findmyaccident.com

look what jeff just found... click on the title to see our accident's webpage.

yesterday we were driving home from the dr (hopefully the last dr appt for our accident) and saw this motorcyclist acting kinda strange. we were stopped at different lights at the same intersection. maybe he was dancing along to music in his head, maybe a bee was bothering him? did he just hit himself in the head? oh-k. the bike sped onto i10. we got a green light and followed him onto the interstate just as rush hour was getting heavy. stop and go. didn't think much of it until a few minutes later we came upon - you guessed it- a motorcycle accident. the bike is upside down and backwards against the jersey barrier. i could see him writhing on the ground. lots of people were out of their cars standing around him. turns out he plowed into the back end of another vehicle. that was stopped. because it's rush hour on i10 in el paso. unfortunately, it wasn't hard to see that one coming, since ther are way too many inexperienced riders here, that actually happens much too frequently. i guess he's ok...this is his webpage.

http://www.accidentin.com/article24093348/traffic_update_motorcyclist_in_i_10_accident_taken_to_hospital__el_paso_times.htm

bye bye subaru

jeff has been threatening to sell the subaru for years. since we got the hhr, so that was 2009, i think. everyonce in a while he puts it up, or writes his number on it. we get a few calls, that's it. he put it online today and had calls within minutes. he hardly got a chance to sell it (to the first guy who got here) because people kept calling him! it was all a little too sudden for me...

now we've got to figure out being a one car family for while.

surly

before this post the first thing you saw at our blog was the picture of a wrecked bike & the title Happy Holidays, which jeff said didn't really match. No, our holiday letter wasn't really happy. I guess we balance out everyone else's happy family letters:).
So, here is a happier picture of us with Vman at Surly Brewing for the top of our blog. Omar is a bit of an idol for jeff and me - as he's a home brewer and a successful entrepreneur! Anyhow, speaking of surly...i'm a bit surly lately - the kind of surly that comes from a wrecked bike and all its accessories. Oh how i wish i could be Surly Brewing surly...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
…from the McClearys and our little Foster dog! He was so tolerant for our holiday pic…
We hope your 2011 was wonderful. Ours was very eventful!

We had a two year old foster boy for December and January, and for the first half of the year we fostered 13 year old Luis. He was a good kid that fit in well at our house. He enjoyed spending time with Jeff & we had fun discovering new hobbies and interests together. Once school was out he went to a hopefully permanent home & we decided to go inactive for a while. It was a very good experience working with the kiddos, but not necessarily the bureaucracy.

Jeff was going to help out his parents' neighbor by driving one of his flatbeds. We'd rather he not be away from home that much, but if it’s only for a little while he enjoys getting out on the road. He took a bike trip up to Washington to see the girls before he got too busy driving. That may have been the last cross country trip for him a while or for the Concours, because in August on the way home from an impulsive weekend trip to Lake Roberts, New Mexico before Jeff left and I started a fall class at UTEP we had an accident. Jeff spent a week in the hospital; I had a cast for a month, but we are doing well now. The last few months of the year have been completely focused on our recovery and everyday is better. We are so lucky it wasn't any worse than it was & we are so thankful for family, friends and coworkers that were there for us during the rough time.

I canceled that class at UTEP so I could focus on taking care of us, but will start up again in January. I have 5 classes left for my MBA in International Business so it may take me a year or so. I enjoy classes, but also working full time, I stay very busy. Jeff already has a job lined up whenever he feels up to working.

We are excited to spend this holiday season in Minnesota with some of my family. Mom was able to come visit us a few times this year, thankfully once to help us after the accident. Dad may come to the Sun City to escape the MN winter. If this winter is anything like the record cold weather we had in El Paso during in February, we might have to escape to MN!

We hope you have a happy holiday season and an uneventful 2012! Amber and Jeff

it's not so wrecked

jeff finally got the bike home last week and its not so wrecked. kind of surprising for how much trouble it has caused. each time i see the bike it looks a little better. i didn't care what they did with it on the side of the road. it was too bad that it hadnt burst into flames. i wasn't even going to go pick it up from the tow yard. in storage i admitted it could be parted out. but now i see its completely fixable and still runs. lots of stuff broken off and ground down, but nothing major (gas tank, saddle bags, foot pegs, mirrors, instument panel, lights). so jeffs going to fix it. and he's going to ride again someday. he admits it wont be for a while because his wrists are still tender but he will get back on. i dont know if i can do it. at first it made me sick to see guys ride by on the freeway here in their flipflops, shorts and tanktops. now its colder so they have jeans on at least on but it still makes me shake my head at them. jeff spoke with one lawyer who says its really a product liability case so we have to find a lawyer who specializes in that.

the bike arrived home around the 3 month anniversary. jeffs done with PT and is doing strength training. he has follow up appointments...the bones in his wrist arent in the right places but may correct themselves with use, they arent painful & there isnt much the drs can do. the lung & chest tube still shock him everyonce in a while, but apparently its not a big deal to live without your spleen

i just entered my 3rd month of physical therapy. dr says bones heal faster than muscle and basically you damaged every muscle/ligament/tendon in that hand so its going to take a while to get use back, but its healing fine and progress is as expected. the therapist says she proud of my slow but steady progress but maybe shes just placating me. its frustrating & painful, but i am fully committed and i can see progress...i can force it into a fist & almost flat on a table. i can use it more every day & it feels more like my own hand now. all i want for christmas...

2 month mark

friday was the 2 month mark since our accident so probably a good point for an update on our recovery. we are basically doing well and recoving, slowly. we can do most things we need to around the house, but it takes longer and the results aren't as great. we eat out more often, and we've lowered our standards slightly about house cleaning, projects and entertainment - which is watching a movie while trading off on the exercise bike while the other does pt exercises.

we are both in physical therapy and have been told that during this time it is crucial to push yourself to get back full range of motion. you have the rest of your life to develop strength, jeff's pt told him. i got my cast off a month ago and just a few times at physical therapy improved greatly what i could do with my hand, though it hurts more than when it was actually injured. the first day i went in, it was sort of stuck in a claw like position & they asked me what i couldn't do with my hand. i told her it would be easier to list what i can do...hold a very light object, like a pen, and use it as dead weight. after a month i can almost make a fist, and i can almost get my palm flat on a surface. but i can do alot of daily activities i couldn't for the first month, such as tie a shoe or buckle a buckle, connect a bra behind my back, do up buttons, make a pony tail, type, open bottles etc.

but it feels like recovery has sort of taken over our lives... for me it's medicine 4x/day, anti-inflammitory gel 4x/day for 1 hour, wash it off, wear the compression glove as much as possible, use the hvg (electric impulse glove) 2x/day for 30 minutes with ice. pt 3x per week for 2 hours each. 3x per day warm it up, stretch it out, exercise. then keep it elevated & iced. keep it moving all day. you need to heal so let it rest, eat the right things, get alot of rest. and this is all for 3 little fingers! jeff has the same sort of routine, but just so much more to work on with so many injuries, including cardio for his lung. they never got around to diagnosing what sort of muscle injuries he might have but his pt has been working on his left shoulder quite a bit and his right hand. jeff's medical care has been less than par...dr tyroch wrote jeff off without ever seeing him, so he did go back to the one orthopedic surgeon to get prescribed physical therapy and has been managing his care more.

jeff got the tire and has taken it to some experts who confirmed it wasn't a puncture from driving over something. he still wants to go see a lawyer and needs to get the bike back soon from the guy who stored it for him. well, got to go ice the hand after all this typing...

our last bike trip for a while

it feels feels like its been a year since my last post, because so much has been going on. well, we had a nice summer but then we made the fateful decision to go on one last bike trip before fall classes started and i would be too busy. we went up to lake roberts and the gila mountains and cliff dwellings. we even got our hatch chili cheeseburgers and despite th downpours that made us think we were in oregon and the power outages at our hotel and all surrounding businesses, it was a nice weekend, until we were about an hour from home. some of you have already heard the accident story, but for those who haven't, i'll give you all the details. so you don't have to read this entire thing though i will give away the ending to say that we are doing very well, and are so extremely lucky that we will walk away from this wreck almost as good as new. i finally have some pictures. its hard to get pic of jeffs gear since they cut most of it off him. the bike is still in storage, so pictures of it and the tire later. (sorry, some of them might be a little graphic, but i keep getting requests). As i told the old man trying to cut in line at the pharmacy - he may look ok on the outside, but he has 11 broken bones, 3 surgical incisions, a missing organ, a damaged lung, not to mention all the road rash, bruises and muscle/tissue damage so, sorry - your sores on your leg don't mean you can cut in front of him. i was tired and stressed and cranky...sorry old man.

last pic of the conni in the downpour during a poweroutage
we were on interstate 25 17 miles north of las cruces nm and going approx 75 mph when the back tire felt a little squishy, and suddenly felt much worse. jeff tried to break & slow down but each time he did the back end would creep up to one side. he managed to keep the bike upright and going straight for about half a minute, but eventually had to lay it down on the left side. we skid for about 200 feet. i got up and made it from the left lane to the center ditch to see that miraculously there were no cars coming, though the semi truck that we had just passed was stopped just a little in front of us along with a few other cars - i was so afraid we would get hit. i got over to jeff and the bike in the right lane. he was awake, but in pain. my first aid training kicked in and i am proud to say when it really counted i did great in a crisis situation (i kinda wondered) i found jeffs cell on the road (gound thru his jeans pocket & it still worked) and gave 911 instructions to an old man, but his wife and another guy already called on their cell phones. i got the trucker to get his hazard triangles and they managed to block off jeffs lane of traffic until the border patrol got there to control traffic. an off duty fireman/emt and the state police got there & they all were taking care off jeff until emts arrived. they ambulanced him to las cruces er and then helicoptered him to the el paso trauma er. his first helicopter ride and he only remembers a little of it. he had lacerated his spleen into 3 pieces and the internal bleeding could have been fatal. he also had a collapsed left lung which was making it painful to breathe. that night they used a catheter to collapse the artery to the spleen, which kills it off. kind of an interesting technique that is natural and prevents infection & makes for quicker recovery. the next 24 hr was crucial, and i just couldn't bring myself to call anyone until the next day. they had put in a chest tube in the el paso er for the bleeding and the lung was ok though it takes a few weeks to get back to normal. he had broken 7 ribs on the left side and the left shoulder blade, chipped the left ulna bone (at the knobby end by your wrist) and his right metacarple and falange (pinky and bone below the pinky in the palm). the doped him up and kept him in icu for a few days. tuesday (this happened on sun) they did surgery to pin his right hand. wed they moved him out of icu and thurs removed the chest tube. sunday, they kicked him out with very few instructions, barely-there home-nurses but ok therapy. there were a few nurses that were good, some ok, and a couple incompetent. i met 1 ortho dr who was great but didn't end up being jeffs dr. the spleen dr was great but saw him only for an elevator ride up 1 floor. apparently jeffs general dr tyroch is wonderful and we get to see him tomorrow for jeffs follow up. i briefly met one dr doing rounds, but not sure if its the same guy. hope so because he got jeff what he needed ("get him scheduled for surgery or give the man some water!"). seemed very nice but very well respected...sent the residents scurrying!

right arm & surgical incision at 1 week

left arm road rash looking good.

me - they wouldn't let me in jeffs ambulance but took me in my own to a las cruces er, saying i needed to get checked out, which was true given the situation & we're in shock. though they really didn't check out anything at all except my arm & hand that i told them hurt. granted they did get me out of there quickly knowing i wanted to get down to jeff. lucia & frank came and took me to elp (THANK YOU!!!!!). they had put on a partial cast for dislocating my 2 left middle fingers which chipped the bones in a few places. I got a full but short cast later, which comes off tuesday. hard to believe its been a month already, then i get a splint and have lots of presumably painful PT to look forward to. I am still bruised up and in a bit of pain on the left side where we hit first, but thanks to jeffs driving skills and good gear that we always wear, i am otherwise ok. we are pretty pleased that all our gear did its job and worked pretty well. jeff got road rash on only the tops of his wrists where the gloves and cuff seperated, and i only had some cuts on my hand where the glove wripped (but not even bad enough for the lc er to wash or put bandaids on...i didnt even bother asking...saving it up for jeffs nurses, i guess)
work and friends and neighbors were all a great source of help (THANKS LISA AJ JOHN WANDA RALPH KALIE JERRY NONA & SPARKY!!!) with taking care of Foster & rides & groceries and food and flowers and cards and pool cleaning and just being there. jeffs sister nancy was going to come for a visit anyway so she moved it up to help out, but then called to say she was on crutches (just our luck, though no surgery needed has to be her good luck). my mom was able to move her trip up so came and helped us the first 2 weeks at home. though we are both independent and figured things out on our own, i don't know how we would have managed without her! (THANK YOU!!!)

jeff wanted the bike out of storage ASAP so a couple friends drove the subaru & trailer up to lc to get it. but just our luck, the subaru died about 1 mile from the tow yard. i wouldn't call them back because i thought they had stolen stuff off the bike (turns out i had the camera with me the entire time...sorry repo guys for all my bad thoughts). since it was the straw that broke my camels back, courtney called her dad & after a couple hours fighting with the hitch towed the bike to his shop yard. jeffs going to get the tire next week & in a couple weeks get the bike home. did i mention it was a pretty awful week? (THANKS COURTNEY, KEVIN & MR BRUMMAL!) once jeff was home he called the tow guys to take the subaru to a mechanic they trusted who charged us an arm & leg to replace the less-than-one-year-old melted alternator and some computer sensor. we drove up to lc a week later and mom drove it home. i had kinda hoped someone would just steal the thing while it was abandoned and tried to sell it to the guy who gave us a jump. it was kinda for sale and weve had some offers but now without a bike, jeff will probably keep it for a while. i think i wont be on a motorcycle again for sometime. i think i was in shock at first with enough other stuff to worry about, but now i get a little freaked out in the car in some interstate situations, especially if the asphalt is textured or slippery and you can feel the tires pulling. i think jeff will be back on a bike before me. hes already talking about fixing up the conni. maybe i can talk him into dirt bikes or a jeep or something a little safer for a while. im surprised he hasn't mentioned getting a ural w/ side car, yet.

jeffs recovery was so much quicker once he came home. it will be long and slow and painful, but everyday is a little better. jeff is actually able to do more than i thought and actually can do more than me in some cases, since my hand is basically useful only as dead weight...i don't know why they bothered to cast around the thumb and first finger...useless. its taken me eons to type out this blog one handed so you have to forgive my text brevity and spelling/grammar errors. last weekend he was able to lift up his left arm & that has rapidly improved. then the nurse messed with his chest tube incision, so we have good days and bad days.

sorry if i didnt get a chance to update you personally. so many people & honestly i am so tired still. thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. i will try to keep you posted on our recovery.

jeffs helmet is ground down all the way around
ambers helmet - we are very pro helmet - i dont think wed be here without them!ambers gear looks pretty good, though well used - so wear your gear!