From the Weekends Rides thread in Road ...

Fantastic!! Thanks so much for the update!

Love seeing him ion the bike ... and he looks so happy.

He is lucky to have you Machka.

I love happy endings.

Rowan on the trainer !!! Fantastic !!

We're not at the end yet. Many weeks of Rehab ahead. However this is a very good step and there is evidence that exercise helps.

I totally believe exercise helps. We evolved to be on the move and many of us here are happiest when doing so.

Wow, I can't believe I missed this whole story until it was mentioned in another thread. So glad to hear he is making good progress!

He's pedaling so fast his legs are a blur!

These pictures are an inspiration to me. I survived a head injury, too, although my symptoms were far more subtle.

I was reading another thread of yours and you just happened to mention "Rowan's accident" so I clicked the link and have spent about the last hour reading this thread. Kudos to you for staying on this long hard road with Rowan while staying sane and upbeat. This has been a very gratifying and inspiring read. I'm sure there must have been some significant lows in this journey but the story arc appears to be moving steadily upwards. Rowan is very lucky to have you as a life partner. My best to both of you.

Woo, great to see!

Further on this ...


Rowan has been diagnosed with Vestibular Disorder.


This explains much of that ...
https://vestibular.org/understanding...order/symptoms


However, he is going for physio for it, and his physiotherapist seemed fairly positive that he may start seeing results in 6-8 weeks.


Meanwhile, his therapists today made the comment that he is continuing to improve gradually.

This.

SP
OC, OR

I believe I have that, with now only some minor symptoms. It's been called Meniere's disease. Not sure if it is exactly the same. I have too much fluid pressure in my inner ear.
I have been told by the doctor that just as too much salt can raise one's blood pressure, it will do the same to fluid in the inner ear. I have experienced it many times. Now that I keep my salt level down I am much much better. Lots of salt makes me dizzy and I lose my balance. It takes a couple of days to recover too. Did any of the doctors mention that? I can have good balance sitting on the bike, but, then terrible when standing.

Interesting, and logical. My paternal grandmother had problems with Meniere's, and I don't know whether there is a genetic risk associated with it. I have already been restricting my sodium intake and keeping my weight down for blood pressure control (hypertension runs in my maternal grandmother's family), so maybe that is helping prevent Meniere's.


Please keep us posted regarding Rowan's progress. It is indeed heartwarming to see him "back in the saddle again," if only on a trainer.

Meniere's disease is a Vestibular Disorder ... there are a few variations.
https://vestibular.org/understanding...bular-disorder

No one has said anything about salt in Rowan's case ... just exercises. So far anyway.

There are various causes. It can be caused by head injury, by some if the meds they may have needed to give him or other unknown causes. Is it possible he got it first and it caused his accident?

Rowan's Vestibular Disorder is highly likely caused by his accident/injury.


Prior to the accident, he never mentioned anything like what's he's mentioning now. For example, we'd just done a 300 km ride about 10 days before and he was fine.


He's on such a low dose of his meds that they shouldn't have much affect like that, and there's no indication anything like that (or stroke or anything else) happened to cause his accident.


According to the CT scan of his brain, and subsequent scans, he was diagnosed with a diffuse axonal brain injury, slight midline shift, and a bleed on the left side of his brain.


In addition he had a fractured bone at the base of his skull and fractured cheekbones.


All of that indicates quite a hard landing, and Rowan's Drs, physios etc. are not at all surprised he is experiencing Vestibular Disorder now.


But, given all that, and the fact that he was in Post Traumatic Amnesia for anywhere from 3-5 weeks (depending on when they started counting) ... they are actually quite surprised at how well he's doing. He's still got a long way to go, but he's knocked the socks off everyone with how much progress he has made to this point.

Glad to hear he is making a good recovery

Not really anything out of the ordinary to add, but this is making my week! I had been following the thread, but somehow lost for a few weeks weeks. This is the first time I've posted on it, so now it will show up in my followed threads. All the best.

Saturday -- Today was a nice day. The sun shone. The temperature reached 14C ... and Rowan and I went to the beach.

He walked about 1.6 km while I ran, then we walked together.

I walked 0.9 km and ran 2 km.

Run Distance: 2.07 km
Elevation: 16m
Moving Time: 15:25
Elapsed Time: 15:43
Pace: 7:25/km


A bit later, we both rode our trainers (bicycles on trainers). I set Rowan up with Zwift, and he was off and riding. He did the new Innsbruck loop ... 27 min. While he was doing that, I was trying to set up my Zwift, but it just didn't want to connect for a while. Eventually, I got there ...

Distance: 18.27 km
Elevation: 155 m
Moving Time: 46:22
Elapsed Time: 46:22

......................... Avg ............. Max
Speed ............. 23.6 km/h ...... 59.8 km/h
Heart Rate ...... 123 bpm ........ 153 bpm
Cadence ......... 73 .................. 127
Power ............. 91 W .............. 262 W


On our beach ...



With my HOKA ONE ONE running shoes ...



Rowan ... upright! But taking a little break.





Gradually building up strength!!