Following the amazing weekend last weekend with the boys doing the charity ride to help me get to Project Walk in the USA in early February, I was finally discharged from hospital on Wednesday. It was an amazing feeling to leave and head to the outside world with Moni and Ash by my side who have supported me unbelievably from the moment I landed at death's door in hospital on the 28th of June last year. I think the most pleasing thing for me is that the word "can't" will no longer be jammed down my throat by the wonders of the public hospital system that we have in Australia. There is a wonderful man who works at Royal Talbot who I've talked about before and it is Campbell. Campbell…

Just a quick post to wish you all Merry Christmas. Monica's family has begun to descend on us already with brother Simon and his wife Alexis and two kids arriving yesterday. I am looking forward to enjoying the festive season where my rehab and my health are not the centre of attention. I'm looking forward to focusing on the kids and enjoying their smiles and laughter over the next few weeks as we no doubt shower them with far too many gifts! I am also looking forward to beginning a new year. This one has brought a little too much bad luck! My accident was bad enough and then our awesome dog Charli passed away last week. I had a dream to walk again with her and it breaks my…

It has been quite a few weeks! I know that it has been a number of weeks since I posted a message. I apologize for this but it has actually been quite difficult to get a good block of time where it is quiet enough for me to “write” a message. Since I have been going home for weekends I've been super busy doing therapies during the week at Talbot and spending time with the family and friends on weekends. I've also been doing therapies on the weekends with massage and a bit of trampoline activity [but don't tell them at Talbot]! I also fit in at least one fes bike session on each day that I am home. This device has been a wonderful part of my rehabilitation so…

Thanks to all who purchased raffle tickets. All but 20 tickets were sold and the draw took place this morning at the fundraising meeting.  Congratulations to Meg Danby (holder of ticket 1047), the winner of the GIANT OCR-A Sport bike (RRP $1595). Meg has been contacted and is very excited about being drawn out of the box!  Thanks again to SuperSprint for letting us sell raffle tickets at the Degani Kinglake Ride on Sunday and to GIANT for such a fantastic prize.

Apologies for it being so long between posts but it has been quite difficult to find time to myself with the computer set up for me to write using my voice recognition. Progress for me has been steady and some wonderful things happening with my body. My legs just want to work even though I can’t feel them! There is a stationary bike here and (when wheeled up and strapped in) my legs are able to pedal and it is very exciting to see my legs move even just a little bit. The movements are not particularly controllable but I’m hoping that improves with time. My arms however appear to be on holidays! My biceps work and my shoulders work a little bit but are very very sore and weak.…

What a great weekend … very busy but fantastic. We got back to the blue house on Friday night and had a lovely family day on Saturday. Mike got to take Ash to her last Fairy Ballet class of the term which was so cute (well Ash was, not Mike). Really nice to do a normal family thing together. Sunday was all about bikes. I headed up to Whittlesea for the SuperSprint Degani Kinglake ride. What a fantastic event. Congratulations to everyone who completed the ride. It was great to see so many people out on their bikes enjoying such a well organised event. On Sunday night Mike’s new FES bike arrived and was installed – very exciting. The bike uses electrical stimulation to contract muscles which then turns the…

This was something that Mike said very early on in the acute spinal unit and it came back to me today when Mike returned from his weights session buzzing. He had managed to leg press 120 lbs with his right leg and 20 lbs with his left leg .... Ok, so the left leg has some catching up to do! He cannot feel his legs and (unless told) has no idea where they are but he is managing some limited controlled movements. They spasm lots (and lots and lots if you have seen them dancing around) which I think he finds both irritating and painful and do not function remotely 'normally' but still ..... if they can be made to be useful in some way that would be great! Oh,…

Monday 15/09 9-10 - Complementary therapy 10:15 - 11:30 - Nursing 12 - 12:30 - OT 1 - 2:30 - PT FES 2:30 - 3:30 - Weights Tuesday 16/09 9 - 10:30 - Nursing 11 - 12 - OT 1:30 - 2:15 - Dr Ward Rounds 2:30 - 3:20 - Nursing Ed 3:30 - 4:15 - PT Wednesday 17/09 9-10 - Complementary therapy 10:15 - 11:30 - Nursing 12 - 1 - OT Wii 1 - 2:30 - PT FES 2:30 - 3:30 - Weights Thursday 18/09 9 - 10:30 - Nursing 11 - 12 - OT 1:00 - 2:00 - PT 2:30 - 4:00 - Hydro Friday 19/09 9-10 - Complementary therapy 10:15 - 11:30 - Nursing 1 - 2:00 - PT FES 1:45 - 2:45 - Weights Later…

The last 24 hours have been all about water - a bathroom mod, hydro and plenty of tears. As our neighbours will know (sorry guys, I promise it was a once off), we now have a disabled access bathroom for Mike to use on weekend leave. A massive thankyou to Stu Rose and Danny Cohen for their marathon effort on Wednesday night to convert a pokey laundry / bathroom area in to a fantastic open space with an interim but big safe shower area and new shower head and rail. The guys worked 7 hours straight (after their normal work day) and did an amazing job..... although I am a bit worried about Stu - he is a plumber and he arrived with all the right equipment and cleaned up…

Firstly, Mike is sick. NO VISITORS PLEASE ,just for a couple of days so he can rest. Mike has been a bit off colour since Saturday - we are still not quite sure what is wrong. In true 'never say never' fashion, Mike headed home to 'the blue house' for the first time in just over 10 weeks to spend fathers day with Ash. A very emotional and tiring day but I think well worth it. Realistically was going to be hard whenever it was done .... as Mike said - 'I left home 10 weeks ago on my bike for a quick ride before a fun weekend and now I am home in a wheelchair'. The good news is that he got around the house really well -- although…