscious.Mububban wrote:Just one more reason to love cycling. Glad to hear you’re on the mend.
If you don’t mind, are you willing to describe this a bit more?(spoiler alert, I've been to the other side and there is nothing there).
I remember gulping in salt water until I couldn't any more and powerless to do anything very clearly remember saying in my head. "This is it, I'm dead". No flashing of memories nothing.
Can you equate it to anything else? When you sleep, you kind of know you’ve been asleep and that some time has passed, but having been under general anaesthetic a few times, that’s really a “lights out/lights on” sensation for me, with no sense of time passing whatsoever.
Nothing more until I was baking in the sun in the back of the chopper.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:21 pm
P!N20 wrote:I had a seizure a few weeks back - I was sitting in a meeting then suddenly people were hovering over me trying to 'wake' me. It felt like no time had passed, but I was convulsing on the floor for ten minutes. I've been under general anesthetic and it felt a lot different to this; GA feels like a really deep sleep to me, while the seizure was just instantaneous.Mububban wrote:When you sleep, you kind of know you’ve been asleep and that some time has passed, but having been under general anaesthetic a few times, that’s really a “lights out/lights on” sensation for me, with no sense of time passing whatsoever.
Gerard - inspiring story, hope your recovery continues to improve.
Jeepers mate, that sounds terrible. exercise has fallen off a bit but I'm determined to ride to the office tomorrow.
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Voodoo Dambala 29er.
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Re: Cycling as recovery from very serious accident
Postby glawrence2000 » Mon Apr 16, 2018 2:30 pm
I skipped breakfast for decades - never felt hungry. Wasn't interested in it.RhapsodyX wrote:Alas, with weight gain, it's always a case of calories in!queequeg wrote: I dramatically cut my food intake, skipping lunch at least half the days in the week. The weight stayed at pretty close to pre-injury levels for the first three months, then it's like my body just went "well, you're not doing any exercise, I give up!", and my weight just piled on...20kg in 6 months.
Hopefully getting back into the riding will reset my body's metabolism and start shedding the kilos. I am meant to be back on the bike this week, but naturally the weather is utter crap, and due to work I have not had a chance to finish off my bike after my bike fit on the weekend, so now it is more likely to be next week, which with it being Easter will mean only 1 day in the office, and hopefully some weekend riding to shock my body back to life.
I tend to skip breakfast as it keep my fasting going longer, but I also try never to eat after 6pm. If you can do it, bring dinner earlier into the day, and try and make breakfast the bigger one. And avoid too much protein in any meal - excess just gets converted to glucose and the amino acids in meat protein (especially from beef & chicken) have a phenomenal impact on insulin levels. I suspect this is why Cadel has (by rumour) his protein in a different meal to his carbs.
Best wishes with losing the weight - I originally started off at 127kg and couldn't get below 100kg, even at 400+ k's a week and racing at A/B veterans level. It took a few tries at dietary manipulation before I finally found what worked for me in terms of hunger control & on-bike performance.
Have heard so many times Breakfast of a King, Lunch of a squire and dinner of a pauper.
Max calories at the start of the day and don't pack yourself before bed.
ThoughI can only assume (since it was my long departed grandmother's saying) that there was no consideration of structure of proteins, starch, good fatty acids etc, just lots of boiled shite.
Either that or she didn't have the inkling to cook me dinner on the rare occasions I stayed over in camp despair.
However, being on a proper breakfast of crushed nuts, yoghurts, fruit, and grains made me 1. not want to snack by about 9 am and gave me the energy to ride my bike in its trainer which in turn resulted in weight loss. It all helps.
I even stomached a few mouthfuls of quinoa.
BMC 4Stroke 03. (web nazis won't let me put a third picture up )
Voodoo Dambala 29er.
FELT AR4 Carbon.
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