All's "Wry" With the World: December 2016

Friday, December 23, 2016

I'm home! With a small complication . . .

Last Saturday, twenty-four weeks since the fall, I moved back home from The Ballard Landmark Assisted Living Facility. This was my first time back home, . . . it's been a while!

Because our home has steps leading up from the sidewalk to the front yard and more steps to the front door (with similar obstacles approaching the back door) there was no way to make it wheel chair assessable and so returning home was dependent on safely traversing steps & stairs.  I am now doing this (carefully) in spades. When I get up from my desk and head to the break room for coffee I tack on a couple laps up & down the indoor flight of steps to The Mountaineers top-floor meeting room.

Marijane moved my clothes and the other stuff that fit in boxes, and Dolly.com moved the bed, night stands, table, and chairs. Thanks again Marijane!!  Dolly.com deserves a shout out as well. If you haven't used them yet, it is like Uber for folks who own a truck and for folks who need a truck. It was incredibly easy (and cost effective) to schedule a micro move, and the two helpers who did the "heavy lifting" were timely, friendly, and professional. Couldn't ask for better. If you need a truck and folks to move stuff for you, Dolly.com is a great way to go.

The complication has to do with one of the things I talked with the back doctors about at my six month visit last week. Everything with the back is fine (and they were pleased with the most recent set of x-rays), but there is a lump/bulge on the side of my abdomen close to the 6" incision which allowed access to the blown out vertebra (so they could pull out the shards, and replace it with a titanium cage).  The bulge doesn't hurt at all, but it has altered the shape of my torso enough so that pant waists no longer fit.

It could be that the nerves in the vicinity disturbed by the surgery aren't yet firing and so muscle tone isn't consistent across my abdomen, but more likely it is the result of me doing too much in-bed leg-lift physical therapy with leg casts which caused a hernia.  Yikes!  The back doctors gave me a referral to the side-opening doctors (interesting note, . . . as it turns out a different set of doctors actually opened me up and moved all the internals out of the way so the back doctors could do the vertebra replacement work) who are also familiar with hernia repair and I'll visit with them next week. Once again under the knife!

It ain't over 'til its over . . .

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The long ascent ahead

In the last several weeks at physical therapy I have moved from basic skills (walking, balance, stairs) to kinetic strength building (more sets and more reps), finally getting my heart pumping again with perspiration streaming down my face. I can transition back and forth from standing upright to lying on the floor, so have increased the range of exercises I can accomplish. Feels good!

And not a moment too soon, . . . I've regained all the weight I'd lost during the first several weeks of surgery & convalescence, and there's no way that it is all muscle (although hardware remaining inside definitely contributes) so it must be chub and that just won't do. No more desserts for Bill.

Doctors & PT folks encourage me to walk to tolerance, so I leave the power wheelchair at work and walk as much as possible while away from work. The power chair allows me to keep my feet elevated for the majority of the day while at my desk, and I use it when traversing further distances around The Mountaineers Program Center. My feet and ankles swell after PT and extended walking episodes so I've taken to icing them afterward, and because feeling is still limited throughout the damaged areas the cold doesn't really distract me.

That lack of feeling in my left ankle / foot is the biggest distraction at this point. It feels very similar to the pins & needles sensations you get when a joint has gone to sleep after being restricted for too long and when you begin to move it again. Rather than lasting a minute or so this feeling has been with me over these last several months and will be with me for many months more while nerves slowly mend (one millimeter per day or an inch per month).

Pain remains a minor distraction. Feet & ankles are "tender" when walking, but in no way eye-watering. The back has never been anything other than stiff and maybe just a little sore. Hands/wrists/forearms respond typically to PT range extension exercises (ouch) but during day-to-day activities they report just an occasional dull ache. The doctors assure me that arthritis will be a constant friend going forward and the ache is likely a precursor.

Good news! I've been able to remove tight compression socks by myself and with the help of a "sock donning device" I'm now able to put them on by myself as well (just five months after the accident). Had worried that insufficient flexibility would forever limit my ability to dress myself! This minor victory is especially satisfying, as it is the last vestige of being unable to fend for myself and it allows me to shower at my whim rather than scheduling assistance to remove and replace socks before and after showering. (Thanks Marijane!!!)

Yesterday morning I dropped off all the other convalescence aids (slide boards, etc.) at Anderson House (the skilled nursing center I stayed at after departing Harborview) to assist others on their way to recovery. Still holding onto a couple of walkers and a portable wheelchair just in case, but those will eventually find a new home as well.

From here on it's just a matter of remaining resolved to push hard and keep going, walking further and faster, increasing strength building reps, . . . typical Mountaineering stuff and Ashby protocol.

Onward.

Pictures worth a thousand words

Pictures are worth a thousand words . . . but not for the faint of heart.

In service of this being a cautionary tale, I offer the before & after film of the injuries I sustained as a result of taking a 40 ft fall from a climbing gym wall. All of this is the result of literally two seconds of distraction as I began climbing my last route of the day using auto-belays where I failed to use my standard safety protocol of double checking that I had clipped into the auto-belay, and as a result I climbed the route unprotected.

I fell at a 45 degree angle back first, so my feet hit first, then butt, then hands, and finally face (must have been looking over my shoulder on the way down, . . . I have this fleeting memory of checking to make certain I wasn't about to land on somebody by mistake!)

As it was the last thing that hit, there was nothing broken on my face/skull, . . . just a concussion, black & blue bruising all over, and a bloody nose. I exploded one vertebra (which was replaced as can be seen in the film below ) and had four others fused to my hip bone (titanium train tracks running down my back). Lots of snap, crackle pop in both hands, wrists, forearms, feet, heels, ankles, and shins.

The pictures below are a representative set from the many hundreds taken over the last several months. I've definitely received more than the usual dose of x-rays!