Dec
23 to Jan 12, 2014
Mon
Dec 23rd: Monday started at about 1:00AM when the
stomach cramps started. I didn’t really know what was happen. By 5 the pain was
quite intense. Got Darcy up and we were heading to the hospital. After a
struggle getting dressed, I was getting into the car and felt a BM happening.
Got back into the house in a hurry and on the ‘can’ just in time, and oh what a
relief it is. The PSW left at ¼ to 8 and back on the ‘can’ before 8 o’clock. It
seems I overdid the laxatives. 3 tablespoons of Milk of Magnesia plus Senokot
plus Restoralax plus Ducoset plus lactulose perhaps is a little too much. Didn’t
take any on Monday morning and no suppository Monday night as I figured there’d
be nothing left...but there was...continued...
Tues
Dec 24th: ...a
BM in the morning. Enough about poop...it’s
Christmas Eve! Did some stretching but no walking. Need to do lots, the old
adage is more than true,’ if you don’t use it you will lose it.’ To my
Brother-in-law’s at 4:30 for the annual family get together. It was a good
night. We played our card game for presents. I got an oversized remote that is
20 cm by 10 cm with very big buttons. Marlene put on a great spread and I made
it ‘til 10 o’clock after a beer and some Baileys.
Wed Dec 25th:
Merry Christmas...Christmas morning with Meghan. It was quiet as the noisy one
is in Australia...miss you Kelly.
As you know I get cold but now I have an electric throw
that goes from my feet to my chest and keeps me nice and toasty while working
at the computer...thanks Darcy!
Fri
Dec 27th: To the pool at last. Had a great
workout. Walking in the pool is a treat. Today I really noticed gravity taking
over as the chair lifted me out of the pool...the body just gets heavier and
heavier, a strange feeling.
I have proven Newton’s First Law of Motion which
states:
An object at rest stays at rest and
an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same
direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
I did very
little exercise from last Friday ‘til today. The body was all toned up and it
felt like it just didn’t want to move00 so I didn’t move it much. I only did 2
x15 minute bike rides and the short walk and some sit-to-stands before bed.
After getting moving in the pool, I feel like doing walking and going on the
bike. I guess in my case the ‘unbalanced force’ is my brain giving me a kick in
the ass to get going. A lot of you would agree that my brain really is an ‘unbalanced
force’.
At 10:45 PM
our power went out. Couldn’t be ice as all our lines are underground. Darcy
looked out and all the neighbors had lights. We called and a couple of PUC guys
came out to look at it. Since our meter was dead the problem is in the
underground cable somewhere. They ran a big black jumper cable to my neighbor’s
meter to our meter and we had power back on by 12:30. They will be back in the
first week of January to do some digging. If I remember correctly the cable
goes under all the gardens. In my younger days I put stone pathways around the
flower gardens. They have plastic all around to keep the stone in the pathway.
Should be fun when they dig that up. They said they will put it all back
together in the spring.
Sat Dec 28th: Darcy wants me to do more walking at
home. Got up from the computer at 10 and did an hour of stretching and weights
on the right arm.
Off to the
pool at 12:30 for a 50 minute workout. Did lots of walking. I can take bigger
steps in the pool due to the buoyancy. On dry land my steps are very short,
about 6 inches ...oops 14 cm. In the pool they are at least 30 cm. Since my
left ankle doesn’t bend, I get up on my toe when I stand on it and it is hard
to keep my balance as I am on my tippy toe. I must learn to bend my knee and
then I don’t go up as high and won’t lose my balance as much. Losing my balance
is a good thing, I learn corrective stepping to retain balance, that carries over
to dry land walking.
Not being
a Grinch but if I hear James Taylor sing White Christmas in that monotone voice
one more time, I’ll scream. His voice was great singing ballads, but horrible
for Xmas carols.
Geez no BM
at night so it will be on with the Depends in the morning.
Sun Dec 20th: Yup on the can in the morning...on
with the Depends. Stayed out of the pool no chance of an accident. Out for
coffee at 10:30 with Vern. The Sarge has a bad cold and thankfully he didn’t
show up.
Did
stretching in the bed for half an hour. Lifted some weights on my right arm. To
get the legs going did several, that’s more than 10 sit-to-stands and some
3-step walking hanging onto the bed rail. Legs were all warmed up and got on
the trainer for 25 minutes, which was 7.6 k ...and the usual workout before
bed.
Mon Dec 30th: To the pool with Darcy. A good
workout. Did lots of walking. They installed new steps at the pool. I am pretty
sure I can walk out of the pool. I’ll try it with Yonna. Did a hard workout on
the bike, perhaps a little too hard as my left glut was giving me some spasms
at night.
Tues Dec 31st: WooHooo New Year’s Eve party at the
Clifford’s. Needed some exercise before eating and drinking all night. Rode 8.7
k at around 4 o’clock and to decrease the tone I took a ‘relaxing’ pill . Ate
supper early as we arranged for the PSW to come at 6:45 to be at the party my
8:30. After the PSW dressed me I stayed in bed to rest before we left. Darcy
tried to wake me up at 8:30 but she couldn’t do it...damn...missed the party.
Wed Jan 1st: Happy New Year. Headed to Ron and
Stephanie’s in Simcoe for the annual New Year’s Day Frostbite ride. Coldest
ever ride at -8◦. Five riders braved the cold and there was only one mishap,
Helen fell and hurt her shoulder. Nothing broken but not a nice way to start
the New Year.
Did a
little walking at Ron’s just to get out of the chair. Watched a bit of the
hockey game. Can’t imagine how 105,000 people got out of the parking lot with
10 inches of fresh snow...I like hockey but not that much. Interesting that
there were 60,000 Canadians there.
Pedaled
1,050 K on the trainer in 2013 taking 68.7 hours.
Thurs Jan 2nd: Woke up this morning and he right
arm wasn’t working well. Could not get the arm up to brush my hair, had to have
the PSW do it. I can barely shave, takes a long time, and must give the arm a
rest after each stroke. Very difficult to shave the right side.
I had an
MRI scheduled back in December to look at the shoulder but I couldn’t do it.
Perhaps now with the added incentive that we really need to know what’s going on
in there and with the right drugs, maybe I could do it.
Went to
the pool. The workouts there are improving as I can walk further unassisted. Still
not the best steps but they are longer than on dry land which will hopefully cross
over to dry land walking.
As you
know I take a ton of meds. I am going to try to get off of Tizanadine which is
an antispasmodic to try and control my muscle tone. A side effect is drowsiness
which along with all the other meds that causes drowsiness, it is a wonder that
I am ever awake.
Fri Jan 3rd: Did the pool again and Darcy is
gettin0g good at stretching me out. I am spending less time floating around and
more time standing, working on the stairs and kicking in the deep end. I am
doing more side stepping which helps strengthen my hip flexors.
Bad news
no BM at night and we all know what that means for the morning.
Sat Jan 4th: Yup up at 3:30 for a poop. I missed
the first Karate Class of the season, I just didn’t want to take a chance of
having an accident.
Painting
is getting very frustrating. I must learn to clean the bush after every stro0ke
particularly when changing colours...doh! Trying to paint water and clouds and
it just isn’t working all that well or at least not the way I want it to work.
Sun Jan 5th: Didn’t go to the pool as it is too
much hassle getting to the referee’s room to change as there are referees in it
on the weekends. Went for coffee with the guys, Did some painting and a bike
ride. Nice easy day. The normal sit-to-stands and the night time walk from to
bathroom to the bed. I find that when I ride the bike the walk from the bathroom
to the bed is further but as they say a march of a 100 miles starts at about 90
miles.
Mon Jan
6 to Sun Jan 12th: This whole week everything started to go bad.
I got muscle tone everywhere, my legs, upper arms, back and stomach. Having
difficulty getting out of bed and need help sitting up. Saturday morning I
would have fallen if the PSW hadn’t been there to catch me. I stood up to get
into the chair and my good right knee buckled. Cindy, the PSW was right there
to hold me up. The PSW’s had been on strike as they are paid only a few dollars
more than minimum wage. I sent an email to let the Union know that as a
recipient of services, I supported their strike action and hey I even got a
phone call.
Hopefully
this muscle tone is something as simple as a urinary track infection. Haven’t
had one of those in a while. Try to see the Dr on Monday. I also have a sore on
the side of my thigh about the size of a nickel that is inflamed. We put
polysporin on it and it does nothing. Its been there for about a week and just
won’t heal.
How
am I Feeling?
I need to be organized like Sensei ML, Sensei Sara
or Sensei Linda who not only have their ducks in a row, the ducks follow them
in a straight line. Hmmmm...I guess I don’t know any organized males. I needed
to send cards of appreciation to all the people who have been driving me to
London. You guessed it, I thought about it on the 24th. I did send
emails but it just isn’t the same. Again thanks to Karen, Yonna, Steve, Robert,
Linda, Grandpa, The Sarge, Dorothea and Brian.
Darcy mentioned the other day that it probably was a
good thing that I was out a lot before the crash or we would have had a
divorce. Spending 24/7 with your spouse is good for getting to know them. Seems
I have this very bad habit of telling her what to do all the time. Or as she
states ‘ordering’ her what to do. I must learn to keep quiet but it is
frustrating for me to sit and wait with my mouth shut when I see what needs to
be done...I need patience, patience and Darcy probably needs a day or two away.
It is good that there is no more dysreflexia.
Haven’t had an incident for a while now. Perhaps it is having the bowels
working better that has resolved the problem.
0I am a worried about the loss of function of my right
arm as that is the only arm I have and if I lose it, I’ll be back to having
someone feed my...not a pleasant thought. The muscles are just getting weaker
and the arm feels heavy and hard to lift. I am doing some weights on it but I
need to get back into Therapy specifically to build it up again. Stephanie, my
physio thinks it is neurological as I can lift it a couple of times and then it
weakens. My brain is creating a very bad habit. When I try to lift my arm my
trapezius muscle lifts my shoulder up. Once the shoulder goes up the arm can’t
move any higher. It’s a catch 22, the deltoid muscles are weak and can’t lift
the arm, my brain thinks by lifting the shoulder it will help. The gym doesn’t
work for strengthening the muscles as the weights are too heavy. I need 3 and 4
pounders and the gym starts at 5. I can’t brush my hair and have difficulty
brushing my teeth and I have to give my arm a rest between bites when eating.
Can’t figure out what is going on.
Note: f you
see some 0’s thoughout the blog, it is caused when I press the arrow keys with
my index finger, my ring f|inger.
Thanks for listening...
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