Finally Pictures!!!

Here is visual daily recap of my recovery. Feel free to click on the images to view larger size one.
Today was follow up day, some stiches were removed I was able to eat with a fork and now I can show my teeth...or lack there of.















Yesterday, I ran out of pain killers but I had a normal breakfast, except for the room-temperature coffee.















Sunday, was uneventful but I was able to brush my teeth for the first time.















Saturday I cleaned the bike and looked for any damage but to make sure we took it to the bike shop. Only a bent derrailour hanger.















Friday was not a good day. I was in pain most of the day and little did they tell me about the effects of Percocet (pain killer) on an empty stomach.















But this is what I looked like a few hours after hitting the side of a minivan...

Thankfully I have a wonderful person by side to help me get through it and a bunch of friends and family that have been there to offer their support.

Thanks to everyone for the e-mails, blog comments, phone calls (even if I couldn't talk to you) as well as your good wishes and prayers.


Jeff

The beginning of a new week

Today was the first time since the accident that I was home-alone. No I didn't try to set the house on fire or set a bunch of traps around the house, instead I tried to have a day as close as possible to normal, normal meaning not a work day since I started by not going to work. Then I realized that a normal non-working day is a day that I spent a long time on the bike, which Norma took care of by almost making me promise her that I wouldn't go riding, so scratch that.

In the end I settled for a nice day at home without biking. I had a normal breakfast for the first time since the accident; egg whites with mushrooms and hash browns. I was able to chew almost all of it. Then I had some coffee and orange juice, both at room temperature.

Then Norma went to work and I didn't know what to do. I surfed the net, chatted with some family and friends, responded to some e-mails then I read about the Worlds Cyclocross Championship this past weekend in Belgium with a US rider taking silver for a first time...ever, then I was bored.
The doctor had told me not to take a shower until at least 48 hours from the time I got release from the Hospital, in the meantime I've been doing "cowboy showers" if you know what I mean... but today I had the clearence for a full shower and that's what I did. I also shaved part of my face because I didn't want to get too close to the stiches.
Then I put on some clothes, like actual clothes as if I was going out instead of sweat pants and t-shirts like what I've been wearing the previous days. That made me feel better, so that was the highlight of my day. I truly hope everyone else had a more exciting day than I did.

The rest of the day was back to the routine of eating through a straw (I can chew but it hurts and takes me forever), taking a nap, watching TV and taking my antibiotics.

By the way, I have one pain killer left, so I better be pain free tomorrow...well see!

Racing Update...my next race will be the 24 Hours at the Old Pueblo in Tucson and just today they announced that registration is closed which means it's going to be sold out event. Can't wait to race against the nation's best this February.

Pura Vida!

Jeff

It's Sunday...third day of recovey

Today I woke up with a less swollen face. The pain continues but because I know it's going to take a few more days, we reduced the dose in half, that way I'll have enough pain killers until my next follow up appointment on Tuesday.

Today's diet was pretty similar. Milk and oat meal (blended), Ensure y blended soups. I was also able to eat a yoplait yougurt, the whips kind. It was the Dulce de Leche flavor and even though I had to take it out of the refrigerator for a few minutes so it wouldn't hurt my teeth, it was delicious. Not to mention it took me almost half hour to eat it, but it was the first thing I ate with a spoon (as opposed to through a straw).

Sunday's afternoon was really long. I watched TV for a while, surfed the internet looking for the race results from Saturday but were not posted, then sat to read a book that Norma gave me for Christmas "Lance Armstrong's War" but for some reason I was very crabby and didn't want to do any of those things, I even tried listening to some music but it didn't work....the solution...take a nap!ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Three hours later I woke up with a much better sense of humor and hungry. As you can imagine, I am tired of blended meals and since I had tried to chew on some potatoes from the soup earlier, before blending it; we decided a was ready for something different. Bring on the Mac n Cheese. It says to boil the pasta for 8-10 minutes, Norma boiled it for 20 to make it softer, and even though I spent more than an hour chewing two maybe three shells at the time, I was able to eat one whole bowl.

I also got a treat today, since I ate Mac n Cheese, I rewarded myself with a Coca Cola. I usually don't drink soda but for some reason I was craving the carbonated taste.

So that's how today went. Small steps but it's all getting better.

Later,

Jeff

Day Two of Recovery

There have been very few changes from the day before. Pain comes and goes almost at the same rate as I take my painkillers...unfortunately I only have enough for three days.
The diet continues to be liquid.
Here is a picture of todays menu:

Some Oat meal with milk (blended) for breakfast.
Gerber Bananas for mid morning.
Vanilla Ensure before painkiller (it makes me sick if I don't have food)
Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup for lunch (Blended)
Chocolate Ensure before another painkiller in the afternoon.
Tomato soup for dinner (Not blended, yeay...oh it's the same)
Notice the glass with a straw, all of the above were consumed through a straw, even the oatmeal, yeah, it's tasty!

The major improvement of the day was that I was finally able to open my mouth just enough to "brush" my teeth. I actually was barely able to move the toothbrush inside my mouth but at the end, I felt a little cleaner, something that's been hard to achieve thus far.
I also had a jolt of energy and some curiosity so I started to clean my bike. Mostly I was looking for any breaks, but thankfully nothing major. The derrailour hanger is bent but that's won't be too expensive, I hope.


Norma talked to almost all my family and several of my friends. I only sit next to her and listen to the phone conversation. I could say a few things but it have to mumble a lot, so far Norma is the only one that can barely hear me assisted by signs and gestures, so I don't think it will be the same over the phone.
Hopefully I'll be able to talk in a couple of days.

Take care,

Jeff

It could've happened to anyone...

...but this time it was me.
Yes, I joined the growing number of cyclists involved in accidents with a vehicle. Thankfully I was able to get out of it with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

What happened?
Well, on Thursday morning I went our for an easy 1.5 hour training ride. I was preparing for the Arizona State Championship opener on Saturday so I just need to get a couple power workouts getting off the saddle (jumps) before the race. I chose the Desert Classic trail because the trailhead is less than half mile from my apartment and the trail allows me to keep a regular tempo for the whole hour then do the 3 set of 5 jumps that I needed.
Shortly before 11 am I was done with my training and was heading home. Once I exited the off-road trail I needed to ride on a residential street for less than a mile before getting home. I made a left turn onto Piedmont Road and grabbed my water bottle for the last sip, I put it back on the battle cage and two seconds later I was laying on the ground next to a blue minivan. I got up and all I could see on one of the passenger windows was my face covered in blood. The driver came around and apologized, he said he didn't see me coming down the street when he pulled out of his drive way and onto the road, backing half of the car in front of me. I didn't even have time to react. I couldn't even reach for my breaks or use my arms to protect myself, so I went head first through the last window on the passenger side.

At that point so many thoughts go through your mind, thankfully some neighbors came out and helped me. One person brought me a chair, another one brought an ice pack while another driver offered me to call someone. I gave her Norma's number and eventually was able to get a hold of her. One lady event tried to locate some of my missing teeth noticing that I had broken a couple but she couldn't find them. The driver of the minivan called 911 and a few minutes later a fire truck was the first one to the scene. They put me on a flat board, checked my vitals and put me in an ambulance which had arrived a few minutes later. Throughout the whole things I maintained consciousness and the emergency response crew were very supportive and caring. I was taken to the closest Trauma 1 Emergency Room at Maricopa County Hospital in Phoenix were I was able to experience real-live what goes one at those centers. A guy with a wound shot was on the bed next to mine and people kept coming in and out not without taking a peak at my face. I knew things were bad from the beginning then the Doctor on duty told me that they were bringing someone from plastic surgery to close the wound. Before that, I was taking for a tour to the MRI and CT scan rooms, thankfully those test determined that I didn't have any head or neck injuries.

At 12:30 PM and after several doses of morphine and local anesthesia, two plastic surgeons initiated the process to stitch my right chick muscles as well as my lips together. I also required several stitches to my nose and tongue. There was even a piece of tongue that couldn't be saved so they had to cut it. At 3:30 PM after more than three hours of stitching work, they were done with my face. A short walk to the bathroom helped us find a bump on my right knee but it turned out to be just a painful bruise.
After the hospital we headed straight to the dentist office. Just a quick stop by the house to get some recovery drink in my body and change clothes (actually put some on since all I had was spandex shorts and a t-shirt). At Dr. Wang's office we successfully scared off everyone that saw my face. Even the Doctor was hesitant to look for the damage to my teeth. Preliminarily I have one completely broken front tooth and half of the other one on my top jaw. There seems to be some missing pieces on some other ones from the side but we won't know until the swelling goes down.

Lastly we headed to Target to fill my pain and antibiotics prescription. By then it was 6:00 PM and the effect of the anesthesia had worn off, so the half our wait while the pharmacy filled them was probably the most painful time probably in my life.
Last night I slept on and off and the swelling increased. This morning I was finally able to get some liquids in (besides water) however all my meals have to be blended. I got away with drinking lukewarm coffee through at straw thanks to my lovely Norma, who is been by my side every moment. I couldn't have done it without her.

I also took some pictures but I'll wait a few more days to post them.

Thanks to all of you that have kept us in your thoughts and prayers.
We are doing fine and hoping for a speedy recovery.

I am pretty sure I won't be racing on Saturday, but the Arizona Mountain Bike Association was kind enough to move my paid registration to the next race.

That's all for now. We have an appointment on Tuesday to have the stitches removed and follow up. I also have to assess any possible damage to the bike. So far it looks good, but we'll take it to the bike shop for a complete check.

Have a great day,

Jeff and Norma