Poor old Joe Skipper out of IM Florida

Gotta feel for the guy…
https://youtu.be/qK6JZFbJ-hU?si=yfS_w4Qipr43w-ax
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Yeah, just watching the video.

What a crazy turn of events.

1.) Damn, he can’t find luck.
2.) I’ve never found anyone else who more accurately describes the speech recall issue that I have post-TBI. Where you just suddenly stop and can’t find the next word and it’s a God damned mess.

Fingers crossed the rest of Joe’s tests come back clean.

1.) Damn, he can’t find luck.
2.) I’ve never found anyone else who more accurately describes the speech recall issue that I have post-TBI. Where you just suddenly stop and can’t find the next word and it’s a God damned mess.

Fingers crossed the rest of Joe’s tests come back clean.
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October last year, I woke up in hospital one morning not knowing how I got there. I was apparently King Hit walking to my hotel after leaving a farewell party for a couple of workmates and when I regained consciousness in Emergency the following day could not speak properly. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the words out and it was hours before I was able to talk properly. Still don’t know what happened to me that night and it only added to the damage that multiple concussions over the years have left.

Just as well it happened before he got on the plane. Poor bugger.

It is downright fucking terrifying when you are trapped in your head, desperately wanting to speak…and you can’t.

I can deal with the vestibular function stuff. I’ve got prescription glasses that help with the vision. But when I stop mid-sentence, it’s panic inducing.

I’ve gotten really good at hiding it in most scenarios. Most people have no idea.

But I do. And that makes all the difference.

It is downright fucking terrifying when you are trapped in your head, desperately wanting to speak…and you can’t.

I can deal with the vestibular function stuff. I’ve got prescription glasses that help with the vision. But when I stop mid-sentence, it’s panic inducing.

I’ve gotten really good at hiding it in most scenarios. Most people have no idea.

But I do. And that makes all the difference.
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Yep scary stuff.

So many scary side affects with brain injuries or conditions. Just have to keep fighting the good fight and keep the confusion under control. Just hope for Joe that it is something he can confirm and deal with successfully.

All the best to you.

TLDR version of the video?

And to you!

Always a DM/email away if you ever need to chat.

TLDR version of the video?

IG post has pretty much all of it

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzFILByollD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
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Really disappointed for him. But he’s got his head in the right place though, which must be tough this sub after bad news. I’m really rooting for him to do well in the IM Pro series. And I hope he’s back to 100% health soon.

Man what a lousy season for Joe. Hope all his tests come back clean and he can get back to training.

Guy made a serious smart choice for his future. 2024 will be a huge year for Joe

Crazy how many people I know and “know” deal with this stuff. Unfortunately, medical science understands so little about the brain there is only so much they can do.

Hope you, Joe, rheisler and everyone dealing with stuff manages well.

Crazy how many people I know and “know” deal with this stuff. Unfortunately, medical science understands so little about the brain there is only so much they can do.

Hope you, Joe, rheisler and everyone dealing with stuff manages well.
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Thank you.

What a scary situation, feel for Joe & hope he gets answers & gets back to training safely. It’s so relatable to hear him say that he just wanted to go out for the ride & it sounds like that came pretty close to happening. Who knows where things are at then. Glad he didn’t ride & got the initial tests done. Glad he’s not racing Florida or something after that. It sucks but it’s right to take it easy & figure out what’s going on. He’ll be back.

Makes me wonder about the few stories of Joe missing turns, biking too long in the national time trial, etc. I wonder if those things are related to his brain checking out for a bit and he hadn’t made that connection.

I hope he gets some good testing to find out what it is. Google always says it’s a brain tumor I think…

What a scary situation, feel for Joe & hope he gets answers & gets back to training safely. It’s so relatable to hear him say that he just wanted to go out for the ride & it sounds like that came pretty close to happening. Who knows where things are at then. **Glad he didn’t ride & got the initial tests done. **Glad he’s not racing Florida or something after that. It sucks but it’s right to take it easy & figure out what’s going on. He’ll be back.

yeah, god! listening to his story i thought, “classic triathlete! slow down and take the day off, mate!” glad that it ended relatively well as these things go, and not blanking out and crashing his bike or something.

the epidemiologist in me thinks it might, sadly, be some sort of cerebral infarction. but i also wonder about the long tail of covid. not sure if skipper ever had it, but all the talk of neuro complications has me curious about whether these sort of ‘transitory/vague neuro events’ will be getting more common in the future.

A bit off topic, and hopefully not illegal to post this here, but if you have a TBI, or know someone suffering from one, perhaps you would consider supporting the Small Monsters Project https://www.thesmallmonstersproject.com/. Ben Frederick talks openly and honestly about this TBI and the impact it had on his life and career, and started the project to try to help other folks impacted.

Ryan, maybe I’ll see you at Treehouse CX in Deerfield this weekend? Ben is racing there.

–Meg

What a scary situation, feel for Joe & hope he gets answers & gets back to training safely. It’s so relatable to hear him say that he just wanted to go out for the ride & it sounds like that came pretty close to happening. Who knows where things are at then. **Glad he didn’t ride & got the initial tests done. **Glad he’s not racing Florida or something after that. It sucks but it’s right to take it easy & figure out what’s going on. He’ll be back.

yeah, god! listening to his story i thought, “classic triathlete! slow down and take the day off, mate!” glad that it ended relatively well as these things go, and not blanking out and crashing his bike or something.

the epidemiologist in me thinks it might, sadly, be some sort of cerebral infarction. but i also wonder about the long tail of covid. not sure if skipper ever had it, but all the talk of neuro complications has me curious about whether these sort of ‘transitory/vague neuro events’ will be getting more common in the future.

He did get COVID right before the St. George IMWC if I remember correctly. I was trying to recall if he had crashed or something recently that could have caused a TBI, but couldn’t think of anything. COVID being a root cause seems scarier.

What a scary situation, feel for Joe & hope he gets answers & gets back to training safely. It’s so relatable to hear him say that he just wanted to go out for the ride & it sounds like that came pretty close to happening. Who knows where things are at then. **Glad he didn’t ride & got the initial tests done. **Glad he’s not racing Florida or something after that. It sucks but it’s right to take it easy & figure out what’s going on. He’ll be back.

yeah, god! listening to his story i thought, “classic triathlete! slow down and take the day off, mate!” glad that it ended relatively well as these things go, and not blanking out and crashing his bike or something.

the epidemiologist in me thinks it might, sadly, be some sort of cerebral infarction. but i also wonder about the long tail of covid. not sure if skipper ever had it, but all the talk of neuro complications has me curious about whether these sort of ‘transitory/vague neuro events’ will be getting more common in the future.

It sounds to me like he might have had a petit mal seizure.