Update Monday Nov 3 9pm
Clarkie has been making some Neurological progress. On Saturday, Speech Therapy provided him with a new learning tool – the alphabet board (letters on a board that he can point at) – allowing him the opportunity to communicate better. Aaron is able to recognize letters and their function and spell words.
While visiting Aaron on Sunday, he made hand motions indicating he wanted to go for a walk. With Scott not understanding exactly what his hand gesture’s meant, Aaron spelled out “go-for-walk” on the board.
While still suffering from significant memory loss, Aaron is able to retain small pieces of information from repetitive reinforcement. Aaron knows his own name and how to spell it. He knows my name and correct spelling, but doesn’t know Scott’s name. Aaron is aware that he is in a hospital due to a motorcycle crash, but doesn’t remember the crash. He can recall Scott’s upcoming Macau GP trip, which may be recovered memory or new information that he has retained – we are unsure of which.
Mid afternoon on Sunday, Aaron’s trach was capped. He tried to speak a few words which were low volume, garbled, and a bit incomprehensible. We are very excited to see him trying to speak, as the throat muscles weaken over time without use. The staff still uncaps the trach at night and puts him back on the vent, allowing him to sleep more peacefully.
Again, I would like to thank everyone for their support and concern for us. We are truly amazed by this.
Thank you – Scott and Tedi
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Aaron, this is encouraging to hear, I wish you rapid progress on your road to recovery.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Clarkie,
A few years ago, while on a trip to Colorado, I met you. You were working at a bike shop in Longmont. I had made an appointment to have my Caponord serviced there. I was stoked to find out you would be doing the work on it. Even though you had alot of work to do you took the time to talk to me about my bike. I remember leaving that shop thinking “that Clarkie is a cool guy”. Plus you did a great job on my bike, it felt like it was just happier and more willing on the ride back home to Lake Tahoe. Anyway I know you’ll be back on your feet soon, You Kiwis are a scrappy lot. If you find yourself in Tahoe send me a email. My wife and I would love to take you and the missus out for dinner and some beers.
Get better quick,
Jim Dickinson
November 4th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I too have spnet time talking to Aaron about my Futura and his engine upgrade work and dyno tuning he did for me while in Longmont Colo. Aaron always provided encouragement for anyone’s involvement in our sport, no matter what level you could perform at. Nothing you wanted to do to your bike was ever an impossition to him or on his time. He is truely a great person to be around, for any ocasion.
I was hit head on in April of 2005 on my YZF 600RR. I was not totaly in a coma in the classic sense, but I was listed as level VII for 4 weeks, then level VIII for two additional weeks. I had an inital diagnosis of 12 on the glacow scale. I did not start to feal good phsycialy or mentaly until late September. That was when I final could get back on one of my bike’s, and that took a lot of help from freinds to make me re-learn riding skills I knewn in my head, but could not make my body do the way I thought was going on. To this day, I have to wear sunglasses any time I am out in the sunshine, or a massive headache will result, I still have problems sleeping (4 hours top) with out resorting to sleep aids. During my revovery, I could not remmeber anything short term without a post it note on my arm. That got better as the frontal brain swelling receeded. Aaron is strong in every way that counts. I belive he can and will make a full recovery. I write this to help provide some understanding to others to some of the difficulties that may lie ahead. Please know, no matter how frustrating the recovery process will get, Aaron is still there, and you can bet, he will fight to get back to his old self, with all his KIWI charm. Best wishes, Rob H.