My Return as Human Being

Yesterday was a pretty big day for me. I noticed I started walking about 70% of the day without a noticable limp. I'm pretty proud of myself. Also, when I was laying in bed trying to wake myself up at 6:20am, I instinctively put my left hand behind my head without any pain whatsoever. It took me a few seconds to realize what I was doing and but quite exciting. The docs said it would be 3 weeks for the scapula and pelvis to heal. I think the bones are probably healed or nearly healed but everything is really tight which is probably causing the prolonged pain. My IT Band is wicked tight so I will have to put some major time on the roller. It was pretty painful to walk this morning so hopefully it just needs to get stretched out some. Perhaps some PT.

Laying in bed last night I started to flex my legs and noticed I had lost quite a bit of muscle in the quads. I know I will get it back but frustrating to know all the work I did has now beginning to waste away. Should be more motivation for me to get back to an even higher level. Maybe this is like a whole blessing in disguise. All the great champions had to make a comeback from some form of injury, illness, or setback. So, perhaps this is the time that I will really shine now that I am making my comeback. I read that Henk Vogels, of Toyota United Pro Cycling Team, had a serious crash in 2003 in which he fractured his C7 as well. It took him a year to get back but he is back and riding professionally. Definitely encouraged by this. From what everyone is saying, I am healing very quickly and look better every day. Rome wasn't built in a day, so I can't expect to be Post-Vaujany shape but Shawn and I are going to work up a tough fall program that will get in me primo shape for the early spring season which I hope to get the final points needed to upgrade to Cat 2. Also planning on a longer European program next year. So if anyone knows of any French amatuer teams, I would greatly appreciate the contact information. What will these teams get? Well, a hard-toothed american boy that will suffer on the front all day.

Monday I meet with a neurosurgeon for a followup. I'm hoping he will say that things are improving well, and I can take the collar off atleast to take a shower. I don't expect to get the collar off till mid september but a little brief time out of it to take a shower would be nice. My little sister Megan is moving into her dorm room on Sunday. I'm going to help her move in as best I can. Kind of monumental for my family as she is the last one to leave the nest and I was the first.

Adieu,
Mathieux