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.