Discharged!

Yesterday (Friday 9th September), a bit under seven months since the accident, I was discharged from Cavit. Although I will still have to go in for physiotherapy as an outpatient, my discharge was a nice milestone to achieve.

I will probably go out with my family over the next few days to celebrate the discharge. The change of scene will be nice but the battle won’t end, though. I’ll still have to do my best in my recovery from here on in.

The next step in my recovery is the process of getting back to work and contributing to the economy again rather than being so lazy. First though, I get to live off the fatted calf at Mum and Dad's and do nothing while I work out what deficits I have and what strategies I can use for them for about six weeks.

It's a bit hard for me to remember, though it is probably easier for others and I have received reminders from people, what I was like and how much help I needed and how far I’ve come. The days when I couldn’t talk or get around like I can now seem like ages ago, though. Like another lifetime.

My recovery is possibly a bit weird for permanent residents at Cavit. They see a guy come in who is initially worse than them, slowly improves and then is eventually discharged while they’re still there. They’re good guys, though, and I’ll do my best to stay in touch.

This will be my last post on the blog although my parents might well put a final post on. The blog has been a fantastic way of letting people know how things are going. Before the accident I think I knew what a blog was, but not how useful they could be. I offer my thanks to my sister whose idea it was. Without it my family and I would have had to repeat ourselves a hell of a lot more.

My final post seems like a good time to start another round of more complete thanks yous. My thanks go to my immediate and extended families. This journey would have been a lot harder without your support. My thanks also go to all the medical staff involved with my recovery. The guidance that you were able to provide was awesome. Thanks for keeping me alive even though I did my best to check out there a couple of times. It’s fortunate that I can say I think that checking out was something I could have been better at it. My thanks also go to my co-accidentee, Ben Schurr. That must have been a very tough call to make to my Dad telling my parents about the accident. It is a credit to you that you coped with everything and still completed a very good Ironman two weeks later.

I have heard about people who face some sort of ostracisation after accidents similar to mine. My post card covered wall at Cavit would have attested to the fact that that hasn’t been a problem for me. The support from everyone, including from people all over the world, has been amazing.

I understand quite a few people read this blog who haven’t even met me. If you’re one of those people I hope you didn’t find my musings too weird. I also hope to meet you all at some stage. To everyone else I hope to meet you again sometime in the not too distant future.

Cheers for keeping track of me,
Mike