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Craig Vetter injured

Posted by his friend Buzz:




Buzz Kanter
Yesterday at 05:49 ·
Craig Vetter report from Carol Vetter:
"More wonderful changes at Rancho Vetter... Mr Craig seems to have stopped taking naps during the day... is exercising regularly and is quite interested in the computer. We are almost done with most of his meds and I am taking him off the ones that help him sleep. I don't think he will have any trouble sleeping without them. I also see that another one of his meds can cause dizziness. He is dizzy every time he gets up. So I am cutting that one in half and will stop it soon too... Craig does not react well to drugs and I think he is on the mend at an amazing speed. I suspect some of those drugs are holding him back...
He had a great idea today. He suggested that we take a drive every day or evening. Just a drive... maybe to go say hello to friends or just to get out together. We went out tonight after dark and drove through downtown Carmel which always looks like Christmas to me at night. It was really fun. So watch out all you locals, you never know who might knock on your door some night soon. It won't be late though... Craig falls asleep at 8 and I am fading fast at 10.
Today we Skyped with our friends John and Sonia in the UK. They were so patient on the other end watching me test various headsets and ear buds to find something that would allow Craig to hear them. It was a wonderful time as these 2 are very special friends.... like family... actually... closer to us than family. Sonia came over and helped me nurse Craig back to health when he had his hip replacement 2 years ago. Today they offered to fly over to take care of us. It makes me cry just thinking about it. Who does stuff like that??? What do the kids call that? BFF? Craig said, "Tell them YES" I don't know.. that is an awful lot to ask... I visualize John taking care of Craig and me and Sonia headed off for a couple of days at the spa... What do you say Sonia?
Later this afternoon our friend Ed came for a visit. Ed had a stroke and knows what Craig is going through. Craig loved having him here. They walked down to the shop and back up chatting the whole way. I think Craig even let do some talking. God bless you Ed.
Off to bed to try and get a couple of chapters of Dr Caroline Leaf's book Switch on Your Brain read before I pass out...
Soli Deo Gloria."
 
I saw this posted by Duane Ausherman on the /2 Yahoo page:

I spoke with son Zak a few days ago. Craig shows slight improvement day to day. Nothing is getting worse. He is still very needy and requires nearly full time attention. I spoke with him last week and he was totally coherent with me, but I am a very old friend, so it is easy for him.
 
I hadn't heard much about Craig, but noticed that Duane went to visit Craig and family over the weekend. Here's a bit of what he posted on the /2 forum:

If the conversation is of past interests, Craig can do fairly well. More recent and especially events after his accident, he either can’t remember, or it might make little sense. He isn’t able to follow or conduct a logical argument. No matter what is going on, he has a need to be the center of attention, but he was always that way. He can report something as fact when it is only in his head and has no basis at all. He totally knows that he has wrong stuff going on in his head and that really bothers him. It would bother any of us. It is so sad to see such a creative mind covered up by a brain injury.

Physically, he is getting around a bit better. He still walks with a cane and likes to have a shoulder or elbow to hold when going up or down steps, even two steps. He claims that he hasn’t fallen in months, but I didn’t confirm that with Zak.

His vision has been quite good ever since they did his eye surgery. His hearing is still very poor and he relies on his hearing aids. In a noisy room, he really has trouble. In a quiet space and being able to do a bit of lip reading, he does fairly well.

With technology, he is lost. He really can’t properly operate his laptop, or his cell phone. He spends a lot of time “writing his book” but is actually doing nothing productive. It keeps him happy and that is good enough.

It is now 2 years since his accident and each at each of my visits he is a bit better. I can’t see that he will ever fully recover, but hope that I am wrong.
 
Thanks for this Kurt..........LOTS of us that have injuries here lately truly understand what Mr. Vetter is going through. It is not only a slow and painful process to heal; but most often an impossible one. The healing often changes the course of one's life and am glad that he has found a way to bring a smile to his soul. Often, that makes the difference between a poor and happy life, meager as it is..........God bless Craig Vetter
 
Here's another update from Duane Ausherman.

Many of you remember Craig Vetter from his Windjammer days. You may also know that he suffered a TBI (traumatic brain injury) 2 1/2 years ago. Less than a mile from his house, a buck deer jumped out and into the side of his heavily faired motor scooter.

His life was in limbo for quite a long time. He has been recovering at home for the past 2 years. The general rule is that 95% of the recovery is in the first year. At year one he still wasn’t doing well at all. It didn’t look good. He couldn’t walk, hear or see well. He had eye surgery and now his eyes line up to focus far better. Recently he thought that maybe his hearing was improving. He just got tested and his hearing is improving, but he still needs to use hearing aids.

I probably visit the Vetter ranch almost once a month. Every single time I can see some improvement. He has enjoyed talking about things with me. I always try to get him into conversation so that Carol, his wife, gets some relief. This time was no different. He could sound OK for awhile and then he would say something that was generated by his brain injury. All at once it just wouldn’t make any sense.

During this visit, not once did he utter any nonsense. He sounded like the old Craig Vetter the entire visit. He is far better on his feet and his balance still isn’t perfect, but better. I didn’t see him use his cane, or walker once. One time he wanted the Kleenex box. Normally one of us would get it for him because he asked us. He didn’t ask, so this time I decided to let him do it. He got up easily and made his way around, got the box and sat down again. It was done so well that other than doing it carefully, one wouldn’t see that something was wrong.

He still is very needy in some respects, but can adjust to family needs and changing events far more easily.

I have sent out reports before, but this one is a report of far more recovery. I doubt that all issues will go away, but his quality of life is improved, as is the family’s.

Feel free to make comments or ask questions. I will selectively copy and paste them for an email to Craig. He likes and needs to know that he is remembered.

Thanks for reading this. Feel free to pass it on to other motorcycle forums.

Sincerely, Duane Ausherman
 
SO VERY PROUD of the way that MR. Vetter is progressing. OH MY so much progress. Am wondering what is the next design project that will come out of that oh so productive mind. OH how far outreaching for motorcycling his mind is. Glad that God is reaching down and helping YOU Mr. Vetter.
I wish as an aside that I actually could shake your hand, look you in the eye, and you gave me the permission to address you as Craig. Out of respect, for who you are, my thoughts are in pure admiration. YOUR improvement is a way for us to all to set our sights for taking that next step..........Dennis Darrow
 
Duane updated his visit with Craig on another forum:

I once again visited the Vetter ranch for a couple of days.

Craig is still very hard of hearing and it may not improve. He can talk with a person for an hour and it may all make sense. However, if the subject goes in certain directions, it is obvious that something is amiss. His ability to employ logic is considerably impaired due to his TBI ( traumatic brain injury ) of a few years ago.

An office was made for him down in the large shop. This gets him out of Carol’s hair and gives him a “my place” which he likes a lot. He can walk back and forth to the house, but always uses a cane or his walker. He isn’t as steady as he would like, but can walk unaided to some extent. He doesn’t drive or ride a motorcycle, thank goodness. He isn’t good with tools like before. He still is able to give some good advice though.

Craig can use email fairly well and loves getting messages. He needs the activity and attention. If you have a question about a Windjammer, or any part of his life, feel free to contact him. Tell him how you met him, or wanted to meet him, or enjoyed one of his products or whatever you think might stimulate him to think and reminisce.

Go to https://w6rec.com/vetter/ to see the view if one walks out of the front door of the house only 25 feet. The huge tree in the center is beautiful. That is Zak, his oldest son and one of my two IT friends. Zak is very good with computer things and does support work for the local residents. He is in high demand, even @ $100 an hour. Zak is the main energy for fixing and building things around the ranch. He is currently working on upgrading the very inefficient water system. He has solar water heating for both the shop and house. The well water is pumped by solar energy too. With design help from friends, Zak builds all of this infrastructure for the ranch.

I use craig@craigvetter.com to email him. To offer a segway into why you are emailing him, start with referring to a report by Duane after his recent visit. He will love that people are talking about him and he isn’t totally forgotten.

It is so sad to see the damage Craig got from a deer jumping out of the ditch and into the side of his motorcycle. This happened 1/2 mile from the house and at low speed. It could have been you or me.

Feel free to post this on other blogs and forums.
 
Here's another update from Duane Ausherman:

I just spent two days at the Vetter compound, as I usually do about once a month. This visit was quite different than any other. Craig had a visitor who took up a lot of his time, so I didn’t talk with Craig a lot.

The good news is that Zak, his son, shamed him into going for a walk. He uses a walker, but is able to move right along at nearly my speed. He almost bit the dust once when he wasn’t watching where he was going and one wheel dropped into a hole. He had to rest a couple of times, but that is good because it shows that he was pushing himself. His doctor ordered him to walk daily, but he hates it and does it rarely.

One of his special employees is visiting to work on a project. His name is Henry Tate and we spent most of our time talking about our life since we last met up. We think that it was at least 20 years ago. We both have only a high school education and have learned on the job. We both have had a wide variety of jobs. Our life lessons are almost identical. Henry rode his 400 cc water cooled Suzuki from Tennessee.

Special for me is that both days for lunch we ate at an Indian buffet place in Carmel.

The temp was in the middle 60s and no smoke from the horrible fires in CA. It was nice to be able to breath and see farther than a mile or two.

Carol is in England for a month. This is her first vacation since Craig crashed almost 3 years ago. She so deserves a break. How do we nominate her for sainthood?

Craig now works daily down at the shop writing his book. He has been doing this for a couple of years and nobody has seen a single paragraph. It doesn’t matter because it makes Craig happy and that makes life easier for everyone else.

His hearing hasn’t improved. He is still unsteady on his feet. Sometimes he is able to be logical and sometimes not. He is very disappointed that he isn’t improving faster. Who among us wouldn’t be?
 
An update from Duane two days ago on another forum:

Friends, I visited the Vetter family a couple of weeks ago and Craig wasn’t doing well. He had some confusion. He could make sense for 20 minutes and then go off into confusion. It was ascribed to be a “bad time” and that he would snap out of it. Up to that visit I could always see some progress.

Last Wednesday he woke up and Zak found him nearly comatose. They took him to the hospital and after some tests found him to be badly dehydrated. He got 1 1/2 liters of saline and seemed to recover well. However, he also had a fever so they kept him.

I called, he answered and so I was able to talk with him. He didn’t know that he had the flu. His conversation would go well for awhile and then he would utter a few sentences that didn’t make sense. He might go home tomorrow.

That is about all that I know.
 
Thanks so much for the updates. I met Craig and Carol a few years ago on San Luis Obispo. Lovely folks. Carol and I talked a bit about our amusement (not quite the right word) about the oddities of the BMW F650GS. I really wish them both well.
 
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