You Get What You Get

I guess it's time to update my blog so here goes.

Overall I'm doing pretty well.  I think my flexibility has pretty much stabilized.  It's okay I guess, but not where I'd really like it to be.  I have an appointment with Dr. Dahners this week, and I rather expect it to result in more surgery to free up my right hip a little more.  I really don't like the idea of more surgery, but if there's something in there he can remove that will make me more flexible, I think it's important we get it out.

In the last couple weeks, I have been experimenting with sleeping on my stomach.  It's a real pain to get rolled over and comfortable, but it really helps to rest my butt and lets me sit up in the wheelchair comfortably for longer during the day.  Pain in my butt from sitting up continues to be a substantial problem for me, but this definitely helps.  I do worry about my arms falling asleep while sleeping on my stomach.  That is something that has happened to me in the past (pre-injury) where I would wake up with no feeling in either arm.  In the past, I could use my legs to roll around and restore circulation, but if it happened now, I'm pretty sure I'd be stuck there until someone eventually broke into my apartment and found me?  I'm going to try to avoid finding out.

Lately a couple things have happened to me that were pretty disappointing.  My van died several weeks ago (2 or 3), and is still in the shop.  My mechanic has had a hard time finding the problem.  He thinks it is an electrical short somewhere, and those can be murder to track down.  So for several weeks I have been denied the use of my van.  Fortunately, I have had the use of my friend Cullen's old '97 Camry.  I have enough flexibility now to transfer into the passenger seat but my transfers are not elegant or confident so every trip takes a lot of time loading and unloading.

Further complicating my transportation situation, Gus has been busy with family obligations for the last 2 weeks, and will be most of the next week at least.  I've been extremely lucky to have his nearly constant assistance for the last year, but I've come to rely on him heavily.  In his absence, it has been a lot more stressful trying to get to appointments and the grocery store, however when dealing with disappointment I remember some advice I got from Evelyn.

Feel free to use that.  I think it's brilliant. 

Fortunately, my friend Tobi has been taking up a lot of the slack while Gus is gone.  She has taken me to several appointments already and is signed up for 2 more this week.  I'm very grateful to her and her family for making that happen.

I've been seeing a therapist to help me with the tendonitis in my thumb and wrist.  So far it doesn't seem to be helping, and I think it's actually getting worse.  That's just another fun thing I get to deal with.  It's still a serious problem for me, and I don't know what's going to happen with that, but as Evelyn says, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

Anyway, in more positive news, I have had some fun the last couple weeks.  I got to have some meals with some people, and yesterday, I went to see a movie with Cullen and Mike and Sue.  It was an older theater, and the wheelchair seating was in the very front and would have been very uncomfortable.  We decided it would be better to sit up in the seats so Cullen and Mike relocated me.

Flattering

It's good to have friends.

My Art

When I first moved into my apartment, my sister bought me some supplies and an instructional video so I could learn how to make balloon art.  She thought it would be something fun I could do to entertain kids.  I thought it was a nice idea, but that I'd probably never do it.

Then this week, I got bored.

My Art

So now I know how to make your basic animals.  Dogs of several types, giraffes, swords in 2 varieties, love birds kissing inside a heart, and a teddy bear holding a tulip.  I'm particularly proud of the kissing birds inside the heart.

These are some other things that I think I can make, but I haven't really practiced.  A pig, a T-Rex, a bunny, a couple types of hats.  I can also make a big flower and a tiny mouse.

I enjoy making the sculptures more than I thought I would, and kids seem to like them.  Evelyn asks for one pretty much every day now.

It wasn't really that hard to learn.  There's really only 3 or 4 basic structures.  There are more complicated sculptures than the ones I know, but even those are really just elaborate combinations the few basic steps.  The hardest thing about it is figuring out how much of the balloon to leave uninflated.  Every time you do a twist, it pushes the air down, so the more twists you want to put in a balloon, the less air you can put in it.  If you put too much, it will pop, and not enough will leave a tail at the end.  I've discovered that some small children really don't like it when you pop a balloon loudly.

So that's what I've been doing with my time this week.  I guess now I'm available for parties.

Exciting News!

If you know me well, then you know how exciting the following news is to me.  There is a new building going up right across Davis Drive from my apartment with the following sign out front.

Yo Quiero Taco Bell

So excited.

Look What I Did

Today I figured out how to do something I haven't been able to do for a year.

The Big Update

I think the better I feel, the less I feel like posting on this blog.  Therefore, you could take my long absence to mean that I'm doing pretty good.  In fact, I think I AM doing pretty well.  I'm getting out more, and I'm in less pain than I had been.  I still have plenty of issues to work on, but overall, I'm feeling pretty good.

Now, I think it's fair to tell you some of the stuff I've been up to.

Shortly after Emily went home, Mike and Sue invited me to go to a Railhawks soccer game with them.  We were playing the LA Galaxy (who did not bring their best players), but nonetheless, the Railhawks won in exciting fashion, and I had a very enjoyable evening out.

Me and Sue and Mike

I have continued to experiment with transferring into cars.  I have learned more about the challenges that will be be involved in driving a car.  Here's a list.

• When I transfer into or out of a car seat, often my pants fall down.  This is especially true if the car seat is cloth.  Since I cannot pull my pants up myself, this is a problem.
• Dis-assembly of the wheelchair once in the car does a fair amount of damage to the chair.  I'm not sure what to do about this yet.
• My wheelchair is pretty large, and very difficult to pass into the car once disassembled.  Especially while learning, I anticipate doing a lot of damage to whatever car I'm using.
• I do not have the flexibility to transfer in to any car.  Gus's 2000 Honda Civic, for instance, has a seat height that is too low, and a door opening that is too small for me to transfer in or out.
• There isn't a lot of room in a modern automobile to put your legs if you don't plan to use the pedals.
• If my legs have a spasm while driving, I could kick the pedals, or worse, get a foot stuck under the brake pedal.  I could use my hands to move my foot to a safe location except that both hands are in constant use when driving with hand controls.

Given these facts, my tentative plan is to get an inexpensive car that I can damage without consequence.  Cullen is selling his old 97 Camry, and if the price is right, this may be a good choice for a temporary car while I learn to drive.  I know I can get in and out, but I will have to get some leather seat covers, and devise a plan to restrain my feet in the event of spasms.  It will also be good to have an inexpensive car while learning to use hand controls in case I drive into something.

Last weekend, my brother came for a visit.  On Friday, we took a road trip up to my sister's house in Virginia where I got to see my niece and nephew for the first time in quite a while.  I was worried they wouldn't remember me, but they did.  I really enjoyed seeing the kids, and they seemed to enjoy showing off their couch gymnastics.

We stayed the night, and then on Saturday, we went to the track where Cullen was doing his first motorcycle race.  No matter how many track days you do, your first race is always exciting, and I wanted to be there to see it.  It was my first time being at a track since my accident, and it felt good to be back.  I was also happy because a lot of my friends were there.  Cullen obviously, and his wife Caitlin, my brother Jonathan, my brother-in-law Jon, Gus, and my friend Bert.  Bert took a bunch of pictures, and here are some of them.

It was the longest I have been outdoors since the accident, so it was fortunate that the weather was great.  It was fun to be outside, but it was very revealing about what it's really like to operate a wheelchair in the real world.  I was able to watch the races, but only from one spot on the track.  The rest of the viewing areas would have required me to negotiate rough terrain which simply isn't worth the effort.  It's highly doubtful I could do it myself, and even with help it would be a pretty big challenge.

At one point, I needed to urinate, and therefore needed to use the one handicap accessible stall in the bathroom.  Of course, somebody (not handicapped) was taking a dump, so I had to wait 10 minutes to take a leak in an otherwise empty bathroom.  I can't really criticize as I've enjoyed the luxury of the handicap stall, but this is how I expect things to be from now on.  Extreme inconvenience all the time.

Jonathan and I came directly home from the track after the races.  In the morning, Jonathan had put some compression socks on me so I could use shoes at the track instead of the ridiculous boot things I have been wearing.  When we got home, Jonathan removed the socks to discover that the toenail that was damaged in the crash a year ago had been torn off, probably when the socks were put on that morning.  Jonathan described it as looking like a movie effect designed for maximum shock value.

We didn't know what to do about it, but it seemed like we should do SOMETHING, and it was Jonathan's idea to call Bert's wife Ashley (a doctor) for advice.  Without seeing it, she said we could trim, clean, disinfect, and bandage it until we could get it dealt with by a professional on Monday.  So we spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to do that.  It didn't help that we were both pretty freaked out by the sheer goriness of the situation.  I was grateful I couldn't feel it, but my foot spasms indicated that it probably would have hurt pretty bad.

If your curiosity is greater than your fear of disgusting wounds, you may want to look at these pictures we took.  You can also relive a lot of the experience we had trying to squeamishly decide what to do about it in these videos.

Video1
Video2
Video3

What we ended up doing was soaking it in soapy water, putting some iodine on it, and bandaging it up with the nail intact.  Then we left it that way until Monday when I got an appointment with a podiatrist who pulled it off like it wasn't a big deal.

The other worrisome problem I'm dealing with is a weird problem with my right thumb.  For the last two weeks, I've had a problem where I get this intense pain in my wrist when I move my thumb certain ways.  The weird thing about it is that it seems to be aggravated when I DON'T move the thumb for a while.  It is worst when I first wake up in the morning, but any time I don't move my hand for any length of time, when I go to move again, it starts to pop.  It feels like a muscle attached to my thumb catches on something in my wrist and twangs like a guitar string as it moves back and forth over the obstruction, but then gets better as it moves.  It seems like a weird problem, but it's at least a little bit sore all the time now.  Since I have to use that hand for literally everything now, I'm worried it could become a very serious problem.  I've been waiting to see if it got better on its own, but I have an appointment with the rehab doctor on Monday, and I'll bring it up.  Maybe she'll send me to a hand specialist.  Stay tuned.

Emily's Visit

Emily left Sunday afternoon after staying 5 days.  This was the first time she had been here when I was feeling good enough to go out and do stuff, and as predicted, I had a really good time.  Here's what we did.

Emily arrived Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday, Emily drove me to UNC to see Dr. Dahners and get my staples removed.  We also picked up some x-rays and visited Raheleh up in rehab.  I haven't been up to rehab in a long time, and it was nice to go say hi.

Here's one of the x-rays of my hips after the first surgery, but before the second surgery.  You can compare the amount of bone in the left side to the right side to get an idea of what they removed.  It's a lot.

A lot of bone

We went to the lunch buffet at Tower Indian near my house.  We agreed it was some of the best Indian food we have had.  It's nice to discover good restaurants close by that you didn't know about.

We also discovered La Rancherita.  It's a Mexican place near my apartment that has unusually good food.  I got the Burrito Ranchero with chicken and chorizo.  It was covered in avacado slices and some spicy and savory sauces that were delicious.  Emily got chicken flautas that also had some very unique sauces.  It was definitely way better than average Mexican food.

We also tried the sushi at Neo Asia.  It was delicious, but I had never been there, and I'm really excited to go back and try some of their other menu items.  We saw them bring one lady a pile of fried rice the size of half a football.

Sushi!

Saturday morning, we went to the Raleigh Flea Market where we spent half the day.  We had some delicious hot dogs, and I got to see Julie, and talk to her friend Jen, whose son recently had a spinal cord injury.  They live nearby, so I may see more of them in the future.


Of course Emily had never been to Tribeca, so we had to go there for a burger.  We were there with her friend, Sarah, and I got to try 3 different burgers.

Sunday morning, Emily took me to Carmax to look at cars and see if there were any that seemed easier or harder to get into.  I didn't actually transfer into any of them, but I was able to identify a few that seemed a little better than the others.


I finally got to watch Bellflower, which is a movie I have been saving a long time to watch with Emily.  It was okay, but I'm glad I finally saw it.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things that we did, but we did a lot.  Mostly, we ate really really well, and discovered some really good restaurants that are very close by.  I'm looking forward to going back to them although for the time being, I really need to take a break from food.  I've been eating way too much for my mostly sedentary lifestyle.  I need to dial it back a couple notches and maybe have a salad or two.  Prepare for Emily's next visit.

So far this week, I have mostly been trying to recover from last week.  By the time Emily left, I was exhausted.  That's the most time I've spent up and in the wheelchair since I got out of rehab.  It was fun, but now I need to recover.  I could write more, but on that note, I'm going to bed.  I'll try to write again later this week.

Busy

First off, my recovery from surgery is going about as well as could be expected.  My left hip feels great, and I'm pretty happy with the range of motion.  I get the staples out tomorrow.

25 Staples

The right hip still hurts more than I want it to, but it's back to the level it was before surgery.

I'm very grateful to my mom for her help with the first week of my recovery.  It can be stressful having my parents around, but I really don't know how I could have gotten through that first week without her.  I was pretty broken.

It was nice while she was here because Gus's parents have been in town to help Gus build a new deck, so I got to introduce Gus's parents to my mom.  They got along quite famously.  We had several meals together including one at Gus's house where his mom made Runzas.  They're like German HotPockets.  You dip them in mustard.  Very delicious.

Gus's awesome new deck

The last week or so, I've been feeling really good.  I can actually lean forward in the wheelchair slightly.  Not as much as I think I need to, but it's enough that I can do some important things that I haven't been able to do.  Like spit in the sink when brushing my teeth.  I think I can now retire my spit cup.

I think I also might be able to get into a regular car now.  I haven't tried it yet, but I'm optimistic.  That means I might be able to drive soon.  I'm not going to rush it, but that would be pretty awesome.

I don't know how it's possible, but I have felt very busy since my mom left.  I've had several visitors.  Ben came for dinner and to watch Star Trek, Amy brought me delicious food, Cullen came by for dinner and a movie, I took a trip up to see Titus and Brittany and tour Titus's new shop, and yesterday my friend Adam stopped by with his new wife, Caroline, while on their honeymoon.  It's been a whirlwind of visitors reminiscent of when I was in rehab.

Tonight, my friend Emily is arriving for a 5-day stay, so the fun continues.  I'm really looking forward to it because I'm feeling good enough to get out and do some stuff, and I'll have Emily around to make it happen.  Should be fun.