Annie, Tonya, and everyone else...ya'll are AMAZING!!!  Ya'll don't know how much y'all did for me today!  I couldn't find the words for some time but finally am able to say that what happened today was much more than just cheering me up.  You see 3 wks ago I had my whole indepent way of life taken from me.  What y'all did today was give me back a big piece of that.

Meeting y'all and seeing the bikes made me deliriously happy for the first time in quite awhile but the cell phone...I cried buckets over that once ya'll left.  Never has anyone or any group given me something that I needed so bad.  You see with me confined in Robert Lee, my hubby still has to work 30+ miles away.  He and I had talked many times in the evening about how useful it would have been if my cell phone was still working so he could take it to work with him and been able to call me during the day to see how I am or for me to call him when I needed to hear his loving voice.  He had looked at buying another phone but with my van pymts, Harley pymts, house pmts, utility bills, and now a 30 mile drive twice a day to and from work we couldn't afford to replace my cell phone since I have no income of my own to help out now.  Ya'll have given us those lonely and long daytime hrs back! I will be forever thankful to everyone for what y'all have done for us!

With complete love,

Celinda

It's me again.  I thought it about time for an update.  I'm healing well, still lots of daily aches, pains, and soreness but I've not had to take but 3 pain killers in the past wk.  Much better than my 3 a day pains!   All my tape, bandages, and scabs are gone from the road rashes except on my skull.  Lots of white and pink scar tissue brand me now in what was tan areas.  All easy reminders of the accident to live with, no complaints there :)

 I've yet to get an appt with the orthopedic surgeon to look at my multiple broken bones but we're thinking that I'll probably get a walking cast next.  The only bad news is that since I've been wheelchair bound for so long due to all my left side injuies, my left hip won't support my weight now.  I learned this last night when I bravely decided to crawl out of my chair to join hubby on the floor for a movie.  On only my knees, my left hip refused to support my weight.  I've had to stay off my left leg due to multiple compound fractures of my left ankle and foot (pink cast leg for those that have seen me).  So I'll be doing more rehab than I originally thought it looks.  Still no hearing from my left ear but I have an apt with an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor on the 21st.  I'm set to see the neuro surgeon on the 30th for my brain/head injuies (cat scan with dye to be done on the 23rd of my brain).

My memory is slowly recuperating but it is obviously damaged in both the long term and short term memory areas.  I'm finding ways to deal with these things such as note taking indepth on one particular notepad left in ONE area so it's easy to find.  My left arm is also not responding much at all so I'm sure I'm going to have lots of rehab getting the tendons to work again from being in a sling bound to me by an Ace bandage as not to move my broken collarbone.

Some future goals:

First to be mobile again when I'm cleared to by the dr and it doesn't hurt too bad, driving my van by Oct to maybe take a trip back to the scene of the accident and see my sis for her birthday that lives in the Austin area, spring break 2005 family trip by van to visit my parents in Indiana, and once I'm back from that I plan on trying to ride our Harley again. 

Those are the goals for now that I think are realistic.  I will say that it is KILLING ME to not be on my old bike outside riding in this hot weather!!!  She, YOLO my bike,  died a horrible death on that highway but I know she saved my life by taking the full impact of the other bike that day head-on in the forks, frame, tire and rim.  For anyone that hasn't had a bike crushed like this, it's no less than losing your best friend.  I never got to say goodbye to her, but because I lived her memory lives on with me.  Yes, my motorcycle saved my life!

July 28, 2004:

Time for an update from this crippled biker lady :)  It's been 7wks since my ROT Rally wreck.

In the last week I've seen the Ear/Nose/Throat doc, Neuro surgeon, and Orthopedic surgeon.  Here's the run-down from each:

Ear doc- the skull fracture damaged my left ear, damaged (possibly permanently) the nerve that controls my taste bud (most everything has a bland taste), the small bones in my left ear are broken.  Meaning I have very limited hearing in my left ear, no hearing of soft sound or low to medium pitches. Also lots of problems with keeping my equalibrium/balance.....hmm, might need a trike kit for my Sporty to solve that bike issue.

Neuro surgeon- all 3 brain hemmorages have been reabsorbed,  long and short term memory is permanently damage but should recover some over many years, skull fracture is still very apparent in the cat scans and another cause of my balance problems.

Orthopedic sugeon- my left leg's cast was removed however I've been put in a bigger/heavier/bulkier lower leg brace-boot.  My left foot and ankle are still as swollen as my skin will allow.  I have more than 7 bones broken in my left foot and ankle, 4 of which are just below my 4 little toes from where my steel toed boots bent back into my ft when the other bike impacted the front of my bike, the rest are compound breaks in my ankle and upper foot areas.  I'm still wheelchair bound but able to put small amounts of pressure on my left leg/foot to get my left hip used to supporting my weight again.  My left arm sling came off so I can start getting my arm muscles used to moving again...HOWEVER my arm can't bear any weight, I can't straighten it yet, or move my wrist upwards, or grip with my hand due to my tendons being in the sling and unusable for so long.  Also my 7 broken ribs, broken collarbone, and broken shoulder blade all look like fresh breaks still due to the impact of the accident (still hurt like hell too).  I start rehab for my foot and left arm/shoulder next wk.  The verdict is that most likely I will never have full normal use of my left arm...limited to low weight use and some limited movement and I'll have arthritis badly in my ankle with some limited movement long term.

In all, not what I expected to hear.  I thought by Oct I'd be moving around half normally, not looking like that for about a year now.  Due to my equalibrium probs and limited left arm movements I may never be able to ride a bike again...but I'm still hopefull of my trike ideas.  I don't give up so easily.  I'm a tough broad!  Hell I figure if I was taken down by a front impact 800+ pound Harley while I was going 70mph and I lived through it, I can manage to gain more strength back than the doctors think.

Got another update for ya to send out next time:

I've pushed myself pretty hard in the past wk to get ready to start rehab and started typing 2 days ago with my left hand (still can't bend my left wrist tho) so that has me excited! 

I did start physical rehab today at West Texas Rehab.  After a 3 hr evauluation I found out I DO qualify for financial help so it's not going to cost us anything for me to go 2-3 hrs a day, 3 days a wk, for about 3 mths.  Ofcourse hubby is going to have to miss work to drop me off, then he can pick me up after work.  Or in his words "Just wheel her out to the road when you're done with her, LOL".

Their goal is to have me walking, most of my left arm strength back, and near to normal functions on my left side.  Ofcourse my added personal goal is to be riding our Harley come Spring time, lol.  But SHHH!!!  Don't tell my family or physical therapist that, lol.

It was depressing today to find out that my left hand could only exert barely 6 lbs of pressure when squeezing a gauge, while my normal right hand exerted 80 lbs of pressure.  Also, my right leg with no injuries has been slightly weakened by constant use since it's the leg I balance on to transfer to the bed, or chair, and use to steer myself in the wheelchair.  On the good side tho, I wil be starting each therapy session by soaking my lower legs in a turbin driven whirlpool for 15 mins.  Which is how we ended today's evaluation so the therapist, a lovely sweet gal named Kelly, was able to scrub off more dead skin from my left foot.

Since the cast came off, I was able to FINALLY take a REAL bath and save my left leg!!  I tell ya, I don't know how men can stand their leg hair!  Mine was tangled and itched badly even days after the cast was removed!  ROFLMAO

The family and I had breakfast one sunday morning at hubby's grandparent's.  We ate a picnic breakfast at their front yard picnic table and I was really excited to see a lady biker drive by on a sweet black hawg.  But it hit home to what I'm missing: Yolo my bike that saved my life only to be crushed by a salvage yard, and to be on 2 wheels enjoying the weather and meeting up with other bikers, not to mention missing the use of my left arm and leg.  I have up days and down days, but hearing or seeing bikers out still cheers me up at home since we back up to a major street...thus giving me LOTS of views of bikers everyday, lol.