August
Bike Damage Claim Settled
I go into a fair bit more detail in the post about ICBC’s enhanced Care model, but in early August, after a mere five months, my bike and carbon wheel write-off claim was finally settled. It was endlessly frustrating to be repeatedly ghosted by the adjuster, with zero apologies for doing so, but at least I got the money and it was a better offer than expected.
No More Hand Therapy
This change had been coming for a while, as I was plateauing with the therapy while the hand continued to progress. Really, if you’re doing the work and still seeing improvement, there isn’t a lot more the therapist can do. Using the hand continually for nearly everything (as I have done) has really been the best approach to getting the functioning back. I thank my lucky stars I’m a drummer because I’m convinced that nothing is better hand therapy.
Running and Cycling For Recovery
There’s a litany of data supporting the benefits of cardiovascular exercise on recovering from an acquired/traumatic brain injury. People recover faster and show more improvement in their cognitive functioning overall. It’s been slow going, but my vestibular symptoms were also lessening more as time went on. In August I still experienced the brain “fog” but the dizziness and balance issues were less intense than when I came home from GF Strong.
I also decided to do my best to do a run, e-bike or trainer ride almost every day going forward. I obviously wasn’t training for anything, but I figured the only way I could continue to reduce my vestibular symptoms as fast as possible was to desensitize myself by triggering them. By August I was doing runs of 8k or so, so working toward longer continuous runs became one of my goals going forward.
In August my trainer rides were mostly clocking in at up to 60 minutes, and regaining more of my power output became my other goal for my physical recovery.
When I first came home from GF Strong I had to pause and rest just going up the stairs and by fall I was doing decent rides and runs. So, with both, I switched gears from just doing the activities to improving upon key metrics.
Long-term Disability Approved
By far the best news in August was that my LTD claim was approved when we had our Manulife phone interview. In general, the entire Manulife LTD application process was pretty painless. As of year’s end I’m still not sure whether there’s a return to work in my future or not, but the focus has always been to get back to a place where I could return to my job. That’s also been my approach with all therapy since day 1 – returning to something like normalcy. Right now, with the aforementioned cognitive deficits, and some of my remaining vestibular triggers, and the light sensitivity and visual fatigue … all would hinder my ability to work a full day. One thing I had already decided by August is that any return to work would have to be 100% remote or it wasn’t happening. My employer has accommodated other immunocompromised people so I don’t think this should be a showstopper.
Fitness – August 2024
If nothing else, very early in my therapy at GF Strong I decided I wouldn’t fail at progress because I didn’t put in the effort. The list below also doesn’t include my therapies or homework, which probably averaged about an an hour a day by August. When I first began my hand and vestibular physiotherapy, it was common for me to spend 3+ hours a day on my therapies and related homework.
- Run: 33km
- Walk: 50km
- Cycling (trainer & e-bike): 178km
- Weights: 4.5 hrs
- Yoga: 4.5 hrs
- Drums: 9 hrs
September
Victoria
For the first time since my crash, we got back to Victoria from September 17-20. It wasn’t quite the same without craft beer or whisky (I’m mostly abstaining for a year, post-crash), but it was still very enjoyable. Connie was nursing a calf/outer knee strain, so we couldn’t do the walking we typically love to do while there. I did have my fastest short run since the crash (4.5k @ 5:15/km) so that’s something I guess. Wild to think that as recently as June I was struggling to do a shaky, slow 3k, and by September, 9-10k was reasonably easy, all things considered.
Weights
Early in the month I decided I didn’t really like going to the weight room to do my strength workouts with me missing my spleen and all, and given my need to keep building strength, I asked my OT if it would be possible to get some weights for home. Much to my surprise, it was approved by ICBC and I felt much more comfortable not exposing myself to the viral stew at the gym.
New Bike Choices
After finally getting my bike money from ICBC in August, I began shopping for a replacement steed in September. I’ve been taking my time because I want to be sure I won’t switch to more transport and city biking. If I don’t feel I need a road machine any longer it’ll reduce my cost by half or more. I think I’ll ultimately still want to do group road rides, but it’s best to be sure and not regret my purchase immediately after making it. Honestly, just being able to return to a cycling club and ride is something I wondered if I’d ever be able to do again.
Fitness – September 2024
In September I tried to get still more regimented with my fitness and saw pretty significant increases in time/distance across the board. While I’m still not beating myself up for missing workouts, I decided I needed to do my best to stick to a schedule and it paid off in September. I began to set modest time or distance goals for all major activity types to see how well I could do in the coming weeks and months.
I continued to see improvement in my strength, coordination and general right hand functioning too. Typing and writing were still a bit slow, but also improved a lot in September. Drumming surprisingly improved the most, and as of September 30th was seeing less dramatic improvement, but still improving. I walked a lot in Victoria in September, so that was more a blip than actual progress, but walking a lot is thankfully not an issue. Cycling on the trainer also saw glimpses of power returning. I’d say September was sort of a milestone month, as it felt like everything really began turning a corner.
- Running: 55 km
- Walking: 92 km
- Cycling (trainer & e-bike): 233 km
- Weights: 6.75 hrs
- Yoga: 6.2 hrs
- Drums: 7.5hrs
Notes
- I haven’t mentioned it so far, but one thing I have struggled with since the crash is keeping up my weight. I used to hold steady at about 165, which was probably ten pounds heavier than I’d have liked. Now I usually weigh 148-150. In a perfect world I’d weigh around 155. I’ve taken to smaller, more frequent meals because my appetite has been smaller since my hospital stay, with all the abdominal and chest related surgeries, and eating denser, more high calorie foods often comes with additional salt, sugar, saturated fat, or a combination of all of them. Hopefully I’ll gain that final 5-7 pounds at some point.
- I also have slightly elevated BP now, and really have been dealing with it for a few years, but the medication I’m taking for it (Amlodipine) seems to cause constipation. I tried a few things without much success and finally gave in to Metamucil in the past week, and that seems to have done the trick. I’m regular now and much happier. We already eat a pretty high fibre diet, so I figured I didn’t need it, but I’m glad I tried it. Unlike polyethylene glycol, I can use it daily, with the added benefits of potentially helping to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. Man, does all this stuff make me sound old now.
October
Vaccines Done
Well, for another five years, anyway. Losing your spleen not only means trying to be more careful about bacterial infections and taking precautions like masking in crowded spaces, but also getting a whole whack of new vaccines, almost all of which are to prevent encapsulated bacterial infections:
- Bexsero x1
- Hib x1
- Prevnar 20 x1
- COVID/Flu (annually)
- Nimenrix x2 (eight weeks apart)
- Shingrix x2 (2-6 months apart)
Vestibular Physio Done
In truth, this is a massive list item checked. I needed a couple months of hand therapy to get my right hand well on the road to recovery. However, I needed much more therapy to right the running ship. I’ll have had just over six months of vestibular physio by the end of November. My only goals have always been a return to running and cycling. For some time, I had no idea what that looked like or how far I would get. Turns out, pretty far, with no real ceiling, aside from whatever natural ability I have (and sadly the inexorable effect of Father Time).
In October I finally cracked 10k running, and began to feel like a half marathon again (just slower) was probably within reach. As well, I was regularly doing substantial trainer rides of more than an hour, and beginning to rebuild my power by grinding out harder workouts. While I will probably be fighting minor balance issues while running for a long time, and remaining more careful with foot placement, I got to a pretty good place with the run/bike. I honestly thought my running days might be done with how I felt a few months ago. I’m still very cautious riding my e-bike and feeling comfortable on the road may always be a struggle, but the one thing I have decided is that I’ll never ride solo on the open road again. I’ll ride solo on side streets or separated infrastructure only, and only ride on the open road in a group.
Return to Work?
This idea is nowhere near firm yet. However, it’s certainly a consideration. Until near the end of October I’d been almost positive I would simply retire at some point in the next year or so, but I have a morbid curiosity about how well I could do my job again and began thinking of it as the last big step in my recovery.
There are several things to consider before actually taking the big step of returning to work (or full retirement), and it will all hinge on, not only, how my cognitive therapy continues to progress, but also a graduated return to work and 100% remote work accommodation. I will never step foot in an office again, now that I’m missing my spleen.
Fitness – October 2024
In October, I still increased my time or mileage over September in most categories, but not as dramatically month over month as I did through September.
Total (walk, bike, run) Mileage: 414.7 km
- Running: 53.0 km
- Walking: 53.6 km
- Cycling (trainer, e-bike): 308.1 km
- Weights: 7h 58m
- Yoga: 5 h 38m
- Drums: 7 h 2m
Notes
- After struggling to put on weight since my eight week hospital stay, I’ve held pretty steady at about 150 lbs for the past month or so, just shy of my 155 goal weight.
- Just a word about disability insurance … While the general administrative stuff can be a hassle, and weaving your way through the application processes can be frustrating, I’m now receiving 90% of my net salary, and very thankful for that. It provides significant security and peace of mind when recovering as fully as possible should be your only concern. I have more thoughts about ICBC’s enhanced care model, and disability / income replacement insurance below.