Last year at this time the whole town came together in huge way to support our beloved mailman Steve Bimbi, who was involved in a near fatal crash in his mail truck. Steve has asked to have us post the following message of thanks and an update on his steadily improving condition:
Hi everyone,
In the past couple months I have made a couple trips up to Tower Lakes to visit a few people who have been in contact with me and to stop in the village hall to visit with Marilyn and keep her updated. I also drove through the neighborhood but didn’t see anyone outside or my favorite dogs to say hi to, which made me miss everyone even more. So with Marilyn’s help I decided to send an email.
I wanted to take a minute and give you a quick update on my accident and return to work. I was really hoping to be back and deliver this news in person, but according to my doctor I have been taking this too lightly and not understanding the magnitude of what happened. To be honest I didn’t know what some of the things were like an open fracture of the pelvis with a pelvic ring displacement. To me it was just broken bones and bones heal……..until I googled it and oh boy it scared me and made me feel blessed.
It has been a long journey so far with a little way to go and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel (hope it’s not a freight train). There have been so many milestones and accomplishments since getting out of the hospital last November in a wheelchair being non weight bearing to being partial weight bearing and taking my first steps this January, to being able to get around between the wheelchair and a walker in March, to moving to crutches in June and gaining back many freedoms and privileges like not being completely dependent on my family to get around and getting to drive again! That was a big sigh of relief for my wife and kids as they got some normalcy back in their life also. That was probably the biggest accomplishment so far just knowing that the pain and suffering for my family was moving behind us. By the end of July I was down to one crutch to get around and by the end of August I was taking short trips and moving through my house unassisted.
Which brings me to now. I am up and walking unassisted since September although with some pain and discomfort. I lack the stamina and endurance and the ability to stand or sit for any great length of time which is the reason I couldn’t return to work this year like I had hoped to. I am in therapy 3x a week still working on regaining as much strength, stamina and range of motion. Although I have lowered my expectations a little from where I was when it first happened from 95% to 85-90% due to reality, my goal is to meet or exceed that. You get what you work for right? I also have 2 more surgeries left one to fix a broken toe and one to remove the metal rod and plates out of my right femur and hip in the early part of the new year. If everything goes right and with the grace of God I hope to be back in the truck providing service, visiting with my friends and playing with the dogs sometime next spring. I really miss being out there and seeing all of you which is a huge motivation for me to make my goal and be back in the spring.
In short that is what has been going on and where I am at in the 15 months since the accident. I would like to say thank you for all the thoughts, prayers, well wishes and generosity bestowed upon my family in a time of need. I want you to know how much it has meant to my family and I and to my recovery.
THANK YOU!
Have a safe and very blessed holiday season, with much love and appreciation from my family to yours
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Peace and happiness to all.
Your friend and mailman,
Steve Bimbi
1790 Kennsington Lane
Crystal Lake, IL 60014
cell-847-826-0918
home-815-356-5443
[email protected] or [email protected]