Sometimes you’ll come across something worth posting serendipitously and not from a source that you would normally associate with medical resources. Today was one of those days. My usual RSS feed from Singletrack magazine contained their “Midweek Mini Movies” feature. Amongst the various gems were two videos about downhill mountain biker Tom Wheeler
Back in March Tom Wheeler head out for a fairly normal weekend of downhill racing. One crash later, he’d ripped four nerves from his neck, leaving his right arm paralysed and his world a very different place. In this three part series he’s followed from the crash through his tough times trying to to cope with the mental and physical effects of his injury – and his determination to get back onto his bike…
You’ll see that there will be three films in all but only two have been posted at the point of writing this. Part 1 details Tom’s love of biking and how he sustained a brachial plexus injury.
Part 2 is best described in Tom’s own words…
“I did mention in Part 1 that I had experienced serious damage to my brachial plexus… In my case I had torn 4 of the 5 nerves permanently out of my spine leaving my right arm completely paralysed. The one nerve still remaining has been grafted with nerves from my leg and side and may give me some limited movement within my bicep and forearm. I spent close to 2 weeks in hospital with 3 MRI scans which themselves were pretty daunting and then spent 13 hours straight on the operating table.
It was a horrible feeling lying on the floor after the accident trying to work out what had happened, it was a messy situation to be in and I’m just glad I have only lost the use of my arm, I could have lost so much more. The first couple of weeks after leaving hospital were so hard, I went from being a super active guy on the bike 4-5 times a week and in full time work to a guy who couldn’t stay awake for more than a couple of hours and found it extremely difficult to dress himself.
One thing that has taken me by surprise is the nerve pain, I had thought that it couldn’t be too bad if I can’t feel my arm at least it can’t hurt, how wrong could I be. I have a constant tingling pain in my hand and have waves of electric shock and crazy pulsing pains.
Every day is hard but I’m just so glad to be recovering and back in work. I still love mountain biking and don’t plan on stopping any time soon, its actually pretty rad riding one handed!”
When Part 3 is available I’ll post it here.