Category: Diary

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When will the Mayhem stop? Cars vs Cyclists

Most of you know im an avid cyclist. I used to be 150kg and clearly very overweight. I used cycling help get me active as i lost weight, and of course started out slow.
Because i was larger 6km took me a long time to bike and was a epic journey, eventually i got better as i lost the weight.
Along the way i tried lots of cycling groups, but they all just went off and left me behind in the dust on the hills because i was larger.
Then i stumbled over a tiny group called the Pickled Pedallers in Albany.
Their motto? “We start together, we finish together”. I never got left behind, “Coach” would sit back with me (i think he liked the break to be honest!) and “Crash” would keep me amused with smart assed wise cracks.
I didnt always have the time to cycle with the group. but whenever i turned up i was welcomed.
As my cycling developed the group grew larger. When i moved to Cambridge from Auckland a year ago the one thing i missed more than anything was the cycling. I actually gave up cycling because the groups here just were not the same. Doing it alone just didnt do it for me (though i still cycle a lot too and from places).
I kept in touch via the forum and occasional visits and races.

So today i heard on twitter from @roadcycling (aka http://www.roadcycling.co.nz ) that her respects go out to the Pickled Pedallers who were involved in an accident today on the waterfront. My first though was ‘omg was anyone hurt’. As it turns out, there was. Unfortunatly the forum was down, however google reader cached the rss feed and i got this.

“Hi guys—-it is serious and it was our group. Greg Paterson is in a critical condition with head injuries, Dave also has a suspected head injury but some of us were talking to him in emergancy and he was quite lucid, cuts on ther left side of his face maybe a broken collarbone, Stev I last saw with a neck brace on and in emergancy but not sure of other injuries, Swampy has a bad cut to his left knee and Red Hot and I helped the doctor stitch him up—well we were there at the time! It is a nasty and deep cut.
Greg’s injuries are life threatening, so if you are into prayers, he needs them. I shall keep you posted.
The woman driver drove straight into the middle of the group so in some respects we are lucky there were not more of us injured.”

It even made the nzherald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10599761 and several other places. (new update at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10599817 )

At the moment im still stunned, and really gutted that Greg, and the other guys are now like this, because one person missed a stop sign. Something as small as that, has a guy in hospital unsure if hes even going to live, and if he does live what is his quality of life?

Whilst some of you may hate cyclists, do remember about the personal injury lawyer existence and that there are always the ones that give everyone a bad name. The PP in particular were actively working on making sure they were never aggressive to other members on the road, never stopping in odd places, and never more than 2 people wide (or 1 if there was a car coming – PP forums http://pickledpedallers.forumcircle.com/viewforum.php?f=2 ).

To follow the story check out http://www.vorb.org.nz/crash-auckland-t100615-15.html

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Kidney Donation update

Well still not sleeping, its been getting progressively worse over the last couple weeks. Stressed and worried to the max about the whole kidney donation. Everyone seems to want to visit me but ill only be in 3 nights of which ill probably be zoned out weds night anyway.
I finally got an early night to bed last night but woke at 2am and didnt get back to sleep again till about 6am for an hour.

The place the hospital rented for us is ok, but has some cheap oddities. The plug in the bathroom presses in but you have to figure out there is a button behind the tap to get the plug up, so im sitting there with the knife trying to pull the plug out to get the water out. Then i finally get that going and knocked the toothpaste lid down the drain so now we have no lid for that.

The shower this morning was also interesting. there was a bath tap and the shower and only the one lever for both. it had one of those push in things to redirect it to the shower head, only that didnt seem to work. After about 20 minutes fiddling i was about to give up when i realized that you had to push the damned thing in before you turned the tap on and the water pressure holds it in and then water comes out the shower.

Today also is my daughters birthday party, shes 13 today. So we went to the mall for breakfast.  I drank 500ml coke, then a mocha with breakfast, then more coke. Just trying to wake up more because im so darned tired.

I figured I wouldnt need as much clothes in hospital so i unpacked half my stuff and ill leave it at the hotel.  Means i have less garbage to troll through if i need things in hospital.

So 7am i go in tomorrow, and out by 10-11am, then my brother goes in. I presume ill be out of it on a morphine pump weds arvo (woot!).

This is my last post for a bit unless i do one from the iPod Touch

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I’m Donating a Kidney to my brother

Those that know me, know that for the last couple of years ive been trying to donate a kidney to my older brother.

Hes been on dialysis for around 5 years now. I lost 80kg to be able to do this, and have gone through rigourous testing. I’ve had to battle a retarded genetics Dr amoung lots of other things.

So finally now 3 years later, its happening. I head up to Auckland on monday, where we will try and sort out WHO is paying for the hotel. Talk about battling govt departments. They have booked somewhere for partner and kids to stay but cant agree whos going to pay for it. So unsure if we even have a place to stay monday night.

Tuesday 19th I go into hospital. Weds 20th at 7am they take me away to surgery, 3 hours later i come back with 1 less kidney, and hopefully alive. Then they take my brother into surgery, and 3 hours later he comes back with 3 kidneys (they dont remove his other 2, just give him an extra).

Friday I should be able to checkout of hospital, and then i get to hang around for another week in Auckland being somewhat bored and healing.

Im planning on doing the Harbour Bridge walk over if Im up to it. Debating if ill take the bike, or walk it (depends on if the kids go). Walking is good for recovery from surgery so encouraged. Thats probably the option ill go for.

Anyway, I may not update my website much in the next bit of time for that reason, but im taking my ipod and cell and i’ll be on twitter at http://twitter.com/velofille