November 25, 2008                                                                                                                                                                              Diesel Dave is quickly becoming Bionic Diesel Dave.  Today, Dr. Hasty at Pitt Memorial replaced Dave's left hip as expected.  The surgery went well, and in just about 2 hours time, Dave had a new hip and 2 matching legs.  He is expected to be in the hospital for a few days, possibly until Saturday.  Dr. Hasty thought it was a pretty difficult surgery, but thought that things went well.  He said that Dave should be in less pain when he woke up from the surgery than he was from his hip grinding.  When I talked to him this evening, he said the pain certainly wasn't any worse.  I will post more as soon as I get it!                                                                                                                                                               November 14, 2008   Well, the past few months have been exciting.  Sometimes I feel like I take one step forward and two back.  But life is good, and I slowly continue to recover.  Haven’t tried any more white water rafting.  But I have modified my Burgman scooter so I can ride it (basically I put training wheels on it!).  Hope to be back on the bicycle as soon as I have my hip replaced.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       My left arm has healed well.  The titanium elbow is working well.  I don’t have full use of the arm, but I knew that going into the surgery.  I can bend my elbow now about 80 degrees, which is a tremendous improvement over 0 degrees!  And I can rotate my hand slightly, perhaps 50 degrees.  Again, better than nothing!  Dr Mallon has released me, but advises that he’ll probably need to operate again next summer to remove more calcium that continues to accumulate on the new elbow.  I’m so grateful to Dr Mallon and my therapists, who have given me so much better usage of the arm.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   I’ve been scheduled for hip replacement several times, but it keeps getting delayed.  My left hip is in really bad shape now.  When Dr Hasty put my pelvis back together, he explained that it wasn’t perfectly aligned.  Due to the severity of the break, he put it back as close as possible.  But my left leg is considerably shorter than my right.  And it’s my strong leg, as the right leg continues to be numb, weak, and drop-footed.  So as I’ve begun walking (rather, waddling!) more and more, it has worn my left hip out.  So Dr Hasty plans a hip replacement, and at the same time hopes to add about an inch to my left leg, which should help considerably.    But each time I was scheduled for surgery, I’d develop an infection in my right leg, where they’d placed a steel plate to help support the bones.  So the doctors decided to remove the plate, as the bone has finally grown back together.  But wouldn’t you know, that surgery resulted in another infection!  So it’s hopefully in the healing stage now, and I’m again scheduled for hip replacement on Tuesday, Nov 24.  I get to eat Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital!  No dirty dishes to clean up.                                                                                                                                                                                                    I was going through the “Get well” cards that had been sent to me after my accident, and reminiscing about my recovery.  It has reminded me what a lucky person I am, to have such a network of friends and family!   You have all been so good to me, and I can’t begin to express the gratitude I feel towards all of you.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Aug 22, 2008   Well, it's been a long 3 months since we've put out any kind of update, but luckily Diesel has personally been in touch with most of you.    We had a great family vacation about 2 months ago in Pigeon Forge, TN.  We found out just a few days before that DDG had broken a rib when he tripped and fell.  Let's take a vote: who thinks that stopped him from riding the roller coasters at Dollywood?  That's right, broken rib and all he went on one of the roughest and fastest wooden coasters that they had to offer.  Later in the week we took Gabe and Caleb (the 2 oldest grandkids) white water rafting.  Since they were with us, they were the tamest rapids available.  Mostly Class I, some Class II, and only 1 Class III.  Our guide's name was Bronco; we should have known then what we were getting into.  We did this really cool trick where we turned the raft back upstream and actually "surfed" on top of the Class III.  Big mistake.  The boat got kicked just right (or wrong) and Diesel went over.  Anybody sitting in that seat would have had trouble staying in.  He disappeared under the raft, and all of us were prepared to jump in and try to find him when he resurfaced.  Luckily a few kayakers were downstream surfing as well and they saw him and grabbed him, then delivered him to another one of the rafts in our group while we were struggling to get off the rapid without losing anybody else.   It turns out that he had hit a rock on the bottom of the river with his newly replaced elbow.  The hospital in TN wasn't sure which injuries were new and old, but the second we looked at the x-rays we knew he had broken his upper arm (above the prosthesis) pretty severely.  Another vote: who thinks that stopped him from having fun the rest of the week?  Nope, he hung out, went back to Dollywood, took the kids to the dinosaur museum, and numerous other things.  Diesel is a tough old goat.   Actual prognosis?  He actually broke his upper and lower arm, causing a "floating elbow."  This resulted in yet another surgery to secure the prosthesis - plates, screws, and wires in both the upper and lower.  Hopefully his superhuman ability to grow calcium will help to secure that in the future, but only time will tell.  Afterwards he developed an infection and had to again go under the knife to clean that up.   Diesel has had a tough time walking lately, and his orthopedic surgeon in Greenville has scheduled him for a hip replacement on Sept. 9 at Pitt Memorial.  With the latest round of surgeries, I have decided to start putting together a timeline of all of the surgeries and mishaps.  This will be a work in progress since there is so much to dig though to get the details, so check back often.  I think we will all be amazed at the progress and downfalls that we have all gone though with Diesel over the past 2 years.     May 19, 2008 Please accept my apologies for not updating my website recently.  I’ve run into several friends who have mentioned the lack of updates.  My life continues to be blessed.  Therapy continues on my left arm, hips and pelvic area, lower back, and right leg.  I don’t seem to notice much improvement, but I’m seeing it day-to-day.  When I run into a friend who hasn’t seen me in a while they marvel at my progress.  I’ve shed the wheelchair for short walks,and can navigate pretty well now with a cane.  I still need the wheelchair at the mall and large department stores, or when I’m tired.  I’m able to stand on my own for about 10 minutes before something gives out, so I’m always scanning my environment to make sure there’s a chair nearby.   I had a total elbow replacement done in mid-march.  Dr Bill Mallon in Durham did the surgery, and placed a nice titanium unit in my arm.  My Litespeed friends are ecstatic!  The surgery presented some challenges.  Dr Mallon said my elbow was the worst he’s ever seen, and he’s seen many.  Calcium deposits had totally enveloped it.  What should have been a 2-hour surgery ran into 4 hours and he didn’t get finished.  To continue he would have to roll me over on the table and make a second large incision on my arm.  Instead, he opted to postpone and perform the remaining surgery in a subsequent operation. So for the first surgery he cut out my left elbow and replaced it.  This provided me the ability to bend my arm at the elbow, something I’d been unable to do for 16 months. Then, 2 weeks ago, Dr Mallon operated again, this time to remove more calcium and provide for some rotation of my wrist.  Again, he was successful.  While I can’t bend it too well myself just yet, my therapist friends do the job for me.  I now have two more impressive scars to show my grandchildren! I still attend Occupational and Physical therapy 3 times a week.  I’ve been blessed to have Katina, Diana, Heather, Rita and Warren taking care of me.  They’ve done a great job in helping to make me well. Since my last update, I’d started to build up some speed and endurance on my bicycles, both 2 and 3-wheeled versions.  The elbow surgery has put me behind again, but I expect the doc to give me permission to start riding again any day now.  I’ve got to give a special thanks to my friends Jorg, Lisa, Bob H, Chuck, Ralph and a few others, who have accompanied me on many rides at slow speeds.  I know it was tough and boring for them, but it’s been very therapeutic for me.  Thanks, guys, and I look forward to kicking your butts soon!  Seyboros are the best! I’ve also managed to climb aboard my scooter a few times and navigate the back roads around my house.  I traded my big motorcycle for a Suzuki Burgman scooter (still pretty big!) but it has an automatic transmission and a step-thru design.  So I can mount and dismount easily, and don’t have the worries of trying to operate a clutch. I had to resign from my full-time job at Lenoir Community College , but was fortunate to be granted disability.  I hope to eventually get back into the work force.  I tested the waters recently when I worked part-time with the Board of Elections in the early voting polls.  While it wore me out considerably, it did put some light at the end of my tunnel.   So life is good!  I’m still looking at a few surgeries down the road.  I have some sort of hernia that was caused by one of my early trauma-related operations.  And my pelvic doc says that my left hip will probably need to be replaced in about a year.  The jury is still out on my right knee.  It’s held together with a couple of big screws, but seems to be doing OK right now.  Time will tell. Not a day goes by that I don’t give thanks to all of my friends and family for your support.  Kay and my children are still faced with an extra burden to make sure I’m doing OK.  While I’ve become 90% self-sufficient, I still encounter those situations in which I need an extra set of hands or feet, and they’re always there to help.  My friends, too, continue to help me out, physically and mentally.  And every time I fill my gas tank for another trip to the doctor in Durham, I’m thankful for the generosity you all showed when you donated to my recovery fund.  God bless each of you! I promise to update more frequently in the future! February 13, 2008 I saw the doc in Greenville today.  He did not yet have the results of my CT scan from yesterday, so things are still inconclusive.  He said that once they get the ct results, they can determine if I have a hernia or something similar called a laxity.   Laxity is caused by the abdominal surgery they did on me immediately following my accident.  They later closed me up and used a tissue called alloderm, and for some reason my stomach muscles never regenerated.  Medically, there isn't a lot wrong, except it makes me look like I've swallowed a basketball, and that bothers me.  I asked the doc if losing weight would help, and he said that even if I were skinny, I'd still look like I've swallowed a basketball, unless my stomach muscles regenerate, which would probably have happened by now.  They'll view the CT results as soon as they get them, and the severity of either the hernia or the laxity will determine if and when they will need to do surgery, or if they think surgery should be postponed until such time that it becomes surgically necessary.  The good news in all of this, if they determine not to operate on my abdoman right now, it may open up the door for my elbow surgery.  The elbow doc wanted me to get the stomach taken care of first.  He said there was a good risk of infection from the stomach surgery, and he didn't want the infection flowing thru my bloodstream and finding its way into my new metal elbow.  But if the stomach docs think I should hold off for a while, I'm gonna go ahead and schedule the elbow.  I'll keep you posted. Dave December 6, 2007 (51 weeks later) Well, the past month or so has been rather uneventful, which is good.  I’ve managed to stay clear of the hospital for several months.  The infections in my leg seem to have subsided, though I’m still on antibiotics, and probably will be for quite some time.  My doctor tells me the infection could easily reappear, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m still having a lot of trouble trying to walk, and suspect it will always be difficult due to the pelvic injuries I sustained.  The doctor showed me the x-rays, and things are rather crooked in there!  I have been able to navigate short distances on crutches or with a cane, but can only do so for about 5 minutes before the pain in my lower back gets too bad.  When I go to therapy or to the doctor’s office, I can usually make my way with the cane or crutches, but on a trip to the mall, grocery store, etc, I’m still in the wheelchair.  My upper body is getting stronger, as well as my left arm, so it’s getting easier to throw the wheelchair in and out of the trunk. I’m trying to prepare myself mentally for surgery to my left arm early next year.  The elbow is still frozen, and I’ll be having surgery to free it up.  I don’t know what that will entail yet; I’ve found a doctor in Durham who can do the operation, and I am waiting on an appointment to see him.  I’m also looking at an operation on my abdomen to repair what looks to be a huge hernia.  Doctors had told Kay this would happen following one of my early surgeries in which they sliced me open and removed some of my internal organs to relieve the swelling that was taking over my body. But life is good!  I have survived, with all of the thanks going to God, and my many friends and relatives who prayed for me and refused to give up on me. I’m able to get out on my 3-wheeled recumbent about three times a week for 12 to 15 miles.  A special thanks goes out to the Seyboro Cyclists who have slowed down their normal pace and shown so much patience in getting me back out on the roads.  I’ve also managed to get on a 2-wheeled bike and ride it a short distance, but I’m going to proceed with caution.  I don’t want to take a chance on re-injuring myself.  As we approach the Christmas season, I can’t help but think about how grateful I am for all of the support my family and I have received from all of our friends and family.  This will be my best Christmas ever! Diesel Dave
RES FIRMA MITESCERE NESCIT indefatigable \in-dih-FAT-ih-guh-bul\, adjective: 1. Incapable of being fatigued; not readily exhausted; untiring; unwearying; not yielding to fatigue. 2. Diesel Dave Galloway
May 15, 2007 I know many of you have already seen some photos of the bike I was on when I was hit.  I've brought the bike home and took a few photos.  With Randall's permission I'll take the bike to [Bicycle World] and leave it for anybody who wants to see it.  You sort of have to see it in person to get the full impact.  I am lucky to have lived through the collsion.  Again, I cant tell you enough, thank you for all of your support of both me and my family during my recuperation.  Rehab is going well, and I'm taking a few tentative steps with a cane now.  My love to all of you. Dave
April 16, 2007 "I am home from the hospital!  I was released from Pitt Memorial on March 28th. Returning home has proven to be quite an emotional roller coaster.  It is great to be back with family and friends again.  But I was not prepared for the many obstacles that would face me.  Since the doctors brought me back to reality in mid-January, one of my greatest wishes was to return home; to get back into familiar territory.  For some reason, I was thinking that when I got home, everything would be “normal” again.  Perhaps I thought I would be back where I was on December 13th, the day before my accident.  Looking back, I realize how crazy it was to feel that way, but the mind plays funny tricks on us. I am still confined to a wheelchair for the foreseeable future, still having to depend on my Dad and Kay to help me with most of life’s mundane tasks.  As my daughter Becky has said, there will need to be a new definition of “normal” in my life.  I’m doing my best to deal with these issues. Emotional issues aside, my recovery continues to move forward, though not as quickly as I would like.  Kay keeps telling me to take one day at a time, and she is right.  My biggest physical obstacles are my left arm and right leg.  I'm attending physical and occupational therapy three times a week, and the long term prognosis is that I'll eventually recover partial use of the limbs. The cast is due to come off my leg on about May 1st, and that will be followed by nerve testing to ascertain the extent of nerve damage.  I am still determined to climb back on a bicycle and motorcycle. I have decided to keep the website up and running for a few more months, though the updates will be less frequent.  But as things change and progress, I’ll ask Nick to update. I want to give my heartfelt thanks to all of my family and friends for your unwavering prayers and support during my recovery.  Since the day of my accident, through the first few weeks in which the doctors thought I might die, and followed by the many, many weeks of recovery and rehab, you have all been there for me.  You will never know how much you lifted me and helped to keep me alive, and I can never repay that debt to you.  And to my beautiful wife, what can I say, except I love you so much.  You showed such strength during this crisis, and you continue to struggle today to help me through my recovery.  It can’t be easy for you, having to wait on me constantly to do the things I can’t do myself.  And to my beautiful children, who stood by your Mom’s side throughout the ordeal.  There is no stronger bond than that of family.  You have all proved it. Lastly, let me give thanks to God, who had control of the situation from the very beginning.  Don’t ever doubt the power of prayer.  You, my family and friends, have proved that prayers can be answered.  And please continue to keep me in your prayers as I go through therapy."
	January 27, 2007 "Dear Friends and Family, Nick is typing this for me at the hospital because I'm still one-handed.  I want to thank all of you for your prayers and your thoughts.  I'm slowly recovering with a tiny bit of movement in my broken arm and broken leg.  Please continue to pray for me because the doctors still don't know the extent of damage.  I hope to be back on my feet soon, and back on the bicycle, and I know with your prayers that this will be possible.  Again, thanks to all of you and please continue to pray for me. Love, Dave"
As you may have heard, Dave Galloway was hit head-on by a car that crossed the center line on his lunchtime bicycle ride out of Snow hill on Thursday, December 14.  He was air-lifted to the ICU at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, NC.  The driver was at-fault, but to our knowledge has only been cited for crossing the center line. From now on, this website will be the ultimate source for all things Dave.  We've been sending out emails, but the list has grown so large that we now have to send the email out several different times to different groups.  Please click on the updates link on the left side for the most up-to-date information on our fellow hero, provided by his family and fellow Seyboros... Please check this website each day if you'd like to see the latest about Dave's recovery.  We will continue to send out occassional emails to keep the chain going (and growing).  Through the emails we have been able to reach thousands of people from many walks of life.  People all over the world are praying for him, and we want this to continue to blossom.  We still need a lot of prayer for our fallen hero - for his stabilization, his recovery, his rehabilitation, and certainly for his family as they all go through this with him. Thanks for all of your heartfelt concern and prayers, The Galloway Family   Email the webmaster!