Day 30 - 33 “Houston-Liberty-Surgery”

Day 30 started out as one of the most inspiring days we’ve had to date. James Marshall came out to ride with us for the first part of the day. For those of you who don’t know who James Marshall is, he was a young up and coming Supercross racer who also encountered a life changing spinal cord injury due to a crash at Qualcom Stadium in San Diego, CA. He gave an inspiring effort today. We were all so proud of him for coming out with us. Cory helped him some today by assisting him a bit. Cory couldn’t hold back his emotions either by his amazing effort put out. He found himself crying while riding behind him. This reminded us all what this journey is about and we all feel so privileged to be a part of the entire M4M project. James’s muscle tone was acting up a bit today due to his SCI and his right ankle was getting a small abrasion. So he made the decision to end his ride. Due to the lack of circulation with people with an SCI even the smallest abrasion can take a long time to heal. It’s usually a good idea to avoid anything that could cause complications. We would all like to thank the “Outlaw” for coming out to support us today.

After James left us we were having one of our best days as we headed toward Beaumont, TX. We stopped in Liberty for a snack. Little did we know what would happen next. While we were leaving the Shell Station in Liberty Jimmy fell over because he was unable to get his foot out of the peddle and landed hard with all of his body weight on his elbow. He still wanted to try and ride but quickly realized it wasn’t possible since he was unable to put any pressure on it. At that point we decided to go to the local Hospital in Beaumont for some x-rays. After about four hours of waiting we got the news that we were all scared of getting, Jimmy had a clean break at his left olecranon process (elbow) and would need to fly back to San Diego for surgery. At this point he was in a huge amount of pain but because of his SCI he is unable to take most pain medicines, we knew it wouldn’t be a good night.

The following morning we took Jimmy and Kristi to Houston to catch a flight to San Diego to have his elbow accessed by Dr. Murphy. He scheduled a 3 pm surgery to plate Jimmy’s elbow. This surgery wouldn’t have been Dr. Murphy’s first option but since Jimmy’s desire is to get back on the bike as soon as possible to finish the ride, this would work best. It will have a bigger scar and be more painful in the long run but it would be stronger in a short amount of time. After surgery Dr. Murphy said that things had gone better than he had expected and should heal faster and better that he had initially thought. Jimmy is at home now for a few days so that he can be monitored. He will see Dr. Murphy this weekend and then we are expecting to continue our ride at the beginning of next week. The rest of us are here waiting in Beaumont for his return. We have been very blessed to have the opportunity to stay with an amazing family here. Joe and Roxanne Newman have gone way over and above what most people would do to help. They are truly good people that have become a huge part of the success of our project. We could never repay their true Southern Hospitality. Please continue to support M4M and we will keep you all informed of Jimmy’s progress. He is still fighting to finish this ride and make a change for all people affected with a SCI.

JB & Cory

(Soon to be) East Bound & Down