10/27/11 6:30pm

Thank you…

Just two words, but they mean so much to me right now.

To be able to see the outpouring of support for Troy, the children, and myself has been more uplifting than you can possibly imagine. I wanted to do my best to add to this chain of love and share with you in my own imperfect words how I am feeling. Here it goes…

Troy is a fighter. All of you that know Troy will understand when I tell you he did his best, and he did it right. At first I thought we were coming here to support him. He was hurt, how bad we didn’t know, but we were gathering quickly to help him.

Today we understood why Troy was trying so hard to stay with us as long as he could. It was not because he could recover from his accident, it was because he wanted us all to be ready to support each other when he could no longer do it himself. In charge to the end, Troy decided this afternoon that we were ready.

Troy’s life was short but full. I am so thankful that he has touched so many lives, and he lives on in all of us. At first I was afraid the boys would not remember their dad as they got older, now I know Troy has taken care of that too. They will always know their dad through all of you.

Love Cindy, Tannor, Rhys, and Vaughn

10/27/11 8:00am

As expected, Wednesday was a difficult day. The highlight of the day was Tannor being able to go see Troy, and give Mom a much needed hug. Tannor was, as we would all expect, unbelievable. The staff was available to explain what was going on with Dad, and answer all of the incredibly mature questions that Tannor had. We were all overwhelmingly proud.

Because there were some late night visits from out of town friends, Cindy had a very late night. I'm praying she gets some much needed rest today...

-Lisa

No good news to report. It's been a real tough day. More details to come.

10/26/11 7:00 am "Uneventful Night"

I know everyone is waking up and wanting to know how the night went so:

Troy had a fairly uneventful night... His "ICP" levels have been hanging out in the same range through the night. There are times when we have some peaks of pressure that are managed very closely.

Cindy managed to get a couple of hours of much needed sleep!!

As the doctor has just said this morning "Troy is definitely at unacceptable levels, we don't like it. But we'll keep pushing until we can't push anymore" "we'll keep this up for awhile"

Today is expected to be a rough ride. We are praying and hoping that things will be manageable. Today is the day to bombard Troy and Cindy with prayers, vibes, whatever you've got! So I'll let you get to it.

- Lisa Z.

10/25/11 6:00pm

Boys are home with Grandpa. Neighbor Wendy helps with breakfast and getting them to school. Teachers are giving help with homework after school as needed. Other Mom's at the school are sending pics of the boys : )

Troy is ok...for now. In coma from meds since midnite. Wish it was helping him a bit more but I'll take what I have! His ICP is now 55 : (

-Cindy

10/25/11 11:00am

Latest.. His pressure has been steadily increasing, 50 last I saw. The coma is indefinite at this point. They were watching the first 8 hours to see if it would be helpful, but he will stay that way until there is some sort of outcome. No scans at this point because they don't want to increase the pressure anymore than it is.


-Lisa Z

10/25/11 8:00am

There is a pressure scale ICP (Intra Cranial Pressure) on his brain. They told us it needs to be below 20. Early am Monday till about noon he was doing pretty good. I saw it as low as 13 but he hovered in the high teens to low 20's. I have since come home and now Lisa who is up there with Cindy is relaying to me the latest info.

Troy's ICP has been up around 38 all night. (remember we need him below 20).

Because of this swelling they have started the process of medically inducing a coma.

They will keep him in that state for up to 8 hours to see if it will be helpful.

The doctors will then take another scan (the 4th??) to see how much more damage has occurred since his pressure has been up so high.

Everyones calls, texts, emails of concern, well wishes, prayers and offers of support are greatly appreciated by Cindy. But we need BOTH Troy AND Cindy to rest.

This is the best place to stay informed. Check in frequently. Updates will be made as soon as possible.

Everyone want's to help, for now it's best to just sit tight.

For now pray if that's what you do or just send positive energy by keeping Troy Cindy and their Boys in your thoughts.

Feel free to offer up your support and well wishes here. It will be noted and I'm sure Cindy will be happy to be able to read them all here in one place.

-Dave P.

10/24/11 10:30am

As you may have already heard our friend Troy Collins is severely injured.

The following post is to give you an idea of what has happened to our friend Troy.

The information stated here may not be %100 correct.
Much of it is second or third hand and all of it has not been verified.

He has suffered a Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI).

Difusal Axonal Injury (DAI): Basically, the condition is caused when the brain shakes around violently within the skull, which happens when there's very rapid acceleration and deceleration. Shaken Baby Syndrome is one example of it, and in adults, you see it a lot with victims of high speed car accidents. During that acceleration/deceleration, axons are sheared, which is permanent. Axons are the nerve cells, or pathways on which neurons travel (neurons basically send messages across our brain). When the axons are sheared, there's no way to repair those pathways/nerve cells, they are permanently broken - that means that the messages that would be sent across those nerve cells can never be received by the part of the brain that needs to receive those messages. And since this condition is diffuse, it means that those pathways are broken in multiple areas of the brain.

This is a severe injury to the brain. I was told Troy has damage to his right frontal lobe.

As far as I understood large sections of his brain are damaged beyond repair.

Troy was in an off road motor cycle accident on Sunday 10/23/11 at one of his usual race venues, Stonyford. We speculate he was in the finishing stages of an enduro ride/race (~4 hours long). It's reported that he had some how fallen off his bike but apparently was getting back on and was passed by fellow riders. Enduro riders are started in stages spacing them apart. After this it was reported that Troy may have even checked in, at a predefined checkpoint, as it is mandatory in an enduro and had said he was ok and carried on. Subsequently he was found unconscious at a point on the track that was a steep decline into an incline/jump into a left hand bank turn. We are not sure if he missed it or passed out or what??? It seems no one had seen what happened. Was this the place of his massive injury? Did he sustain the massive injury earlier? Did the effects catch up to him at this point?? We are not sure. Immediately after he was discovered unconcious Troy was heli-vac'd to Enloe Medical Center in Chico, CA. Fourtunately the helicopter was able to land in close proximity to where he was found. So luckily he did not have to endure a long haul out of the course to get to the care he needed.

Currently he is at Enloe. He is unconscious heavily sedated and on a ventilator. Ton of iv's, monitors and probes. They have him seated upright to let gravity help with the swelling. Right side of face is bruised up but it just doesn't fit the picture with the extent of his internal head injury. If you've seen Troy after a race you'd understand that it just doesn't seem right. It's normal to see him with bumps and bruises after a race. You look at him now and just expect him to open his eyes and talk. He must have taken a seriously massive header or blow to the head. Yet his helmet doesn't show the expected signs of such and event.

The first 4-7 days is the time period before any major decisions have to be made. The odd days post injury date 1 3 5 7 are supposed to be the tough ones with regards to swelling. They will want to minimize his contact and excitement.

It's really hard to see him like this and take it all in.

Cindy is with him. Family is flying in. The boys are with the neighbors, they do not know the extent of it. For now sit tight. Thoughts and prayers, keep them with him.

Feel free to post your well wishes condolences and concerns here.

Check back for any updates on Troy's status.
Updates will be posted as often as possible.

-Dave Polzer