Wheels!
Just to let you know-today is the last day to vote in this week's Survivor Idol poll. My entry is here, with a link for voting at the bottom. Thank you for your help!
It was a big week for HalfshellHusband. About five years ago, he had a bicycling accident in which he broke his wrist and damaged his hip (leading to a later replacement). Really, over the last 10-11 years, he has worked his way back to bicycling from multiple injuries:
A left hip replacement (though this one allowed him to bike again, after he broke it while biking about 14 years prior)
A broken left leg from falling in the house
The broken wrist
The right hip replacement
A stress fracture in his left knee
He got knocked off his bike by a horse about 3 years ago, but luckily didn't break anything. :O
He's had problems with dizziness and occasional blackouts since his congestive heart failure diagnosis, so he's at higher risk for falling on OR off the bike. The bone in his lower left leg is also dead, from the radiation treatment for cancer there, so we've been worried about him breaking THAT.
So, after that last major bike accident, he decided he would stop bicycling if he had another one. Recovery is long and very painful for him, and it's also hard on the rest of the household. We were lucky that the broken wrist happened while our son was still in high school, and that HSH's broken leg in September was ALSO while our son was home, due to COVID.
After that September accident (with a few close calls in the months beforehand), HSH was just devastated. Biking is one of the few things he can still enjoy, because his heart condition requires a very restricted diet, and also makes him short of breath when walking. I had floated the idea of a three-wheeled bike several times over the years, but he wasn't ready to consider it until he was faced with NO biking as the only other option.
He started thinking about it in early October, and a few weeks later he was actively researching 3-wheeled recumbent choices and deciding what features he wanted. And once he started being able to move around without the walker in December, he planned out his walking rehab and decided he would get the bike once he could walk two miles without major pain or incident. Most of January was increasing his walking mileage and chomping at the bit!
A week and a half ago, he hit the two-mile mark and made an appointment at the bike store to try out the model he wanted. Last Tuesday, he was out tooling around their parking lot and having a great time! That was huge-he was afraid he wouldn't really enjoy riding it. Friday, it was all fitted up and ready for him, and he brought it home and hoped the rain would end...
Saturday, he rode it around the neighborhood a bit, and Sunday he tried out the routes to/from the house to the light where he crosses the major boulevard to get to the bike path. He was out cruising around in the sun both days, and it was enough like regular biking that he just loved it. He was elated!
I'm so, so happy for him. He cleaned up the Trek bike he'd had for 40 years, his loyal, old, beloved friend, and gave it to his brother. We'd hoped our son would want it, but he only bikes in gyms because he's a sad, sad victim of the modern age. :O But giving it to HSH's brother took a little bit of the sting out of the heartbreak of saying goodbye to it.
And having a new bike he can actually ride made the biggest difference of all! \o/
It was a big week for HalfshellHusband. About five years ago, he had a bicycling accident in which he broke his wrist and damaged his hip (leading to a later replacement). Really, over the last 10-11 years, he has worked his way back to bicycling from multiple injuries:
He got knocked off his bike by a horse about 3 years ago, but luckily didn't break anything. :O
He's had problems with dizziness and occasional blackouts since his congestive heart failure diagnosis, so he's at higher risk for falling on OR off the bike. The bone in his lower left leg is also dead, from the radiation treatment for cancer there, so we've been worried about him breaking THAT.
So, after that last major bike accident, he decided he would stop bicycling if he had another one. Recovery is long and very painful for him, and it's also hard on the rest of the household. We were lucky that the broken wrist happened while our son was still in high school, and that HSH's broken leg in September was ALSO while our son was home, due to COVID.
After that September accident (with a few close calls in the months beforehand), HSH was just devastated. Biking is one of the few things he can still enjoy, because his heart condition requires a very restricted diet, and also makes him short of breath when walking. I had floated the idea of a three-wheeled bike several times over the years, but he wasn't ready to consider it until he was faced with NO biking as the only other option.
He started thinking about it in early October, and a few weeks later he was actively researching 3-wheeled recumbent choices and deciding what features he wanted. And once he started being able to move around without the walker in December, he planned out his walking rehab and decided he would get the bike once he could walk two miles without major pain or incident. Most of January was increasing his walking mileage and chomping at the bit!
A week and a half ago, he hit the two-mile mark and made an appointment at the bike store to try out the model he wanted. Last Tuesday, he was out tooling around their parking lot and having a great time! That was huge-he was afraid he wouldn't really enjoy riding it. Friday, it was all fitted up and ready for him, and he brought it home and hoped the rain would end...
Saturday, he rode it around the neighborhood a bit, and Sunday he tried out the routes to/from the house to the light where he crosses the major boulevard to get to the bike path. He was out cruising around in the sun both days, and it was enough like regular biking that he just loved it. He was elated!
I'm so, so happy for him. He cleaned up the Trek bike he'd had for 40 years, his loyal, old, beloved friend, and gave it to his brother. We'd hoped our son would want it, but he only bikes in gyms because he's a sad, sad victim of the modern age. :O But giving it to HSH's brother took a little bit of the sting out of the heartbreak of saying goodbye to it.
And having a new bike he can actually ride made the biggest difference of all! \o/