I have no legs! I have no legs!

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^^^ As usual, you nailed it AB!

So, I'm almost a week out from the surgery....

It looks like it's gonna be a LONG rehab....

I do have gross motor control of my legs, but not much feeling, balance, or ability to walk.

The doctors and therapists here are very good and I'm getting 4 sessions of PT/OT a day...

Hopefully, whether I regain the ability to walk or not, the therapists can teach me the skills I need to get independent and GET HOME SOON!

On the plus side, I have great upper body strength, so with the right equipment I should be able to get around okay.

I called the vet where I have Muggs kenneled, and the vet tech said he was being a cranky old man...

She said he just sleeps and mopes and he won't let anybody play with or pet him.

Poor little guy, I was hoping that the kennel stay might help his social skills a bit, but I guess not.

I thought about asking a friend (this crisis has revealed that I actually do have a few ) to bring him for a visit--the rehab allows pet visits in the courtyard--but that would probably just stress him out and be too much trouble.

Hopefully, I'll be out in a couple of weeks and we can get back to "normal"....

PS

I also talked to the doc this morning about filing my living will. I have stenosis at C1 that could stop my breathing, causing me to suffocate over a period of several minutes... If that happened, I'd rather let nature take its course than be revived with brain damage...

The doc counseled me a bit and acted like he did not want to file the will. I guess I'll have to press the issue tomorrow....

if he's catholic or works for catholics, chances are he is bound by their ethic which states "suffering is good for the soul" or that life is paramount even if one must suffer for the rest of one's life. you might have to get a second doc's service on this.

Yeah... I'm not sure if he's Catholic, but he is religious... At the end of our first session he did say that he would be asking Jesus to help too...

That's fine with me, since he does actually appear to be competent. He is the first doctor to actually give me a plausible explanation for the severity of my stenosis...

At any rate, I've filled out the living will and gotten it witnesses by two friends. By state law they must honor it...

So, Catholic, schmatholic....

Wishing you the best on your recovery.
Sorry that you had to go thru all that.
Hopefully you will be better for our Ark spring,I have daffodils blooming already.

All the very best wishes for a speedy recovery and no complications, and especially that your stenosis at C1 will not cause you any problems. I hope you can be reunited with Muggs as soon as possible and be able to pick up the threads of life again. Is it his pic in your avatar?

do you have physical/occupational therapy to follow soon?

Yeah, here in the rehab hospital I get two sessions of PT and two sessions of OT every day. I’ve already learned a lot about doing bed to wheelchair transfers, getting dressed, etc. Today I hope I can “get certified” for unsupervised bed/chair transfers, so I don’t have to bother the nurses for EVERYTHING.

Today will be my first full day of therapy. I’ve been warned that it will be very hard since they plan to work my legs very aggressively. The nurse just told me to be sure and take my pain meds. I have not been taking them during the day…




Yeah, that is Muggs in my avatar. I really miss the little ratbag! This is hard on him, but he’s with good people now. Hopefully, we will be back together soon.

As for the C1 issue… The docs want to do surgery on it in about two months. That surgery should not be nearly as traumatic as what I’m recovering from now… so with any luck, I’ll be somewhere close to "normal" in another 8-12 weeks (whatever normal turns out to be).

Now the docs say full recovery could take a year or more.



That would be nice! I have been depressed thinking about not being able to do any kayaking/fishing this spring.

But, I do live on the Razorback Regional Greenway… I hope I can get set up with a recumbent bike… Then at least, I could get outside and enjoy the bike trails.

do you qualify for a patient controlled analgesia pump [PCA]? one of those was a lifesaver for me.

I had one of those (stocked with morphine) for my first 36 hours post-op. It was GREAT! Then they took it away and that sucked!

Right now, I'm IV free, so the pump would be a step back in that respect.

I'm taking (10mg percocet X 1) up to every 4hrs... That controls my pain pretty well.


At this point, I'm kinda worried about tolerance/addiction issues. That's why I've mostly been asking for pain meds at night. It is really nice to actually be able to sleep again....

But I don't know... If I need them to do my therapy properly, I need them to do my therapy properly...

I guess I'll just have to see how things go today.


PS

So, how's your elbow (was it?) coming along these days?

I hope it's much better.

addiction generally is not an issue while one is in pain. luckily for me i seem to lack the addiction gene which is strange because my father had a very addictive thing with food and alcohol.

it is substantially better and i can use it now somewhat like i used to, but i still can't support all my weight on it. it is my dominant arm [i'm a lefty] so that forced me to become right-handed with lots of things. but slowly i am able to return more functions to the left. it is like anything you break, it is never quite the same after repairs. it literally is held together with metal plates and screws. so i must not do any more vigorous things to press my luck, such as military pushups and chinups that i used to do. i won't really miss 'em but my pecs will certainly start to sag after a while. oh well, one can't avoid the ravages of time. the surgeon and occupational therapist say it is within the usable range in terms of range of motion [7 degrees from straight, flexion to 130+ degrees which is sufficient to do most tasks ok, by comparison my right arm [already overused] is +7 degrees extension/145 degrees flexion, so that gives you an idea of what i lost. but i will continue to work on it until the anniversary, this coming august. if i don't do daily PT with it the stiffness returns in earnest so i must do the exercises for it every day without fail. thank you for remembering me.

Are you sleeping again? That's awesome; I know that was a battle you were waging for a long time. With all that PT and OT, it sounds like you need that rest, too.

Yeah.... thanks to the percocets I can sleep 4-5 hours sometimes. especially after I've gotten so run down.

I wish it did not take narcotics, but I'll take what I can get right now.

my advice is to take as few of the painkiller drugs as you can get away with not taking for now, save 'em later for a rainy day when you need pain meds and don't have a doctor to go to.

^^^ Yeah, I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. I don't take them during the day very often, but they sure are nice at night.

Tonight I slept from about 10:30 to 03:30 (I think). That's about the duration of one percocet, and a good night's sleep for me these days.

the thing which wakes me up at night is back pain, which no pain killer short of injectable narcan. this is due to a shot SI joint. i can't lie on my back at all, i toss and turn between left and right. often i get forced awake by it after about 6-7 hours, i have to be exhausted before i can sleep through the night. also my sleep/wake cycles go 'round the clock, because my biorhythms are 25 hours so every 25 days or so i will start a new cycle of falling asleep at a particular time with the time creeping forward by approx. an hour every day. strange, no?

^^^ Hmm.... that is a strange sleep cycle.

I definitely feel for you with the back pain and the tossing and turning... Like I said, I have great tolerance for pain, but it does not take much to keep me from sleeping...

You want to be careful about si joint pain. That was one of my first symptoms, but the real problem turned out to be someplace else.