Well time for somewhat of an update. My bike is finally here, but I still can't ride it. I had been frequently loosing my balance and feeling light headed so I decided to go to the Doctor. He informed me that it is caused by my blood pressure. Just by doing an activty such as standing up spikes my blood pressure. That sharp blood pressure change is what causes me to fall and loose my balnce. Also, just by standing, my heart rate increases by about 25 beats per minute. This is a normal post concussion side effect, however my blood pressure and heart rate changes are a little high compared to normal. Therefor, even though I got my bike back almost 3 weeks after my last race, I am deciding to take another week off of exercising. Ever since 2006 I have been in a hurry to start training. This time, I could care less. If I don't allow my HEAD to heal properly, then I will regret it sooner or later. At this point, it is between being mentally off for the rest of my life, and having a bad upcoming season. I would definitely take the later of the two, and just by taking a 4-5 week break in September an October doesn't mean I'll have a bad year. It doesn't even mean I'll have a bad early season. It does mean that I will have done everything possible to prevent some sort of permanent injury. Some may thing I am over reacting to my concussion, however better safe than sorry.
So what does that last rambling have to do with gaining experience? Well, look back to Avery Trace 2006. I had a similar crash that ripped off half my face. Instead of taking time of the bike, or even visiting the hospital, I ended up racing a couple of hours later. I believe that because I did not take the proper recovery steps, I "dulled my edge" (if that makes any sense.) It takes me a little longer to process things. And that was after a wreck where I was conscious the whole time. This wreck, I was unconscious for 30-35 minutes. I am sure that came with repercussions. Because of the experience I gained at Avery Trace, I am smart enough to know to recover properly. I feel like this wreck will dwarf wrecks that I used to think were serious. Kind of like showing up to big races, then going to local races. The big races will ease the nerves during local races. I think this wreck will ease the nerves during smaller wrecks (I am refering to my own wrecks and no one elses of course. Every wreck has a different affect on different people.)
With all that being said, I am still planning some epic rides for whenever I do get back on the bike. I figure, I am missing out on my century season so I have to make it up. Right now I am for sure doing a century to Crap Orchard and back. As well as a century to Tellico Plains and back. I am working on an epic 4 day block that I will fill people in later on. In the immediate future (this weekend to be exact) I am going to middle Tennessee. I am hoping to hang out with friends as well as family. I have been missing middle Tennessee as well as a lot of my friends and family. Anyways, thanks for reading my ramblings,
The Crow
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
back to normal, kind of
Well, my facial wounds have almost completely healed. I returned to normal life this past Tuesday. To say the least, it is tough. Even though my face is getting back to normal, my right hand is still in a cast and half my right shoulder is still missing. For someone that is right handed it makes everything difficult. Day to day I am relearning how to do things and it is such a struggle. Although I crashed and hurt myself, I am very fortunate and blessed not to have it worse. There are so many other things that could have been broken or damaged. I am so blessed that all I had were some stitches, road rash, and a broken thumb. I would never consider myself an extremely religious (although I strongly believe in God) person, but what else could explain how lucky I was in that wreck? I have began to learn that there comes a point were you cannot control things and someone/something else begins controlling them. Take, for example, my wreck. I am flying. unconscious, through the air. I have absolutely no control over my body, but some how something manipulates my body to fall in a certain way. This way allowed my collar bone to go unscathed, allowed my ENTIRE lower body to go unscathed, (my shorts have no holes in them) and allowed my whole left side of my body to go unharmed. Think about Lance Armstrong recovering from one of the worst forms of cancer. Someone took control of his cancer and that is how he recovered from it. It is impossible that a human could have taken control. Some people will look to science, or luck to explain things like this, (that is fine with me if they feel that way, It is not my place to tell someone they are wrong or right) but I believe it is God that allowed me to fall the way I did. I can envision Gods hands around me as I fly through the air, creating a shield around my body.
I try not to be controversial, and I try to see where people are coming from, but what else could have made me fall the way I fell? I believe it was God. I also believe that nothing happens without a reason for it happening (even when I wasn't the most religious person I believed that everything happened for a reason.) I believe the purpose of this wreck was not to get me to quite riding my bike, or quite racing my bike. The purpose of this wreck was to bring me closer to God. Like I said earlier on, I was not the most religious person before the wreck, and I'm still not the MOST religious person. But this experience definitely brought me closer to God. Before the wreck I would have never come out and be the religious type in public. But after thinking about it, I need to make people aware that I believe in God and I believe the reason why I was not more harmed in this wreck was because of God.
Some people will think o man, Jon's the religious type and now he's going to be telling people they are going to hell, and they are wrong for doing stuff, but that is not the case. I am going to be the same person. I will still make some wrong decisions and I am not going to be perfect. But hopefully I will react slightly differently to my mistakes. What I am saying is I am still the same Jon as before, just slightly different.
Sincerely,
The Crow
I try not to be controversial, and I try to see where people are coming from, but what else could have made me fall the way I fell? I believe it was God. I also believe that nothing happens without a reason for it happening (even when I wasn't the most religious person I believed that everything happened for a reason.) I believe the purpose of this wreck was not to get me to quite riding my bike, or quite racing my bike. The purpose of this wreck was to bring me closer to God. Like I said earlier on, I was not the most religious person before the wreck, and I'm still not the MOST religious person. But this experience definitely brought me closer to God. Before the wreck I would have never come out and be the religious type in public. But after thinking about it, I need to make people aware that I believe in God and I believe the reason why I was not more harmed in this wreck was because of God.
Some people will think o man, Jon's the religious type and now he's going to be telling people they are going to hell, and they are wrong for doing stuff, but that is not the case. I am going to be the same person. I will still make some wrong decisions and I am not going to be perfect. But hopefully I will react slightly differently to my mistakes. What I am saying is I am still the same Jon as before, just slightly different.
Sincerely,
The Crow
Sunday, September 12, 2010
If you are just a blog reader looking for an update
Well labor day weekend was upon me and so was the 10K Cycling classic. This race was going to be one of the biggest races for me this year. Not only were there some big pro names in the domestic scene present, but big names in the European scene as well. I show up to the start line and none other Tour de France stage winner and multi-time Paris Roubaix podium rider George Hincapie was racing. This is what I get motivation from! So the race starts and it stats off pretty fast. About 2.5 miles in, the rider in front of me begins going over these pot holes. The holes are not bad, but for some reason the guy in front of me tries to get out of this line. With me on this guys wheel, he goes off his line and crashes. I see a gap just to the left, in a split second decision, I try to shoot the gap. The rider to the right of me hits this guys bike bike and pushes it into me. I go down! The last thing I remember is seeing this guy grimacing on the ground. The next thing I remember is waking up in the ER. I had been in there for a couple of minute before I even gain consciousness. Just before I get transferred out of the ER, I get about 20 Stitches in the right side of my face as well as the news that my thumb is broken. That Friday, I get surgery on my thumb as well as I get my facial wounds cleaned up by a plastic surgeon. I still have stitches in my face, but it looks alot better since he cleaned it up. Tomorrow (Monday, a week since the accident) I will be going to get the stitches taken out. I will get the 2 pins out of my thumb in about a month, and another 2 weeks after that before the cast comes off. A BIG thanks to the Macnaughtons! Through cycling I met a guy named Josh Macnauhton. Josh's dad is an orthopedic surgeon. So thankfully, I had a true family friend doing my surgery on my thumb. I am very thankful and honored to be able to call the Macnaughtons my friend! Josh and his family are AMAZING!
amazing!
Most of my readers know me. They know whats been going on the past week that I have not updated, and they think, "Where did he come up with the name of this post?"
Allow me to elaborate. This past Monday (a week ago tomorrow) I raced my last race of the season. About 3 miles into the race, I wrecked. I was knocked unconscious before I even hit the ground, and did not wake up until I had been in the ER for several minutes. I was at this race by myself, not knowing a single person there, so tracking down my parents was very difficult. While I was at this race, my parents were visiting my AMAZING sister and her AMAZING house hold. Seeing how I was in Atlanta, and my parents were in Virginia, it made options very limited. The hospital knew virtually nothing about me, and I pretty much knew nothing about my self. Through the AMAZING effort done by the AMAZING ER staff, they were able to track down my AMAZING mom and she was able to fly down asap. While my mom was in the air, the ER staff was unbelievable! Not only that, but people in general were AMAZING! There was one woman (a mom to a bike racer that was also in the hospital) that offered to stay with me! She offered to help track down my mom, and offered to virtually stand in as my mom until my real mom came! I was AMAZED by the curiosity of this woman. Not only was this woman so nice, the hospital staff was AMAZING! I had a very cute ER nurse that was assigned to me. She was so nice and thoughtful. I can remember her rushing in to tell me she got hold of a family member. and her going way out of her way to do things for me. I also remember another ER nurse who's husband was a fire fighter that was working at the race. She was an avid bike rider with a 5 series Madone. I think her and her husband do triathlons and she was so gracious. She even went through the trouble of tracking down the race promoter and video of the wreck and things like that. I also remember my ER doctor. This guy was extremely nice and very funny. I can remember just before I left the ER somehow hot women got brought up between he and I. I can't really remember who brought it up but I asked if the nurses up stairs were as hot as the nurses in the ER. He replied saying that the nurses upstairs were no where near as hot, and he was right haha. The entire hospital staff was AMAZING. I cannot even begin to describe how gracious and nice they were. I only wish I knew their names. AMAZING!
As my AMAZING mom flew down to take care of me and bring me home, my AMAZING step dad drove home from Virginia. As soon as he get home, he began tracing down my bike. This task my sound easy, but it was far from it. It took my AMAZING step dad four days to finally track down my bike. For those four days, he was tirelessly calling people trying to find my 4,000 dollar bike. I think it was Thursday morning when it finally showed up. I'm sure it will be broken, however it will be nice to put my mind at ease. Although for some reason I am not very worried about the bike. Perhaps it is the medicine, but for some reason I do not care about my bike being broken. Either way, my bike would still be in Atlanta if not for my AMAZING step dad.
Once I got home on Tuesday, I immediately began getting hold of my bosses. First was the guys at Cedar Bluff Cycles. Gerri and the rest of the guys were AMAZING. I knew that MIG would be AMAZING seeing how we are practically best friends. What surprised me is how AMAZING and thoughtful Geri and Tim were. Not only did they give me the necessary time off, but they have been passing the word on to all my friends, but they have been very sympathetic. Not only did I contact the guys at Cedar Bluff Cycles, but I also contacted my bosses at the Rush. I some how managed to email them and let them know of the news and they were so helpful. My main boss Erin has been very understanding and AMAZING for that. My Oak Ridge boss has just been all around AMAZING! Julie has been so helpful with finding subs. She has been so sympathetic. I'm sure she has gone so far out of her way to make it easy on me and I am so grateful for that. All my bosses have been AMAZING!
And finally my family and friends have been AMAZING! I would have never imagined this many people giving me their wishes. It has just blown my mind! A friend like Maxey that has called me everyday! People like the Sweckers (my bro Stefan and his parents) that have sent me gifts and nice phone calls. My Facebook profile has exploded with friends wishing me luck! I had no idea this many people care about me! It is AMAZING! Dozens of friends giving me their wishes. I am so appreciative that I cannot even describe! And family, geez talk about be blessed! I have family members constantly calling me, praying for me. I even have people that I don't even know praying for me and wishing me to get better. AMAZING! I've got my entire Dads side of the family constantly praying for me! I've got my step-moms co-workers and church members constantly wishing me luck and praying for me. People I have met once in my life sending me their wishes. I am AMAZED by the support of everyone! My parents (I have a lot of people that parent me even though they are not my birth parents) are all being so supportive and AMAZING! And all my moms (like I said there are several people that are not my parents that are like parents) are so supportive, they are AMAZING!
I know this is not a conventional blog post, but this is not a conventional time of my life. Seeing how I virtually have no left hand, it is very hard to type. I will give an actual update later on. I just feel like I have to thank everyone! This battle is far from over for me and I hope to continue to have all this support over the next month. The Doctors are not expecting my thumb to get back to normal for another 6-8 weeks. Please continue giving me this unparalleled AMAZING support!
Sincerely,
Jon
Allow me to elaborate. This past Monday (a week ago tomorrow) I raced my last race of the season. About 3 miles into the race, I wrecked. I was knocked unconscious before I even hit the ground, and did not wake up until I had been in the ER for several minutes. I was at this race by myself, not knowing a single person there, so tracking down my parents was very difficult. While I was at this race, my parents were visiting my AMAZING sister and her AMAZING house hold. Seeing how I was in Atlanta, and my parents were in Virginia, it made options very limited. The hospital knew virtually nothing about me, and I pretty much knew nothing about my self. Through the AMAZING effort done by the AMAZING ER staff, they were able to track down my AMAZING mom and she was able to fly down asap. While my mom was in the air, the ER staff was unbelievable! Not only that, but people in general were AMAZING! There was one woman (a mom to a bike racer that was also in the hospital) that offered to stay with me! She offered to help track down my mom, and offered to virtually stand in as my mom until my real mom came! I was AMAZED by the curiosity of this woman. Not only was this woman so nice, the hospital staff was AMAZING! I had a very cute ER nurse that was assigned to me. She was so nice and thoughtful. I can remember her rushing in to tell me she got hold of a family member. and her going way out of her way to do things for me. I also remember another ER nurse who's husband was a fire fighter that was working at the race. She was an avid bike rider with a 5 series Madone. I think her and her husband do triathlons and she was so gracious. She even went through the trouble of tracking down the race promoter and video of the wreck and things like that. I also remember my ER doctor. This guy was extremely nice and very funny. I can remember just before I left the ER somehow hot women got brought up between he and I. I can't really remember who brought it up but I asked if the nurses up stairs were as hot as the nurses in the ER. He replied saying that the nurses upstairs were no where near as hot, and he was right haha. The entire hospital staff was AMAZING. I cannot even begin to describe how gracious and nice they were. I only wish I knew their names. AMAZING!
As my AMAZING mom flew down to take care of me and bring me home, my AMAZING step dad drove home from Virginia. As soon as he get home, he began tracing down my bike. This task my sound easy, but it was far from it. It took my AMAZING step dad four days to finally track down my bike. For those four days, he was tirelessly calling people trying to find my 4,000 dollar bike. I think it was Thursday morning when it finally showed up. I'm sure it will be broken, however it will be nice to put my mind at ease. Although for some reason I am not very worried about the bike. Perhaps it is the medicine, but for some reason I do not care about my bike being broken. Either way, my bike would still be in Atlanta if not for my AMAZING step dad.
Once I got home on Tuesday, I immediately began getting hold of my bosses. First was the guys at Cedar Bluff Cycles. Gerri and the rest of the guys were AMAZING. I knew that MIG would be AMAZING seeing how we are practically best friends. What surprised me is how AMAZING and thoughtful Geri and Tim were. Not only did they give me the necessary time off, but they have been passing the word on to all my friends, but they have been very sympathetic. Not only did I contact the guys at Cedar Bluff Cycles, but I also contacted my bosses at the Rush. I some how managed to email them and let them know of the news and they were so helpful. My main boss Erin has been very understanding and AMAZING for that. My Oak Ridge boss has just been all around AMAZING! Julie has been so helpful with finding subs. She has been so sympathetic. I'm sure she has gone so far out of her way to make it easy on me and I am so grateful for that. All my bosses have been AMAZING!
And finally my family and friends have been AMAZING! I would have never imagined this many people giving me their wishes. It has just blown my mind! A friend like Maxey that has called me everyday! People like the Sweckers (my bro Stefan and his parents) that have sent me gifts and nice phone calls. My Facebook profile has exploded with friends wishing me luck! I had no idea this many people care about me! It is AMAZING! Dozens of friends giving me their wishes. I am so appreciative that I cannot even describe! And family, geez talk about be blessed! I have family members constantly calling me, praying for me. I even have people that I don't even know praying for me and wishing me to get better. AMAZING! I've got my entire Dads side of the family constantly praying for me! I've got my step-moms co-workers and church members constantly wishing me luck and praying for me. People I have met once in my life sending me their wishes. I am AMAZED by the support of everyone! My parents (I have a lot of people that parent me even though they are not my birth parents) are all being so supportive and AMAZING! And all my moms (like I said there are several people that are not my parents that are like parents) are so supportive, they are AMAZING!
I know this is not a conventional blog post, but this is not a conventional time of my life. Seeing how I virtually have no left hand, it is very hard to type. I will give an actual update later on. I just feel like I have to thank everyone! This battle is far from over for me and I hope to continue to have all this support over the next month. The Doctors are not expecting my thumb to get back to normal for another 6-8 weeks. Please continue giving me this unparalleled AMAZING support!
Sincerely,
Jon
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