a new year

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A New Year

New Year’s was great although my wife didn’t stay, there were people from the Karate Club and the Cycling Club and they stayed until 9 o’clock and it was a hoot.  On New Year’s Day the Cycling Club has the Frostbite Ride which can be anywhere from 30-50 k depending on the weather.  This year it was raining and 8 diehards did the ride.  After the ride I was able to hook up on Skype and talk to them all at the after ride party. 

As you are aware, the Canadian Junior Hockey Team is playing in the World Championships so my roommate and I have watched most of the games and there were so many American College Football Bowl Games and NFL games, we watched virtually nothing else but sports for the whole week…….oh darn.

Geez…..it’s a new year already and first day back to PT was a bit of work.  I wasn’t standing but I was bending in a lot of directions that I have never been before.  It seems my muscles are getting what they call “tone” and as they explained it, it’s my awkward time as everything is really tight and the muscles won’t relax.  I woke up this morning at about 5 am and had spasms until about 8 am and, as I said, went to PT and got stretched. 

OT same exercises but some of the weights were up and it’s strange that when I work my right arm, my left side tightens up.  They compared my left pec to a guitar string because it was so tight and I wanted to know if it was a “C” string or a “G” string.  So it seems that my muscles are going to be very tight for a while. 

They have changed some of my medication to help with the spasms in my stomach and my back.   Yikes….more pills.

As far as wheelchairs go, I have been trying out different styles, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and centre wheel drive.  I am tending towards the centre wheel drive as it is more maneuverable in tight spaces than the other two chairs.

I went for my preadmin at University Hospital last Friday.  I had to go on a stretcher and we left here at 9:30 in the morning and they must think that my wife is a pretty good nurse because nobody else came with me except my wife and she got to carry all the papers.  Since it was December 30^th, the hospital didn’t seem very busy and I spoke to several nurses, a doctor and had an x-ray and was back here by about 2 o’clock.  So I have another hospital visit on January 12^th and surgery on January 19^th.  Now I have a decision to make on whether I want a general anesthetic or a spinal tap.  If they do the spinal tap, I will be awake with more pills and I have until the day of the surgery to make the decision.  My understanding after talking to the doctors as with any surgery there is a risk involved with both so I had better decide soon, but woops, I don’t have to do that until I am in the operating room.  On the morning of my surgery I will be leaving here and going directly to University Hospital for the surgery and I will be in for 3 days and will come back here or at least that’s the plan now.  I am required to have a shower the night before the surgery and wash with an antibacterial sponge and then in the morning before I leave here another shower and wash with another antibacterial sponge.

The care here over the vacation period was great.  The only problem is the physio department and the OT department are closed down and I had 3 days of rest.

Thanks for listening.