A Bit Of A Setback

Some time after doing my treadmill work Thursday morning and some walking later, my right heel and ankle started hurting. A lot. I think I pushed it too hard on the treadmill. I got a little overeager trying to push for more speed and more time. I accomplished both, but it cost me.

I took it easy the rest of Thursday, but when I got to PT Friday, it was still hurting a lot. I was still able to do the platform work but I had to fight through the Total Gym and REALLY fight through the step-ups. When I tried the treadmill I couldn't stand even a few minutes at VERY low speed without huge pains so we stopped, iced down the ankle and heel, and I finished up on the stationary bike. I've been babying it ever since.

It still hurts but seems to be getting a little better. I'm trying to do enough to keep it kind of loose but I have to be very careful not to go too far and stress it out again.

I'm considering it a hard lesson learned. I'll get it back in shape as soon as possible and then I'll get back to work as best I can.

Don't expect any more dramatic increases in the treadmill!

In Response

I was sitting here and thought it was high time I replied to all of your comments.

First and foremost, I can never thank all of you sufficiently for caring enough and taking the time to read my ramblings and leave or email comments. I am absolutely convinced that your prayers, good thoughts, good humor, and positive energy are major reasons for my progress.

Even though I don't reply to the comments here and do not even always remember to reply to the emails, please know that I eagerly anticipate, read, and treasure every word.

That being said, I have to say a few things.

First, credit must be given where it is due. Yes, I've endured a lot and I have worked hard to come back. However, there are others who make my work possible and make it pay off.

First, I must thank The Lord for taking good care of me and surrounding me with such terrific people.

At the top of the list of those people is J. She puts in an incredible amount of time and effort to make sure I have clothes to wear, to help me get ready each day, to make sure everything is scheduled just right, to get me where I need to be, and so much more. She does things for me or because of me that she should never be asked to do, but she has done them, oftentimes without being asked and always without a single complaint. She is an amazing person and she deserves far more recognition for my recovery than anyone, especially me, has given her.

Next, I could not have made the progress I have without the efforts of the PT staff. They are a phenomenal bunch. They always seem to know what I need to do and how to get me to do it, regardless of how I feel that day. They challenge, encourage, motivate, and work me without being cruel or condescending. They also know when I'm having a bad day and we just have to take it a little easy without making me feel like some kind of failure for it. Every day I both look forward to and dread going, but by the time I leave there, I feel great, I'm glad I went, I don't want to leave, and I'm looking forward to the next session.

Last, but certainly not least, we have some incredible friends. They help me and they help J so she can help me. They will do anything J or I need, sometimes before we know we need it. They insist they aren't doing anything special, but without their loving and selfless support, our lives would be so much more difficult, I can't even imagine what it would be like.

Now some folks have called me a hero, a role model, etc. Don't take this the wrong way, but I am none of these things. The Marine that sacrifices himself for his buddies is a hero. The fireman that willingly enters a burning building is a hero. I'm just a guy trying to recover from a bad accident that was the result of a bad decision. I appreciate the sentiment, but it is completely misplaced to put me anywhere near the same level as the true heroes of this world.

That is not to say that I don't want this experience to have an affect on people. Just the opposite. If what I have been through has had any kind of positive influence on anyone in some way, then maybe...just maybe...at least a little good has come out of this mess. Maybe I can help someone to believe and trust in The Lord, to not give up, to stand up to adversity, or even just quietly persevere. If anything like that comes of this, that would be great.

So thanks, again, to everyone for the comments. The continuing outpouring of support has been truly humbling.

God bless you all.

New Blog Link

I just wanted to let you know about a new link I put on the blog.

More and more folks have been asking for details of what I have to do in PT, so I created a "Physical Therapy Log." It is just a simple spreadsheet that shows the progression of tasks, weights, reps, etc. that they have me do in each PT session.

I only went back as far as I could reasonably recall details and I'm sure it's pretty close but I doubt it is wholly accurate except for the last couple of days.

Finally, I did not include my "homework" exercises or the specific exercises I do on the platform.

Medical Update and Blog Info

This is gonna be a short one, folks.

First, we had a visit with the surgeon today. After taking some x-rays he came in and took a look. The verdict? Everything looks great! He's VERY happy with the progress both in the healing and in the rehab. In his words, "My part's done. Now it's up to you and the physical therapy people."

Finally, we got every x-ray the surgeon's office has taken and I've added them to the slideshow!

For those that don't know, you can hover your mouse over the slideshow to control it, or you can click on it to go to the album they are in and see all the pics in a larger size.

That's it. G'nite!

So. What's been happening lately?

Hello everyone.

No major announcements. I just thought it may be time to let you in on what we've been working on the past few days.

First, at the last PT, they increased my exercises to 12 reps per set and Monday we'll be going up to 7.5 lb weights. Also, I did 11 minutes, 14 seconds on the treadmill at a new personal highest speed of .7 MPH. It was also decided that our new goal is to get me out of the wheelchair full time as soon as possible. That means we step up my walking exercises to doing it as much as possible. Time to really push the boundaries of my endurance!

On the home front, we did an experiment last night. First, I tried walking from inside to outside for the first time! Outside being down the ramp and into the garage. That was pretty challenging because of the angle of the ramp. It forces me to really flex my ankles and concentrate heavily on my balance. Also, we tinkered with getting me into the van instead of the car. This means using the walker to get out of the wheelchair, take a step or two, then turn to sit in the seat. Quite an exercise in balance and coordination. To sum it up, both experiments went VERY well. So much so that we are now using the van as my primary transport vehicle! Unfortunately that means taking both the wheelchair and the walker everywhere we go since I need to use the walker to stand and transfer between the van and the wheelchair. On the up side, it is much easier for J to get the chair in the van than getting it into the car.

So far, the big challenge in standing and taking a step or two between the van and the wheelchair has been dealing with the different and uneven surfaces encountered in that short time. You wouldn't think that little bit would be a big deal, but it sure is!

We are also working on transferring me between different pieces of furniture in the house by standing using the walker instead if using the sliding board. We went to my office this morning where I needed to do a bit of work. When we left, we brought my office chair home so I can work on transferring to it and so I can use it when I get out of the wheelchair.

Finally, and probably most importantly, we are trying to me to take every opportunity to walk me whenever I need to move from place to place within the house . Of course, I can only do this if the pain and swelling levels are down some and if I have someone to accompany me. Both J and S have been pitching in on this duty. Thanks to both of them!

Well, I suppose that's about it for now. Stay tuned for more.

God bless you all.

PT Update

After a bit of a rough weekend, we headed into physical therapy wondering how it would go.

We weren't there long before Scott announced that today was the day we hit the treadmill!

I have to admit, having NEVER been on a treadmill in my life, I was more than a little apprehensive about getting on one in my current physical state. It turns out I had nothing to worry about.

After the usual manual work on my feet, Scott had me walk over to the treadmill. He showed me how to get on it, explained what we were going to do, then he told me to get on the thing. That first step was the hardest. Stepping up onto it was a bit painful. I stepped up with my left foot so for a moment all my weight was on my right foot, which wasn't too bad. The bad part was when I had to push up with my left foot. I had not done that before and it was a bit rough, but we got through it just fine.

When I got up there, Scott told me a couple more little things, then he hit the button and off I went at a blazing .1 MPH! I took to that machine like you would not believe! I stretched my stride, worked on my gait, worked on foot placement, and much more. It was quite a workout for my feet, knees, legs, and my entire body, especially as Scott worked me up to a mind-numbing .5 MPH! Far too soon it was over. I stepped down off of it without difficulty and walked over to the Total Gym.

I really liked the treadmill. I'm looking forward to using it again! I like the Total Gym, too. It makes me feel more like I'm really rebuilding my legs.

I wonder what Scott has in mind me for me next time!

Another day,another update.

Not much for you today.

Since everything was feeling a bit better, I walked 2 laps again today before doing my usual platform exercises. At the exercises I was bumped up to 6 lbs. of weights which I handled well.

After the platform, I got a bit of a surprise. We went over the the "Total Gym" for the first time!

This machine (see the pic above left and the new pics in the slideshow) works as a kind of anti-gravity device. You law on a sliding board. The board can be angled. The lower the angle, the less weight is put on your feet. At the angle used today, I was pressing about 40% of m body weight. I did this for about 5 minutes and it felt GREAT! As I get stronger, the angle will be raised and the time will be extended.

After the Total Gym I went for another 10 minute ride on the stationary bike.

When that was done I was given some more exercises to add onto the home routine.

Overall, I felt much better and everything went much smoother. I stood up very well, my walking was pretty good, and my balance, range of motion, flexibility, and strength were all improved. As we used to say in The Corps....OOHRAH!

That's it for today! (And that was enough! Sheesh!)

General Update

Hi everyone!

No MAJOR news this time around but on the eve of the day marking 5 months since the accident, I thought I'd post what has been going on lately.

First, you may have noticed I changed the blog layout again. I took out a lot of stuff and added a slideshow. As I collect more pics relating to the accident, they'll show up in the slideshow. But be warned. Some of the pics that will be going up are pretty graphic. They were taken in the ER and during the following hospital stays.

Well, my PT is going in fits and starts, as expected. I started doing better, then I got hit with some pain and swelling so we had to back off a little. That's going to be the normal routine from here on out.

Two PT sessions ago I walked 2 laps around the room (about 300 feet). I had help and was very much using my walker of course, but I walked with my head up, with better flow, and my balance was better. It was good enough that I got the OK to carefully, and with supervision, walk around the house 2 or 3 times per day. Which I have started doing.

Walking at home is a LOT different than walking at PT. The carpet at PT is that unpadded, industrial stuff. At home we have padded carpet or the stone tiles. The tiles aren't too bad except it is a rather rough surface and the grout lines are something to experience. The carpet is a whole other problem. Between the padding and the swelling in my feet, it feels like I am walking with water balloons strapped to the bottoms of my feet! That really affects my senses of balance and stability!

With all this walking, exercise, standing, transferring without the sliding board (meaning I stand up as I move between my chair and other things), comes a rather unpleasant side effect...increased swelling. So now I'm finding myself with my feet up either in my wheelchair leg supports or, when it REALLY gets bad, back in bed. I'm spending more time working and such in bed again than I have since shortly after leaving the hospital (which was 4 months ago today, by the way).

On a completely different subject, you more observant folks out there will notice in some of the slideshow pics that I am wearing Crocs. Yes, Crocs...on MY feet. When these things first came out I SWORE I'd never spend that kinda money on ugly plastic shoes. Well, I have 3 pair and may get more.

When I started PT, they said I'd need some kind of shoes or something to cover my feet when I'm on the equipment and when I start walking. Well, OK. We thought we could easily find some oversize tennis shoes or something. We were wrong. I tried on shoes up a size 16E and could not find ANYTHING that would accommodate the swelling without looking like clown shoes.

Then we spied some Crocs and tried them just for the heck of it. And whaddaya know. They fit great because the wide opening and wide toes accommodate the swelling very well. Also, they are surprisingly comfortable, provide pretty good support, the sole and material provides good padding and decent traction, they are very lightweight but provide some protection, and the inside sole surface kinda massages and helps desensitize my feet. Who'd-a thunk it? So now I have 2 pair in my regular size 12 for normal wear and a pair of 13's that fit well when the swelling is up.

Well, That about does it for now. I think, by-and-large, I am now in a routine with my PT, both in the work I do and how I respond to it. There will be good days and not-so-good days. All I can do is trust in the Lord and keep working to get my strength and abilities back as soon as possible.