How I am Going

What a week it has been, so much has happened, Cory has set some goals and we have a challenge for you too!

Tuesday oh Tuesday what an amazing day that was, Cory got up feeling pretty good before transferring to the commode under the supervision of his wonderful OT’s Laura and Monique, he then starting to get a bit of a routine into his “morning duties”.
Hannah and Matt then arrived around 0900hrs the same time as Christina arrived to put Cory through his paces for physio doing some great balance and reach exercises after loosening up his legs. We then helped Cory transfer himself (using the slide board still) into his wheel chair and we headed up to the megazone so Cory could teach Matt how to play air hockey (Matt may have kicked his butt…)
Cory was getting pretty tired and sore after a while and needed to go to the toilet so we headed back down to the room, where Hannah & Matt had a surprise for Cory!
Matt was with us at the time of Cory’s accident and played an important part in the initial emergency response, Cory was wearing his “USA” jersey at the time, now this may not sound like a big thing, but for Cory this jersey is of great sentimental value, you see it is a bit of a tradition to swap a jersey from your own country, with that of a fellow competitor at the BMX World Championships.
The jersey that Cory had swapped with Hayley Rassi from the US of A needed to be cut off Cory at the track. Matt saw all of this take place and saw the horror on Cory’s face when they cut his jersey (and mine…) along with Matt having gone through the same jersey swapping journey at Worlds, he knew how much this jersey meant to Cory!

What did Matt do? Matt did what any absolute legend would do and got to work to organise a USA jersey to be sent over from the USA as a gift, but why stop at any old Jersey?? With the help of Lauren Reynolds, Matt and Hannah were able to get one of Nic Long’s Jerseys from his Worlds campaign!!

Cory then had a session with Peter, our Spinal Team Psychologist, Cory enjoys his sessions with Peter and we believe that this is such an important part of the recovery process.

We then Got Cory back into the wheel chair and we headed back down to Ward 5C where Cory spent the first week after coming out of the Intensive Care Unit, so that we could give them some chocolates and a card to thank them for their help during our stay with them.

Wednesday was another great day with morning routines getting a little bit better and OT being satisfied that Cory could now transfer into and out of his wheel chair/ bed without the use of the slide board (yay another little goal kicked). Aunty Sharna also come up to visit and we spent a little more time in the megazone. Although Wednesday was a pretty good day, Cory was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection and prescribed a 5 day course of antibiotics to combat this.

Thursday was a massive day with about 5 hours spent in the wheel chair! by far the biggest day Cory has had since we have been on this little journey.

The day started really well, waking up with minimal pain for a change, although not feeling very hungry, managed to eat about 1/3 of a croissant, before starting his morning routines and having a little vomit.
Cory pretty much did his transfer onto the commode all on his own (aside from us physically wheeling it in etc) He is regaining some energy and some strength nicely.
We then headed out to the Physio Gym with Christina for the very first time where Cory smashed through some more amazing progress. Amongst the myriad of exercises that are done to help keep his muscles and limbs moving Cory was able to roll over on to his stomach (assisted on the legs) and was also able to get himself into a “crawling” position on all fours! He was also then able to do a couple of pushup type movements.

The day did not stop there! After returning to the room for a short rest, Laura and Monique arrived to take us on an outing to the OT Kitchen where Cory was set a task of making himself a smoothie. The whole idea here is for him to learn how to get around the kitchen and normal day to day tasks so that he can lead a semi normal life while confined to a wheel chair.

Just before lunch Sandra Winfield, President of the Southside BMX Club came to visit Cory and to see how he was getting on. Sandra also presented Cory with $500 and some chocolates on behalf of the Southside BMX Club.

Roll on lunch time and one of Cory’s best mates Chad rocked up with his mum Meaghan, His little bro Max and a McChicken Big Mac, legend! We didn’t time Cory to see how long that Big Mac lasted, but we are confident that it was devoured within some sort of world record time!

While Chad was about, Gabe, Lachie and Harry rocked up, the 3 boys had caught the early train up to Perth and made a day of it. They joined us in the Megazone while we enjoyed a bit of basketball then on to some air hockey.

The boys then went and chilled out in LiveWire for a while and played a few video games and a bit of pool before returning back to the room.

It was a big night with probably, once again, too much time spent in the wheel chair.

Friday was a struggle, with a poor nights sleep and lots of pain on Thursday night (no doubt a result of too much time in the chair on Thursday) Cory struggled to get going, he managed to get through his morning routines still doing his own transfers, but just a little slower.  We had a very light session of Physio with Nicole, just a few stretches then some bean bag throwing exercises to get him stretching a little in the torso.
He then transferred to the Wheel chair and we went off to our family meeting where we discuss Cory’s progress, any concerns or questions we may have and the Spinal Rehab Team give us a rundown on what we are tackling in the coming week.
Showing just how tired Cory was, he was unable to keep his eyes open for the meeting and several times we are sure he was asleep, although he says he wasn’t… haha
Cory had set some goals for this coming week and we informed the Spinal Team of these at this time, they are;

1. Cory wants to be able to put his own shirt and shorts on by the 26th Jan entirely unaided.
2. Cory wants to be able to get into a smaller wheelchair by the 26th Jan, even if it is not a permanent chair and he still uses the larger reclining breezy that he presently has, from time to time.
3. Cory wants to again roll on to his stomach, be able to get onto all fours, then take four crawling paces on his hands and knees.

These are very ambitious goals and the Spinal Team very excited to have a patient that is so driven to develop their rehab so fast!
We will keep you informed on just how he get on with those goals at the end of next week.

BUNBURY BMX CORY CROMBIE CLUB FUNDRAISER!
Friday the 19th was the Cory Crombie Fundraiser night at the Bunbur BMX Club, with some 190+ riders the night looked to be an absolute success and we are sad that we could not even get there to at least watch.
Massive thanks and shout out to Leon Daymon for live streaming it for us onto Facebook, you’re a bloody champion mate, it made Cory’s night to watch all the love coming in from the WA BMX Community and from a Club that we have poured so much of our energy, love and lives into over the last 8+ years.

 

There has been a lot of love shown to us from our fellow riders and our community as a whole, it is really humbling to feel so much love coming in from so many places, many of which are completely unexpected.

Thanks again Bunbury BMX Club Committee, Members, Family & Friends, we truly appreciate the love and support that we are being shown.

Our challenge for this week is to set yourself one goal for the week, we would love to see your goal added to the comments of the blog.
You have seen Cory’s goals, we show his results at the end of the week, will you share yours with us?

#corycrombiecan
#muchlove

The Crombies

So it has been about 4 days since we have have posted an update on Cory’s progress.
Cory is making steady progress everyday and while we are still unable to make a statement as brash as “He will be able to walk unaided again” with any amount of certainty,  his positive attitude and his awesome work rate just speak volumes for where we believe his outcome will be.

While we had a real slow start to Thursday after Anthony and Dale visited, we followed it up with another slow start on Friday…. They tell us that routines are very important in the recovery progress, but I am not sure that this is what they had in mind.

So we missed our morning physio session again, but Lisa (filling in for Nicola while she takes a well deserved break) along with Monique came and did Cory’s physio at around 1400hrs. They got him sitting up on the edge of the bed again and with every time he does this, you can see him getting stronger and stronger.

Saturday morning was a pretty casual start with Nanna & Poppy visiting us and then our weekend physio not beginning until 1200hrs, the morning was nice and relaxing. With Fliss and Gary popping in as they usually do most days and then Aunty Tracey, Uncle Anton, Sarah & Daniel dropping by it was a nice afternoon.

Then we stepped into the next gear when Cory’s Personal Trainer from home dropped in to have a chat. Brad is a 3 time Paralympian and absolutely exudes the traits that Cory needs to get himself through his recovery.
It is amazing the support that we have had from so many people from so many parts of the world, but talking to Brad and the positivity and confidence that he has, is an absolute inspiration not only to Cory, but also to us is truly amazing.

Brad shared a couple of his stories with us and the one that really stays with me is his story of his lead up to the Rio Games. I won’t go through the whole story (I could never give it justice) but I will share his message.
So about 3 weeks out from his event, Brad sustained an injury while training and was in no shape to compete really. In the subsequent weeks Brad went through a lot in preparation for his event always knowing that he was not 100% physically, but mentally he had the strength and the courage to push through.

Even right up til the day before his 1500M race in the T37 event at the Rio Games, Brad was struggling through with a lot of pain and a due to drug testing, could not even get any pain relief in fear of failing the drug testing.
His sleep prep before the event was less than desirable and then once in the warm up mode, Brad basically told himself that all the hardwork is done, the training, the fitness, the strength and the commitment that he had made over the last 4 years were the hard work, now it was simply time to “run the race”.
Brad absolutely smashed his warm ups and even know he knew he was not right, all of his competitors were all focused on him and what he was doing as he appeared to be at the peak of his game in their eyes.
Unfortunately when it came time to run the race, one of Brad’s muscles played havoc with him and he did not get the result that he had worked so hard for.
Brad as one of the favourites to win the event was approached by reporters who proceeded to make all sorts of excuses for him, to which he completely rubbished, saying that if anything the conditions suited him. He then made no offers of excuses regarding his injuries, but did make the following
statement

“To all those kids back home with a disability – the disability doesn’t have to be your excuse; it can be your greatest opportunity.”

This is very inline with the Brad that we have come to know and he is such an amazing role model not only for Cory or for anyone that has some form of physical disability, but those of us who choose to have a negative outlook on life.

If you would like to get Brad to your next function as a motivational speaker or to attend an event, he can be contacted via his website;

www.runred.com.au

Shona left to head to Bunbury on Saturday night to take care of a couple of things back home, which meant that Cory and I spent the majority of Sunday just chilling and relaxing with out any major activities or visitors until Shona returned with Jeldi (YAY 🙂 and then a nice visit from Craig and Cara in the evening. Sunday was a nice relaxing day allowing Cory (and I) to get some much needed rest…

I woke up in the middle of the night with a dead hand Sunday night, It was a super weird feeling to be able to have enough sensation to be able to feel some pressure, but not enough to be able to really pin point where that pressure is coming from, my whole hand was tingling, you know the one, we have all had it, but only at this point has it dawned on me that this is one of the feelings that Cory has been describing he has (along with a crazy burning sensation that I thankfully have not experienced).

We were then awoken at 0404hrs to the evacuation alarms at Ronald McDonald House! There was supposedly a fire in the building, thankfully it was a false alarm and we were able to go back to bed for a couple of hours sleep.

Monday has been a hectic but good day for Cory with a few tests being conducted and whilst he really did not want to keep going, he persevered through getting his first trip outside of the ward for some OT. We got to take him down to the OT centre where we had a tour of the Therapy Pool, OT Kitchen and the OT Gym.

Cory even was even able to shoot a couple of hoops from his chair before doing some bean bag throwing exercises all based around building his core strength back up.
Aside from completely wearing him out, he did so well, even sitting straight up at one point and throwing the bean bags under his own core strength (no back support from the chair)

Thanks for Keeping up to date with Cory’s Progress, we are planning to throw a couple of challenges out in the near future as Cory progresses to a few different things, so we would love to see peoples comments and shares to see if we can get something moving in more ways than one 🙂

Til next time
#corycrombiecan
#muchlove

The Crombies

ps. Apologies for no replies to the Blog thus far, we have been reading them all and we are absolutely loving them, so please keep commenting on them, it is a great source of interaction for Cory (and us) to see.