Okay so I’m not the world’s best blogger, actually probably very far from it and I do apologize for the super delayed posting/update/news since my pre-Colorado trip. However with that said here is a quick recap on our Colorado trip and then as most of you know tomorrow is a significant date as far as my injury goes as it is my one year anniversary from my accident. So I will post another blog tomorrow with some more thoughts.

Colorado was a really good trip, got to see a lot of family and friends unfortunately we were not able to see all the new Colorado friends which is always a bummer but seems like there’s never enough time to do everything. The main agenda for the Colorado trip was 1) see Sarah’s family and hang out with them 2) reevaluation at Craig hospital and 3) national cyclocross race for Gideon. So the first week we got there we were able to spend some really good quality time with Sarah’s family just hanging out to going sledding to going out to different restaurants. Gideon was able to do a couples pre-national cyclocross races so all the cousins and everybody came out to cheer for him. In general it was some good hangout, conversation and catching up time. It was also really for good and important for the boys to hang out with their cousins as they have not seen the Myers cousins for a long time and they really miss them since they moved to Alaska!

Sunday night we drove back up to Craig and it was very interesting pulling in that first night as it definitely brought back some memories as far as where I was when I first arrived with my new friend Tippy and where I am now. And though I have to admit I have probably come a long ways for me I still expected to be further along the next time I came back to Craig. I was also very excited to see many familiar faces at the hospital who all helped me along my journey. The first day I met my PT and OT for that week my nurse and the battery of testing began. There was lots of sensory and motor testing to be done over the next 2 to 3 days as well as wheelchair fit and adjustments, wheelchair push analysis, seat analysis and working with my OT in making some adaptive devices for day-to-day activities. I was also able to try out different push rims and just different things for the chair. As far as the sensory testing it seemed like I had lost some sensory but in gain sensory in other areas, given that I was still within my one year I think a lot of it is just the body still adapting to be honest with you and healing. As far as motor testing, I’m definitely stronger than when I was when I first arrived and left the hospital. All in all I’m able  to get around a lot better so that’s good and we continue to see improvements still. That Wednesday night we met with the neurosurgeon regarding the Syrinx cyst. I know a lot of you have been praying about this and for this and I truly appreciate that and am very sorry for this the late update. So good news regarding the cyst is at this time there is zero reason to look at surgery and its undetermined if it is actually a cyst or what they call tethering or scar tissue. So every spinal cord injury  basically will develop tethering around the point of entry injury, what you have to watch for. If that tethering continues up or down the spinal cord. The short end of the story is per the doctor as long as I have not lost any mobility which I have not I have actually gained I am not a candidate for surgery. However, if I start to lose mobility then we maybe need to start looking at our options, he basically said that if it’s needed I will be begging him for surgery. Good news is I don’t plan on so onward and forward. And really that was the great news for me was that the doctor encouraged me to live life to the fullest and to stay active. Which for me was not the message and story I was receiving nor was it what I was reading out there on the famous internet. And so this is the direction I am moving and will betray more information with everybody regarding future hand bikes, sit cross-country skiing, and maybe even kayaking.

After meeting with the doctor we drove back to Boulder for the big dance, national cyclocross championships. This was Gideon’s second year racing at nationals and it did bring back memories of the previous year when Gideon and myself traveled to Madison, Wisconsin for his first national championships. We both reminisced many times during this trip as to how much fun we had and all the memories we have of that trip. It was also a reminder of how much things have changed. As we tried to get Gideon mentally ready to race, I have to honestly say that I think he was overly distracted with I think a lot of the reminders of Colorado and why we initially went to Colorado, his Colorado friends that he wanted to see and hang out with and spend time which is understandable, as well as friends on his Rad racing team. With that said Gideon’s race Friday definitely wasn’t the race that he wanted. He crashed three times, had a tough g,o but never quit and finished the race.  All in all I think it was a great learning opportunity for him and he had a lot of fun. And I think he was blown away by all the family support.

After that, we prepared to pack up, say goodbye to family which is never easy, as well as say goodbye to friends which is not easy. We then enjoyed the two day drive back to Washington. And that my friends is our Colorado trip in a nutshell.