Tara's blog thru 1-30-08

Editor’s Note: Tara Llanes is recording her progress in rehab as she continues to recover from the spinal cord injuries she suffered in a mountain bike race in Colorado on September 1. This is the latest update posted to her MySpace page. Tara has been blogging about her recovery since mid-September. All of her blogs, photos of her recovery and many, many good wishes can be found at:
http://www.myspace.com/mtbtara
Her family, friends, and supporters are urging those folks who want to help contribute to a special fund set up for Tara’s recovery to visit:
http://www.tarallanesroadtorecovery.com
Below are two of her most recent postings to her MySpace page. Also here are a couple of recent photos. One of them promotes TARA JAM, coming up at Rye Airfield in New Hampshire on February 23.

TARA’S DIARY - January 30, 2008 - Wednesday
PRESENT FROM MICHELIN
I got a box today from Michelin and was so stoked when I opened it. This is the second time they've sent me something like this from an amazing athlete not to mention HOT guy. Nicky Hayden signed one of his shirts for me. We've met on a couple different occasions a few years ago and actually played basketball together – him, along with his brothers Tommy and Roger. Okay, well you'll have to go to the picture section to check it out. Oh and FYI if you don't know who Nicky Hayden he races MotoGP for the Repsol Honda Team, rides Michelin tires, and is the 2006 World Champion. Thank you Michelin!!

Oh and on another quick note because I'd like to get to bed before midnight tonight therapy went awesome today. It lasted two hours long since I won't be there on Friday. I walked in the parallel bars again today for 30 minutes!! Basically until my form went to sh*t. I just kept going until she told me I needed to stop. I was sweating so much I had to ask my cousin to grab my wallet and buy me a Casa Colina t-shirt at the gift shop so I could change! And I never sweat, which is a problem in itself but I'll explain that one later. Anyway, it was awesome and it felt great to sweat that much as funny as it sounds. After that I lifted some weights and then I rode the FES bike for an hour. Today was a good day.

Now off to bed. It might be tricky to write a blog the next couple days since I'll be up at Giant for their National Sales Meeting, but I'll try.

Oh and one last thing I finally found the link to the Access Hollywood story since it is no longer on their website. So here it is if you haven't seen it...

http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=198604
Also, I just received an email from Cori over at Pedal Pushers Online and they have just posted the interview I did with them and here is the link.
www.pedalpushersonline.com
t

Never Give Up

TARA’S DIARY - January 28, 2008 - Monday
FINALLY IN THE POOL!!

Last Friday was my first day in the pool. Thank GAWD!! I'll be honest I can't really blame the people at Casa Colina for not putting me in the pool sooner. And here is why.

Back when I was at Craig one of my doctors actually went out and bought me those ThermaCare pads for your back. You pull it out of the package and it instantly gets warm and stays warm for 8 hours. Those things were like a godsend I swear. They almost made me feel better than all the drugs. So I kept buying them while I was still in Colorado.

Well, here's the kicker; they cost like $16 a box and you only get two. Sooooo, long story short I was going to go broke buying the damn things so when I got home I had one of my mom's OLD heating pads. And when I say OLD I mean this thing had to have gone through a couple generations! Anyway, I pulled it out and put it on the medium setting and had instant relief. I then fell fast asleep with a smile on my face. So I wake up the next morning go to take it out from underneath my lower back and realize that it somehow had slid down from my lower back to my butt. Get this....I had two freakin' blisters on my ASS!! I was so pissed, but at the same time I was laughing my butt off. No pun intended! I mean come on...that's funny sh*t.

With that said, I was not allowed in the pool with a blister in the event that it decided to pop at any given moment. They were both actually pretty small, but it took two weeks for them to completely go away. That was kind of one of the first times it really hit me that I could really get hurt if I didn't pay attention. I mean I just didn't feel my ass on fire and after I got a kick out of it I realized that it was a bit serious. I could have really burned myself bad and that sucks.

Anyway, enough about me burning my butt. I am putting another video up and this time it's of me in the pool for the first time at Casa Colina. It feels so good to be in there. I mean it sucks that I have to wear full leg braces, but at this point my left leg sort of has a mind of it's own and wants to walk all over the place and my right leg just doesn't quite want to move a whole lot yet. So between the two I guess they have to be tamed.

So there is a lot that has been going on lately. A good friend of mine Kyle Ebbett is putting on the first annual Tara Jam at Rye Airfield in New Hampshire on February 23rd at 9 p.m. I'm going to try and post the flyer and it'll be in my photos section. Thank you to Kyle, Jeff Lenosky, Aaron Chase, Cam McCaul, Jamie Goldman, George Ryan, Dave Smutok, & Seth Lolli for being there to have some fun while raising money at the same time. I can't thank you guys enough. I've known most of you for years and it means a lot to me. I also want to thank Shawn Spomer for making the flyer for the event. I know your a busy guy with littermag.com and dirt agency so thank you.

I've been so busy it's been bananas. I have therapy this week and four different dr's appointments and then on Thursday I head up to Giant for their National Sales Meeting. I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody so it should be a good time. Then Saturday is the last Anaheim SX so I'll be going to that as well. Crossed fingers it stops raining here!

Oh and before I forget James my coach told me that a friend of his worked on the roadtorecovery website and now you can just purchase the shirts via paypal thru that site. So once you put the order in we will try to get your shirts to you within 2 weeks. I apologize for the delay, but we're working as fast as we can. Also, the new batch of shirts should be in hopefully in two weeks as well.

Okay, so check out the photo section for Kyle Ebbett's Tara Jam and also the video section to see me walking in the pool. I'll keep trying to put posts up as much as I can. Oh and one more thing...here are some new photos from Maxine at AccessEco with everybody with their Tara Balm...
http://tarabalm.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

K, I better get to bed since I've got another early morning.
Cheers,
tara

Never Give Up!