Mike Rea's Recovery Info & Updates

Mike's family created this blog to acknowledge our heartfelt appreciation for all your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes since his accident. Please check back regularly for updates on his condition and recovery process. We know all of you will keep Mike and his family in your prayers!

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Location: Newark, Delaware

On June 16, 2006, Mike was doing what he loves most in the world~training a race horse! One minute, friends saw him go by at a full gallop. Thirty minutes later, he was found unconscious and barely breathing. Mike endured an emergency helicopter ride to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Unit where doctors determined he had suffered a severe brain injury and was placed in ICU in critical condition. After three weeks, Mike was transferred to Kernan Rehabilitation Center, then Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation. He returned home in October ‘06 and continues to work on his recovery. We have experienced much hope and joy as we have witnessed Mike's miraculous journey towards recovery. Mike IS A MIRACLE (the exact words of his neurologist) and continues to surprise his health care providers. Mike faces each day with courage, faith and perseverance; his new job consisting of physical therapy and theraputic riding. Mike is currently undergoing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and is experiencing great progress! FOR THOSE WHO HAVE OFFERED ASSISTANCE, A "MIKE REA RECOVERY RELIEF FUND" HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED TO HELP WITH MIKE'S MEDICAL AND DAILY NEEDS.

Monday, February 16, 2009

I can't believe how long it's been

I can't believe how long it's been since I last sat down here and poked through these letters enough to write a post much less a good one. I can't even remember the lst time I sat down here and wrote till I felt like I had caught everybody up on what's been going on since I last did. I guess the brain injury is a good excuse for that. I think I've been using that as a good excuse for alot of silly things I would have normally been doing anyway what with a wife leaving and taking all the kids with her. She has been good about letting me see the kids and spend all the time I feel like I can take with them. That's one area that I would change if it wasn't for this crazy brain injury...I would be running all over the place with these kids especially like yesterday at the barn where Rochelle now works which is a perfect place to spend time with the kids and horses. She is lucky to be at such a nice place where she can take the kids in the afternoon and mess with a couple of ponies that are out there and one big enough for my oldest son Jesse to ride. He actually has the most experience than all the kids and looks great sitting on their backs and I'm hoping to get where I can actually go out their some more and help give some pointers to him and the others. All the kids look like naturals. Now I wonder where that came from with their mother and father being so involved in horses. Now Gracie has her own pony that was given to her and will be perfect for her and Hunter for many years and is only 18 years old and looks like he has alot of years left in him. So I am much happier seeing the kids so comfortable out there and knowing how Rochelle is with horses know she'll be there for quite a while. Now that that worry is gone, the time to just worry about myself and recovery is here. It's been hard to just worry about myself with so many unknowns in a very important part of my life. Now I feel like I can put the concentration into my recovery I should have put into it before. Everything seems to be working out in somebody's timing that knows a whole lot more than me and that's great because learning that there's someone in control of the whole situation gives me alot lot of confidence I should have had already but not until you go through something like this are you really sure everything happens for a reason. Also like the other day at riding therapy I had been having a lot of trouble keeping my hands down and still while posting at the trot and I looked liked a beginner rather than someone who has ridden his whole life. This new place has been trying to get me not to have to hang on to a pomel strap I've been hanging onto the whole time I've been in theraputic riding since the accident. I've been having alot of trouble keeping my hands down and still because my arms and elbows are so siff. So as I was driving out there the two weeks ago I started thinking about that part of my riding which used to be my best part, my hands. So while picturing the posting I came up with the idea why I didn't push my hands down while I rose to the post and relax my arms when I sat to the post. So I tried it and it worked great! My hands stayed down and still for the first time without any extra help from a strap! Then the other night at a pig roast I went to and saw Tim Woolley and his wife there and after talking to them a while they invited me to come out to Fair Hill and ride their pony to the track with a couple sets of babies just for company and I would love that. So I agreed, once the weather staightens out. So I hope you all can tell why I'm so excited 1)my wife and kids being somewhere I know they like 2)My therapy going well 3)using my injured brain to come up with a trick that worked with my riding 4)the chance to get back in the racing scene riding Tim's pony 5)learning God is in control, all of it just excites me knowing only God knows what's next and after all the negative things that have happened in my life only positive things are in store for me and that's about all the typing I'm good for. Mike Rea

7 Comments:

Blogger TerriC said...

Hey Mike. Great idea about the hands on the post! Sounds like it will work for you. And I do hope you get to Fair Hill for that visit. I know you get frustrated at the pace of progress but hang in there. I think you see for yourself how far you have come. Give yourself a big pat on the back now and then!

10:45 PM  
Blogger eaddies said...

Thank you so much for your update!!! I loved reading it ....and hearing more of your story......You are such an inspiration! Love and Prayers,Linda A

2:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update, Mike. Seems your world is getting better and better every day.

God bless

Kelly

9:36 AM  
Blogger LyndaP31 said...

Great Post Mike! You are right about Trusting God. As long as you keep your faith in Him, he will lead the way. My favorite chapter is 2 Cor 4, and I think you are a great example!

9:50 AM  
Blogger Barb AZ said...

I so enjoyed reading your update. Those of us from Tim Woolley and Alex Brown Racing have been following you for long time.

Take care and God Bless.

Barb AZ

11:45 PM  
Blogger Craig Daliessio said...

Mike! Hey buddy...I know we have been very sporadic about staying in touch. I have a new website and that's the easiest way to get me. It's www.noreputattion.net and you can email me at craig@noreputation.net. I am coming up from Nashville this week and speaking at Iron Hill Community Church on 7-19...I would LOVE to see you there if you can make it out. We need to get together! Email me and we'll trade phone numbers. Love you bro!!

12:43 AM  
Blogger Carlo Lingiardi said...

I too had brain injury and I'm making a blogspot which is all about hyperbaric oxygen therapy or HBOT in which I believe totally, my own blogspot is at http://hbot4carlo.blogspot.com/ and I hope to receive visits and comments.
Hang in there as a surviver nothing can hurt you anymore.

1:15 AM  

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