Be Grateful for Strangers

Monday morning, December 1, 2014…..the start of a brand new month. I woke up missing Ann’s presence around the home and went quickly to doing the work I knew I had to do right away: scheduling appointments. I had to call numerous places and schedule speech pathology appointments, a neurosurgeon follow up appointment (in order to get “permission” to fly back to Ohio), and a follow up appointment with my orthopedic surgeon to get my broken clavicle checked and rechecked. Looking back it took me about 2-2.5 hours to make all the necessary appointments, but it was my BIG job….my MAIN job….my SOLE agenda. I started making all the needed appointments and ended with the most important ones….I needed to meet with the people who would give me the “thumbs up” to go home.

After all the appointments were made, I felt a mixture of both relief and frustration. Relief that all the appointments were set and yet frustration that this was becoming my life, one doctor’s visit after another.  At the same time all of this happening in my own time frame is certainly my choice AND I actually also have little control over how my body responds to the therapy I have to do or the decisions my doctors make about my future. My hope is that I’d only need to be doing this outpatient recovery work for about a week or so and then be allowed to return to Ohio, but that could always change…..life changes ALL the time.

In the past week I’ve had a few successful appointments. I’ve passed a drivers’ test and completed some good speech therapy sessions. I’ve had another CT scan in preparation for a meeting next week AND I’ve met with my orthopedic doctor and had good evaluations. It’s been good to improve, albeit way slower than I’d prefer. But that’s ok. Patience is one of the official lessons of my life…….

This week I’ve had the chance to connect with 2 specific individuals whom I was told were actually WITH me when and after I had my bike accident. This has been remarkable because I literally remember nothing of the incident and yet these 2 individuals, both RN’s, were with me when I was the closest towards death that I’ve been told. I’ve heard also from another individual who emailed my younger brother the exact details of watching me go down and then watching the ambulance race up to get me.  Many individuals raced past me as I lied in the side of the road, but these a few individuals actually stopped…...it’s mindblowing.

Bill and Tina are folks who didn’t know who I was at all….they had both done IM’s before, like I had, and for some reason the whole “personal time on the bike” thing didn’t matter when I was lying there. When I spoke with Tina she saw me go down and literally got off her bike and went across the road to be with me. She shared with me some chilling stories of what actually happened to me. When she reached me, Bill joined her, who also go off his bike. I had made the turn around for the first loop and was heading downhill with wind and was flown off my bike and hit my head first (helmet saved my life) and then hit my right side while being dragged for a few feet and then stopping. Tina and Bill unclipped my remaining foot from my bike clip and saw my clavicle sticking out of my chest, noticed I was bleeding a bit from my head, was drooling and sweating all over every part of my body. Both held my head while also radioing for the Ironman crew to bring an ambulance to my side, which arrived in about 5-7 minutes. Tina and Bill both then jumped back on their bikes and went ahead, both finishing Ironman Arizona with amazing spirits.

I spoke to Bill earlier this week too. Both he and Tina were so grateful to hear that I was alive and doing well. Bill mentioned to me, “Yeah, I'm not trying to make it to Kona or anything so a few minutes lost on my bike to make sure you were ok, was NO problem!” Tina made a similar comment...she completely reassured me that her bike time compared to my life was no match.

Wow. Seriously? In the midst of this challenging and most life-threatening time in my life, complete strangers, in the middle of their own personal race stopped to attend to ME. The truth of this reality keeps hitting me…..I’m alive. I’m ALIVE.

I didn’t realize I was that lucky. I didn't realize my family and friends suffered that much worry and fear. I’m overwhelmingly grateful for all my fellow IMAZ athletes who attended to me when I was near death and the Ironman staff who attended to my family and parents in the hospital when I was initially brought into the emergency room.  It was a scary day.

Lucky girl….that’s for damn sure. No more wandering through life without being grateful for each day I can wake up and train for my next race……..IMAZ...it’ll happen again someday :)

Be Grateful For Strangers. Be Brave.