Christmas Present

After harassment ranging from mild to severe from each of my two remaining readers, I'm finally posting!  This is your belated Christmas present.  Enjoy.

I made it through the holidays in one piece.  My last post was before Thanksgiving, and for that holiday I made a successful trip up to my sister's house in Danville.  My brother flew in and drove me up.  The whole family was there, and the change of scenery was nice.  I'm still happy that I can actually get my wheelchair into that house, (even into the bathrooms!).  I also got to see my niece and nephew.  I got to see them at the fair in October, but kids are always nervous in an unfamiliar setting, even if it's the fair.  They were much more themselves at home.

I also got to make balloon animals for the kids.  Jessica gave me a balloon sculpture starter kit years ago to help me bond with the kids, and this was my first opportunity to show them what I've learned.  As I told them, I know how to make over 200 animals that all look like dogs.

I can also make this hat.

Right after Thanksgiving comes Christmas, and my parents and brother came down to stay with me for a few days just like last year.  We all had I nice time, and there weren't any murders or even attempted murders, so that was very nice.  We also had crab cakes from Timbuktu.  If you have never had a REAL Maryland crab cake, from Maryland, then you don't understand why these are worth the money to have them shipped.

I got my usual complement of Christmas cards from all my friends.

Except a few - you know who you are

Everybody who has kids sends the picture cards so you can see what everybody looks like this year.  Last year I kept all the cards up all year because I like having the pictures of my friends around.  I think it might be weird to send a card like that if you're just a single guy in his 30's.  I don't know; you tell me.  I think if I sent one this year, I would have used this picture.

Pucker up

I got to go to a New Years Eve party at Cullen and Caitlin's house.  That was fun.  I even drove myself home afterward.  I have also taken a few more grocery trips with my neighbor, so the driving has gone relatively well.

I barely need to go to the grocery store though.  Brian and Kelly have been supplying me with more food than I can safely eat.  Here's a couple pictures of the last few food deliveries.  My biggest problems are trying to get through it all before it goes bad, and having to turn down invitations to go out because I have too much food at home.

They brought everything with a red lid

I am so lucky

Nothing much else has been going on.  Things have basically stabilized around here.  My back was feeling pretty good over the holidays, but the last week or so, it's been really uncomfortable.  I think that's just how it's going to be.

Mister Gus still stops by with Evelyn, maybe once a week for lunch.  That's nice.  I still really enjoy their company.  Evelyn is growing up so fast.  She can read and write now (when she wants to), and she's even starting to gain an appreciation for sauce with some foods (or so I hear - I'll believe it when I see it).

Anyway, I hope both of my readers have found this quarterly blog update satisfactory, and that it will hold you over to the next one.  If not, you'll just have to come visit.  :)

Oh, Hello

Oh, hi.  I didn't see you there.

Come on in.  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Too long.  How've you been?  How are the kids?  Good, good.

How've I been?  Oh, you know, same old, same old.  Takin' it a day at a time.  Blah blah blah.

You don't care about details, do you?  It's all boring.  Oh, you do?  Well, if you insist, here are the highlights from the last few months.


In September, I reacquainted myself with my old friend, candy corn.   Turns out I really like candy corn.  Like really a lot.  Too much, if I'm honest.  Fun fact: Jelly Belly candy corn isn't nearly as good as Brachs.

Dangerously affordable

I went to the State Fair with Gus's family and my sister and her kids.  We ate a bunch of food, and the kids got to ride some rides.  The weather was great, and I felt pretty good, so it was a really good time.

Georgia and Evelyn were incredibly cute together

 The Martinsville guys stopped by for a visit.  We had a lot of fun, and made a lot of noise, and probably irritated my neighbors.  I had been thinking that paralysis is like a full-time job except that you don't get to go home, and you never get a vacation.  This is as close to a vacation as I ever get.

I went over to Cullen and Caitlin's house for dinner and to carve pumpkins prior to Halloween. 

Mine is the sad, mentally challenged one on the end

I took a trip with Gus out to Greensboro to buy an interesting new piece of equipment.  I wanted it because it's supposed to be good for your overall health.  It can also provide you with some useful capabilities though there are some limitations.

The other big news is that I have been experimenting with driving the van with mixed results.  The actual driving isn't difficult since I installed a chest strap so I can't fall out of the seat.  I've taken a couple solo trips without a chaperone, and they went about as well as could reasonably be expected except that I've discovered that sitting in the driver seat messes up my back really badly.  On one 5 minute trip, it triggered my sciatica to the point that I was essentially stuck in bed for the next 2 weeks, and it took a month to get the pain back to the level it had been.

I'm continuing to play with it, but I'm reluctant to try anything longer than a 5 minute drive in case my back gives out.  I can feel the pain starting as soon as I get in the seat, but it usually takes a few minutes to become a serious problem.  I've done a couple trips with my neighbor to the grocery store.  It's a good arrangement because she can't drive due to epilepsy, and I can't reach the top shelf at the store or carry a lot of groceries back to my apartment.  I've been hoping for a long time that we could work together on this, and our two trips so far have worked out great.

So I guess I've been making very slow progress.  Pain is still the main thing holding me back, and it's still a huge problem, but at least I'm learning what to expect from it, and I've been able to do some fun things in spite of it.

Core

Here's something that happened recently.  I didn't notice it until late last week.  It's not terribly useful at the moment, but it's definitely interesting.

Voodoo

The last time I posted to this blog, I was in a LOT of pain.  My lower back hurt, and was spasming uncontrollably.  The pain in my posterior was the worst it had ever been, and it felt like someone was electrocuting my leg continually.  It was the most pain I have ever experienced, and I was not particularly happy.  I had just started seeing a new physical therapist, Jon Weinberg at Team Care, for my back pain, and I was cautiously pessimistic about whether he could do anything about the butt pain that has kept me in bed for the last year.

Skip ahead a few weeks, and I'm feeling a LOT better.

I think physical therapy is voodoo.  This is the second time that a PT has told me that a terrible pain was actually coming from a nerve problem in a completely different location.

At some point in the first year of my injury, after I began sleeping on my stomach, I began waking up with extreme pain in my elbows.  It was bad enough that I could barely use my arms to sit up in the morning.  I tried everything I could think of to take pressure off my elbows while I was sleeping, but nothing seemed to work.  When I finally told a PT about it, she said, "Oh yeah, there's a nerve in your armpit that is causing that.  Find a sleeping position that takes strain off your shoulder, and it should clear right up."  She was dead right.  My shoulder and armpit weren't bothering me at all, but that was the source of the problem, and once I took pressure off it, my elbow pain went away as if by magic.

For a year, my butt has been getting worse and worse, and nothing I did seemed to make it better.  Jon comes along and tells me I need to stretch my back to make my butt better.  I told him I didn't think that would help, but that I'd try anything.  He's got me doing these twists to try to straighten out the disks between my vertebrae.  The theory is that I've got multiple bulging disks bulging in different directions, and it will require a variety of weird stretches to improve the problem.  It has already helped tremendously.

The problem I have is that with my engineering background, I tend to think in terms of problems and solutions, and I like to solve my own problems.  I've been very successful when it comes to improvising mechanical solutions to problems, but when it comes to problems with my body, I'm missing key knowledge about how things work.  If a problem isn't caused by the thing that hurts, you can work on that thing forever without making any progress.  It's that detailed knowledge of how things work that makes PTs so effective.  I guess I can't solve ALL of my problems myself.

I'm certainly not pain free, and I have to take frequent breaks to get in bed and do my stretches or else the pain comes back, but the progress I've made in the last couple weeks is nothing short of amazing.  I'm feeling better than I have in over a year, and I'm  able to spend a lot more time up in my chair.  I'm already thinking in terms of doing more stuff, although I don't want to get ahead of myself.  I need to get the pain control a little more consistent than it is right now before I try to go too far from home.  It still fluctuates quite a bit from day to day.

It doesn't help that I need assistance to really do this stretch properly.  Gus helped me rig a strap around my bed to help me do it myself as best I can, but I don't think it's as effective as getting someone to help me do it.  Ideally, I'm supposed to do it every two hours, so if you want to stop by and give me a hand, here's the procedure.

I don't know where we go from here, but the fact that there has been any improvement is both unexpected, and very exciting.

Food Fairy

Two posts in two days?!?!?  I KNOW!!!

Brian and Kelly, dropped off more food this morning.  They have given me a ton of food the last couple weeks, and  I can't even express how much I have appreciated having it when the pain has been so bad.  It has been so great not to have to prepare anything when I get up, and to be able to get back in bed as quickly as possible.  It doesn't hurt that it's all amazing.

2 weeks ago: ravioli, chicken, roasted veggies, meatballs with glazed pineapples and onions

Today: Italian pasta salad, chicken and crispy onion sliders with chipotle honey, ginger sesame chicken salad, honey mustard pretzel chicken, broccoli pasta salad, jalapeno corn slaw

Between this and a couple Taco Bell runs, I have been well fed for the last couple weeks, and will have a hard time getting through this before my mom arrives in a week.

Dinner tonight including cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, gnocchi, pistachios, probably some other stuff.  Delicious!

I can't believe I have friends who do this for me.  I'm still the luckiest cripple I know.

Physical Therapy

It's not one of the things I promised to write about, but I thought I should throw a quick update.  I went to see a physical therapist on Thursday, and he was able to help with the back pain a little.  He also thinks he might be able to help with the butt pain.  That was an unexpected development.  I'm not convinced he's right, but it would be irresponsible not to pursue this line of inquiry until I'm 100% sure he's wrong.  I really hope he's right.  You could say I'm cautiously pessimistic.  He thinks it's related to sciatica and caused by the same lower back problem I went to see him about.  We'll see I guess.

Tobi has agreed to take me to 2 appointments this week, and my mom will be in town next week and should be able to take me to 2 more.  I probably need to go to at least 2 more appointments the following week which I know Tobi can't do, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Jimmy took me last week to get an MRI on my spine, and Tobi is also taking me next week back to talk to the doctor about the MRI.  Either this week or next, I'm going in to get my wheelchair adjusted to help with my posture.  I have a couple options for rides for that, and it just depends on when they can schedule me.

So after many months of nothing happening, there's lots of stuff going on.  Hopefully some of it helps.

If anybody wants to sign up to take me to a mid-day appointment the week of August 18th, let me know.  If they can actually make significant improvements in the next couple weeks, I might try to drive myself, but we'll just have to see how I feel.

Still Broken

July is rapidly coming to a close, and it's time for me to confirm, for the five remaining readers of this blog, that I'm still alive and kicking (so to speak).  I was sitting here thinking about all the things I have to write about from the last month and feeling a bit overwhelmed, so instead of doing one long comprehensive post about everything I've done (besides sleep), I'm going to try to ration it out in a series of shorter posts.  The way blogs are supposed to be.  The question is whether the pain will allow me to do that.  We'll see.

The last couple weeks, I've been spending a little more time up in my chair.  Not much, but a little.  I've been trying to tell myself that my butt has been feeling a little bit better.  That may or may not actually be true.  It's possible I'm just telling myself that to have an excuse to get out of bed.  I can only take so much lying down.

So while I was sitting up a couple weeks ago, I started to notice a stabbing pain in my lower back, well below my line of injury.  It felt like somebody was stabbing me directly in the spine with an ice pick, and it forced me back into bed.  The pain went away after a couple days, but it came back a week later.  Again, it lasted about 2 days, but this time it returned sooner.  Now it's almost every day.

My butt has been bothering me a lot less since it started, but I think that's just because whatever hurts the most is the only thing I can feel at any given time, and the back problem hurts a LOT.  It was suggested that it might be a herniated disk, and that sounds plausible to me.

Tobi took me to the doctor, and Gus took me for x-rays.  This week, I'm going for some PT, and to get an MRI.  Finding rides to doctor appointments is still one of my most difficult problems, but I'm very fortunate that Tobi is out of school the the next few weeks, and can drive me around to all of these.  Hopefully one of them helps.

I'm still trying to spend time out of bed every day, but it's hard.  I've been icing my back every day, and taking pain meds.  They do help, once again, lying in bed is the only real relief I get, so I need to find a more permanent solution to this problem.  A lot of times, like right now, the pain is relatively little as long as I don't move, but all the spine movement associated with pushing the wheelchair around is very problematic.  It's challenging just to move around my apartment; going outside to check the mail seems unrealistic.

So that's what's wrong with me THIS month, and is probably the most important update, but it's not the only thing going on in my life.  Now that we've gotten the negative stuff out of the way, hopefully I'll be able to write about the better stuff in the near future.  Stay tuned.