Denise Goldberg's blog

What do you mean I can't ride my bike?
The journey back --- from crash to recovery

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Healing progression in pictures

It's been six months since that fateful day back in May, and I was just looking through my pictures. I'm amazed that I have a photo collection of my healing process, and even more amazed that the pictures were all self-portraits, taken by my holding the camera in front on myself and just snapping away. It's nice that today's digital cameras can take decent photos with little human interaction (after all I did click to take the picture, but I certainly didn't help by composing the picture!)...

Monday, November 1, 2004

Things I've learned along the way

It's been an interesting journey!

Some thoughts and things I learned (mostly about myself) as I traveled the path to recovery...

There seem to be two of me involved in my recovery - the Denise who expects to be all better already, and the Denise who has a brain that seems to be a part of slowing her down. Yes, you're absolutely right, there is only one of me! My docs all tell me it's likely that it will take six to twelve months from that fateful accident day to return to what I consider to be my normal state. That's hard for me to accept, but I have a feeling that is my reality. And I still continue to expect too much of myself. Are you really surprised?

I'm more impatient than I used to be - or at least I don't know how to hide it anymore. Although I have to admit that a good deal of my impatience deals with the speed - or lack of speed - of my full recovery. As of August 10th, all things considered I'm in really good shape, but I'm not in the kind of shape I was in pre-accident. And of course that's where I want to be. And I can't wait until I'm ready to take off on my next bike tour!

Even though I know my healing body needs good nutrition, sometimes nothing sounds enticing. At those time my new staple food is a yogurt fruit shake. I use a hand-held blender - and I have to admit I don't know what I did before I owned it - and I mix up a half a cup of juice, a half to a whole cup of non-fat plain yogurt, and fruit, usually banana, strawberries, and blueberries. Yum! When the fresh berries disappear from the market I'll probably switch to frozen. I wonder if there's a non-power-driven version of the blender? These drinks would taste really good on a tour. Of course the blender isn't the only problem here - non-refrigerated yogurt probably wouldn't work too well either!

I've always appreciated good friends - including my immediate family who as far as I'm concerned fall into the good friends category too - and my friends were definitely there for me. And they are still there. Of course that includes my crazyguyonabike.com friends too. I heard from a lot of folks there, and all of the messages definitely lifted my spirits.

I'm very happy that I have good health insurance. I remember being out of work and between jobs the summer I rode across America. Since I was out of work and my employer had gone out of business, I didn't have employer-based health insurance available to me. I opted to pay my own way to make sure I was covered in the event of an accident. A number of people suggested that I leave a back-dated check just in case, but I was much more comfortable with knowing that I was covered. And based on my May 20th accident experience, I'm both happy that I have good insurance and convinced I did the right thing back in the summer of 2002. It's interesting; I have the ability to look at the insurance claims online, and I'm absolutely astounded at the cost of some of the services as well as the amount that the insurance company actually pays (much less than the billed amount!) - and pays in such a way that I'm not responsible for the balance. I believe that if I wasn't covered by insurance that I'd be responsible for the full amount - not the partial amount that the insurance company gets away with.

I have a new appreciation for what to send folks who are in the hospital. Flowers are beautiful, but how many does any one person need? Simple cards, notes, and emails were wonderful. Gifts of food - chocolate, cookies, and the nutritious variety were all greatly appreciated. Some of that was donated to my fellow patients and to the folks who were taking care of me. And I have a couple of new stuffed animals that make me smile... Oh wait, you already know about one of them - Biker Chick, the crazy red dog!

And here's something I already knew, and it's still true. Riding a bike and touring by bike are both important to me. I'm back on my bike, and I'm working at improving. And soon (I hope) I'll be ready to head out on my bike on a tour again. It probably won't be a soon as I'd like, but it's going to happen!



Still improving... those facial scars are still visible but definitely much improved. This photo was taken on September 19th, which is a bit over 4 months since the crash (or should I call it a head plant?)


This photo was taken on October 26th (in Hawaii, standing on lava that is from the spring 2003 flow - relatively new, all things considered). Scars? Yes, they are still visible, but improving - each month is better. That chain around my neck? Didn't I promise you that I'd wear my RoadID?