Well here goes, writing a blog without jotting down any
notes. This may bounce around a bit. Therapy has been going as usual…well,
except for one day. More on that later. I attended a Brown and Black Belt
grading at the Karate Club. They all did very well…makes my ol’ heart go
‘pitter patter’ watching them. Especially when a 55 year old Lady did some
amazing stuff to get her Black Belt. That’s the end of my Sunday morning Karate
Classes…hmmmm….time to trike ride? It has been a little too warm to go out on
the trike, particularly with my broken thermostat. I have been doing more on
the indoor training and last week rode 47 k indoors, I lie, 7 of that was
outside.
Stephanie, my physio, had a vacation last week (July 8 to
12) and I only had one therapy session which accounts for the higher than usual
bike mileage. The tonal overflow is
still happening after exercise but riding the bike on consecutive days didn’t
seem to make it worse, well there was one day I did something stupid, now that
I think about it. Last Thursday, July 16 my back was so sore when I woke up and
I could hardly move. Virtually every move would put my lower left back into a spasm.
At therapy I couldn’t do ‘sit to stands’ and definitely couldn’t walk. We did
some stretching and then 20 minutes of hotpack on my back and then some
acupuncture. Since I am not very good at going prone, I was lying on my side
for the acupuncture. While lying there my entire body went tingly and I felt
very strange. It passed when I sat up. Sitting up was no fun with the back spasming.
A wasted therapy session as there was no
walking…grrrrrrrr!
I do like to keep busy and here’s an example of the busiest
day. On Wednesday, there is no therapy. I
go to the gym to lift weights with Yonna and Grandpa at 9:30. Hmmmm…good thing
there is spell check…just spelled ‘weights’ as ‘waits’….lol! Yonna put on the
transfer belt and I walked into the gym with my cane and Yonna making sure I
didn’t fall over. Didn’t use the chair in the gym, walked between all
equipment. Stay at the gym ‘til about 11. Head home to get the bathing suit on
to get to the pool for a swim with Yonna at about 11:45. Say hi to my
girlfriend Rosa at the pool. Yonna does a great job relaxing me in the water
and stretching me out. Darcy was in the water as well she said it was training
but I think she just wanted to cool down. Yonna is going on vacation and Darcy is being
trained to look after me in the pool. After stretching it is time to walk. The
good news is that I can walk unassisted in the pool that is without hanging on
the side of the pool or hanging onto Yonna. Walks are about 15 meters and I have
done as many as 2 laps…yeehaw! The water buoyancy is almost too much as I walk
on my toes on both feet. It is then to the deep end for some water walking,
that is the best part. Just getting the legs moving in all directions feels
soooooo good.
After the pool, it’s time for the hour massage… it is a deep
massage on the shoulders, arms and left quad. It feels much better when she
stops. The massage is over by 3. An hour
rest then onto the trainer. On the trainer there are programs to choose from. I
use program 1 because it has 2 pyramids and I usually do tension 3 to 4 to 5,
then back down again then repeat. Back 6 months ago I was at tension 5,6, 7
then 6,7,8 and even 7,8,9 and getting maximum distance of 5+ k in 15 minutes. I
thought I’d try upping the tension again to see what would happen and turned
the tension up to a moderate 4,5,6 for 15 minutes, a 3 minute cool down and
another 15 minutes at tension 3,4,5 the 3 minute cool down.
As with most trainers there are handlebars beside the seat
to hang on. I usually don’t hang onto them as the physios don’t want me pulling
with my arms. However, since the tension was up a bit and I was feeling good, I
used my right hand on the handlebar to push harder on the pedals. Remember the
sore back. As I can only hold with the
right hand, when I pull the lower left back muscles tightens as I pull with my
right arm and push the right pedal down. I just figured out what I had done
while writing this blog. I must have just fried those lower back muscles and
they went into spasm/cramping every time
I tried to use them on Thursday. Went to the Dr. on Thursday afternoon as the
physio thought an anti-inflammatory may help. The Dr. agreed and gave me a
prescription of Celebrex for 90 days. Took one at supper and one at breakfast.
The back was a lot better on Friday. Still needed help getting out of bed but it
didn’t cramp up at all. Don’t know if it was the Celebrex or the rest that was
doing the job…whatever…long as it is going away. Next time, on the bike I will
have Darcy put my left hand on the handlebar as well, that will be a struggle
but it will even out the pulling!!!!!!!!!!! We’ll see!
I don’t think I had better tell the Physio about the cause
of the back problem, or she’ll put the kybosh on all bike riding. Must be very careful
that the bike riding doesn’t interfere with the walking as walking is the
ultimate goal. I believe the bike/trike
riding is strengthening my gluts and my legs which I do need for walking, to me
that is a positive, but bike riding can’t interfere with my therapy. Just need to find that happy medium…eh? The ol’ Catch 22. Good for the legs but bad
if you do too much and how much is too much? You are dating yourself if you
remember the movie…Catch 22! Now, here’s the good thing about the sore back.
The experts say to make a muscle stronger you must work it so hard that it
hurts the next day after lifting. The pain is from all the torn muscle fibers
damaged while lifting. The muscle repairs itself in a day or two and becomes
stronger. Now my back muscles will be stronger as they hurt like hell on
Thursday and were a lot better on Friday. That’s my story and I am sticking to
it!
I signed up for Le Tour de Norfolk and will attempt the 40 k
ride but realistically I think I can do 10 to 15 k. On Monday, July the 8th we, Darcy and I did 7
k outside down Quarter Town Line Road. There are a couple of hills that I had
difficulty getting up. The last time I did the hills a couple of weeks ago, I
had no problem.
Oh yes, I had to cancel my therapy on Monday, July 15th
for a Dr.’s appointment with my surgeon in Toronto. The bummer was that we had
to be there by 7:45 on Monday morning. Grandpa Bob had agreed to drive and we
were up at 4:00 AM and left at 5:10 AM. To get up, Darcy set 3 alarm clocks and
asked Bob to call us just in case the alarms didn’t go off. Grandpa called
before the alarms went off. There were no cars on the road until we got the
Scotland. The QEW was busy as usual but since we had 3 in the car we used the
express lane. That probably saved us a good hour. Made it to Toronto Western
Hospital at Bathurst and Dundas by 7:20 in lots of time for the x-ray. Sat in
the lobby waiting for Grandpa who went to park the car in a city lot…cost 12
bucks a day. Parking at the hospital is at least 56 bucks a day or at least it
was 2 years ago. Well worth the walk to the city lot.
Sitting in the lobby sure brought back some memories. Oopps
I guess it is called an Atrium. Darcy used to take me down there in a huge
wheelchair that she couldn’t see over. We must have looked good me in the chair
lay way back with my head in a headrest and my left leg sticking out. Spent
lots of time there drinking apple/carrot juice drink from… Booster Juice.
Enough of reminiscing. Grandpa arrived and off to the x-ray. Much to my surprise
it was a guy. X-rays took about 10 minutes and it was off to Dr. Fehlings’
Clinic. I expected a long wait but we were called in after only 15 minutes.
They gave me a survey to fill out. Good thing Darcy was there. Filled it out,
Darcy checked it and I had missed 2 pages.
Dr. Fehlings’ assistant, Dr. Goldstein came in and does all
the question asking and then Dr. Fehlings comes in and I get to see the x-rays
and that all the hardware is in place, two rods and all the screws al fused in place.
I had mentioned to Dr. Goldstein that I
had lost some strength in my left arm. She explained that sometimes a cyst
forms in the area where the injury occurred in the spinal cord. The cyst fills
with spinal fluid and puts pressure on the spinal cord. They need to do an MRI
to determine if it is there…yikes not another MRI. When Dr. Fehlings came in he
said he’d give Dr. Potter recommendation that I have a clinical MRI to see if
there is a cyst. They can remove them surgically and I believe they put in a
shunt that keeps the cyst drained. Hmmmm…more surgery! We had talked about it
with Dr. Potter at the last visit and said it was too early for the development
of cysts. We’ll see what Dr. Potter says about it when we see him on Aug. 19th.
Before Dr. Fehlings left he asked if I knew about a study
they were initiating called a Functional MRI…FMRI. Hmmmm….perhaps he needed a candidate for the
study and that’s why he called me in…nah I shouldn’t be that cynical, or should
I? What they are trying to do is to see
if they can identify the broken nerves in the spinal cord and determine what
parts they run. I think Guinea Pigs get feed better so I volunteered. Dr.
Goldstein said she would send in The Epidemiologist who would explain the
study. The Epidemiologist was Natalia who I had worked with before in 2 other studies.
It was like old home week seeing her again. She explained the study and what it
involved. It would take about an1½. Here’s
hoping that it’s not an hour and a half in the MRI tube. They better have lots
of Ativan…
I found this abstract about a study Dr. Fehlings had worked
on with an f MRI. There is one very interesting stat. There were 9 incomplete
Spinal Cord Injured People in the study and 6 of those had recovered full
function. What I don’t know is if it was the f MRI that caused full function or
they recovered on their own? Things enquiring minds need to ask the next time I
see them. If anyone wants to see the
abstract about the study, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23029097
We know the brain is plastic but this research is proving that the spinal cord
is also plastic and can also build new pathways around an injured portion of
the spinal cord.
Friday I did another ½ hour on the trainer but kept the
tension at 3 and just did some spinning. This was the first time I got more
distance in the 2nd session than in the 1st. 4.3 K in the
first and 4.5 K in the 2nd.
Karate class on Saturday morning and a big rest day for the ride on Sunday.
Learned something on Friday night. Before bed I went for a walk out to the
kitchen and back to the bed. As mentioned before, exercise causes my nose to
plug up. Well walking is exercise and my nose plugged up until about 2 AM.
Can’t sleep because I breathe through my mouth and it gets very dry. Makes for
a very short night. The good news is that I was able to get up out of bed
unassisted in the morning.
On Sunday it was time to do the Tour de Norfolk. GrAandpa came over at 8:45 and put the rack
on the car. The plan was to have Grandpa ride with me and Darcy following in
the car…but… Grandpa wanted to see if Darcy’s trike would fit in the back of
his Kia….it did. Change of plan…Darcy would ride with me and Grandpa would
follow. Got to Dehi and registered and went to our starting point as it is too
hilly around the arena for me to start out. Drove out to the 12th
Concession and Hawtrey Road. Unloaded the trikes and got mounted. Getting on
the trike is easy, stand up at the door
of the car and I straddle the front of the trike and sit down.
Riding was interesting. I had difficulty on any little rise
in the road. The left leg is that weak and it has difficulty pushing the pedals.
Managed to do 13 K with Darcy. I would have gone further but there was as hill
after the rest stop and there was no way I was doing that. Yvette, the
organizer had the sag wagon driver help me get off the bike. My friend,
Roseanne rode with me. We had a little deal going. She is trying lose weight
and I just wanted to do some of the ride. Two good things, first of all I did
the ride and second, wait for it…I didn’t overdo it. Initially the goal was to
do the whole thing but given the training I did, I’m happy with 13 K. Legs
aren’t too tired and the knee feels ok and no sore back.
How am I Feeling?
I am a little apprehensive about the cyst. That is not a
good thing to be thinking about. My roommate in Parkwood had a cyst and had a
shunt put in and it started to plug up. He had 5 operations in 4 months as the
shunt kept getting plugged with scar tissue. Yes...yes..I know, every case is
different but it is still something to carefully think about.
Feeling good about the walking. I am getting better at
trusting Darcy hanging on the belt and keeping me upright. I have those Merrill
Glove running shoes that are supposed to be for natural running and you can
feel your feet. I find I walk better at home with my regular shoes on than I do
at Parkwood with the gloves on. There are no heels in them and I feel like I am
going to tip over backwards. I will try walking on Monday at Therapy and test out my hypothesis that I walk better
in regular shoes. When I walk at home I don’t seem to catch my toe as much. Of
course that could be that I walk further at Parkwood, tiring out the left foot…we’ll
know next week.
Thanks for listening…
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