the pool

June 12, 2012

What’s New:
On Monday, May 28, I went into the therapeutic pool at Parkwood.  They said it would be good for me to relax.  I was a little apprehensive at first as the lift was a little different. l had to move from my wheelchair to the hoist chair to lift me into the pool.  I am a little taller than most so they had to take my legs up and over the step railing.  I had a flotation device attached to my back and one around my neck and a pool noodle under my butt. The words I heard the most when I was in the water….. “relax Glen”.  It’s not that I thought they would drown me but l wouldn’t really put my head back and relax into the flotation collar.  However, it was nice being in the water with three ladies.  One was working my legs and the other two were working my arms and my neck.  It seems my core is weak and it’s creating more of a problem because my right side is strong and my left side is much weaker. I tend to curl to the right whenever l do anything.  They are trying to loosen up my hips, core, and ribs and open up my left side.  Getting out of the pool was as interesting as getting in.  The chair was put into the pool and l was strapped in and hoisted onto the deck. The chair was put on its set of wheels and they rolled my in for a shower to get some of the chlorine off.  I was rolled into the PT room where Yonna and Karen dried me off and got me into my clothes and transferred to my wheelchair.

For those of you who have never dressed a ‘para’, and that’s not a paratrooper, here’s how it goes. First l roll onto my left side and my bathing suit gets pulled down past my butt. Since the two ladies undressing me aren’t related to me they put a towel over my privates. Then l roll over on my right side and they pull the bathing suit over my left cheek. Roll back to centre and the bathing suit is pulled off. A thorough drying and then its dressing time. Undies and shorts pulled up passed my knees then roll left, right then back to centre. If l have my shoes on, my feet don’t slip and l can bridge, which decreases the amount of rolling. Shirt goes on when l am sitting at the edge of the plinth, bad left arm first, then over the head then good right arm.T-shirts are easy, long sleeves are a bit more trouble getting the right arm in….try it.

 When I am pedaling the bike my chest, ribs, tummy and arms tighten up. I haven’t quite figured out how to relax other muscles while pedaling. Someone said l should try to visualize the impulses moving down my nerves then visualize the routes l want them to take. Perhaps I need an increase in my Baclofen, here I go self-medicating again.  Baclofen is used to control spasms and I take 60 mg a day, 20 at breakfast, 20 at lunch and 20 before bed.

I had my 5 ½ week checkup with the surgeon and everything is good with the knee.  I saw the X-rays and it looked really neat.  The piece on top of the fibula is cemented in and you could clearly see where they cut the head of the femur off and glued the steel parts in place.  I initially thought that they would be screwed in but I guess it’s very good crazy glue. I’m glad l had a good carpenter. Exercise is unlimited, I can stand on it, ride on it, lift weights with it.  The leg is really weak of course because it hasn’t been used since August but the carpenter ooops surgeon said it would take at least 18 months for full recovery as the muscles have to remodel themselves around the new parts.  The knee is swollen but that is normal for this stage of the healing. The scar needs to be massaged to prevent it from becoming lumpy and hard. Learned something, I had the scar from my 1968 menisectomy when they removed the cartilage from my knee and the scar is located to the right of my knee cap and when they made the cut to get at my knee they have to go over the old scar because if they put two scars side by side, the skin will die in between them.  I now have a big lazy ‘S’ scar on my knee.

I’ve had two massages by a very talented and strong massage therapist who comes to the house. She does deep muscle massage in my arms and legs which is painful at the time but feels good the next day. I need at least one per week….yikes. The deep massage separates the muscles from the fascial sheath and moves the body of the muscles around as they have become attached to each other due lack of use. This may help with the spasms and high muscle tone.

Friends:   I cannot believe the support I am getting from my friends.  A friend, Bob Gordon drove from New Jersey just to see me.  Five years ago I met Bob Gordon in Arby’s in Simcoe when he was hypothermic after riding his bike in the rain.  At the time he was riding from New Jersey to Los Angeles to attend a friend’s daughter’s wedding.  We took him out for dinner and gave him a couple of tires as he was having a lot of trouble with flats.  We have stayed in contact ever since.  His visit was very much appreciated. 

Karen Rice has been kind enough to spend a lot of time making up a schedule for friends to drive me to London for my therapy and give Darcy a rest.  It’s a bit of a task as they have to disassemble the wheelchair and put it in the car and then reassemble and get me out of the car into the chair which last week it took two people to do as I needed to be pulled back in the seat because my knee wouldn’t bend far enough. But now it only takes one person as my knee is bending much further now.  Actually bends from under 5 degrees extension to over 100 degrees flexion. 

Yonna DiLella is a kinesiologist and has been a trainer and knows a little bit about massage but the scary part is she was a body builder and still has really strong hands.  She has been coming to my therapy sessions and getting direction on what to do with me at home.  She comes over a couple of times a week to get my left hand and arm moving, stretches my ham strings and works on my core.  She does a really good job massaging and stretching.  Yonna also was in the pool with me at Parkwood and she took me to the Tillsonburg pool and Grandpa Bob came along as well to help out.  Being in the pool makes it a lot easier for me to stand due to the buoyancy of the water and the Tillsonburg pool has the same basic flotation devices as they do at Parkwood and the hoist is the same except it is a portable one. Feels great to stand and attempt walking in the pool. I must learn how to stand straight and not look at my feet.

Darcy and I are having our moments as we have never spent this much time together.  We try to work it out and we are getting some counseling to help us though the tough parts. I have asked the psychiatrist to get me off the medication but she states it may take 2 years to get off the two antidepressants. She wanted to know if l had any questions #1 was, can’t l get off the drugs sooner. The answer was no as l may go into depression again and drugs may not get me out again. Question # 2 was, how am l doing? The answer is….it seems l am not supposed to ask that. I am not recommending that anyone get off their drugs without a Dr approval. I just don’t like taking pills….note l take 17 every morning at breakfast, 4 at noon, 5 at supper and 6 at bedtime.

How am l feeling?

I am feeling good but geta little frustrated at the slow progress even though l know it has to be slow. As most of you know I’m a ‘little’ independent and now l must rely on people for almost everything which is frustrating as well. l could do more for me if l planned better but then you get a lazy and it is faster if Darcy gets my water or anything else rather than me getting it. That is something l need to work on. An example is the PSW’s putting on my shirt. I can put it on if it is large enough. The PSW’s always help when l begin to struggle as there is a time constraint and they have said it is hard to stand and watch me struggle.

A pet peeve is everyone ties my shoes too tight. I have high insteps and l like my shoes very loose, it doesn’t matter if l tell them, the next time they crank them up tight…..grrrrrr! Am I being picky or what?

All in all l am feeling good and my therapy is going well.

Thanks for listening…..the p