Some of you may already know on Oct 22nd I came off my MTB right near the end of the Hells Bells adventure race near the Sunshine Coast, QLD. I was fortunate enough to be given some time away from family to chase my own (sometimes selfish) ambitions however, the end result of this race left me bloodied, bruised, broken and in the back of an ambulance.
After 13+ hours of racing I hit something, flew over the handlebars, completely cracked my helmet and took the rest of the impact on my face. The result was 3 nights in hospital, internal and external plastic surgery to my face & mouth and certainly no adventure racing for a while. Apart from surgery though, I pulled through really well, how?
- Surrounded by awesome people– from Merissa, my family, our Transitions Chiropractic family and even another amazing Newcastle chiropractor Shar. Everybody jumped right in to lend a hand. I am truly blessed how much people went out of their way to help and I’m fortunate to be part of such an amazing community.
- Rested as much as possible– this was hard as I wanted my life back. I wanted to interact with my family, to work, to drive, even to train and I was constantly reminded it was not the smartest thing. Recovery is a long process and it doesn’t happen over night. Most of my damage is only to skin which will take a solid few weeks to heal; the exposed nerves and severed muscles however, they will take a minimum of 90 days so I have to be patient. I made sure that within 5 days of the accident I had already recieved laser therapy (which can 1/2 the healing time) and Shar adjusted me.
- Ate & ate– this was hard initially as the hospital wanted me to fast in prep for surgery so basically I had raced for 13+hrs then wasn’t allowed to eat until 15hrs after the accident. Secondly, it was slowed by my messed up jaw. I could hardly chew but smoothies, chia seeds & mashed vegies have at least given my body some nutrition to base healing from.
I don’t recommend that any of you put yourself in this situation however, if you do, surround yourself with the best people possible, rest & recover as required and fuel yourself for the system reboot. Thank you for all of your kind words and support over the past week. Although I feel stupid for damaging myself and putting so many people under a whole lot of additional stress, I am absolutely blessed to know each and every one of you. That is the most glaring positive thing that was even more obvious after this little trip to hell.
Thanks again- you are all amazing.
James
Want to read Part 2? Click here