Today we went to see the occupational therapists at St. David's to get me evaluated for being able to drive. I went there just KNOWING they were gonna find a reason - ANY reason - to keep me grounded so they could make me do a bunch more therapy so they could milk us for more insurance money. Yeah, I've grown more than a little skeptical of the system.
At first they asked a bunch of questions, tested my balance a bit, tested my upper body strength and control, and then tested my eyesight. Then they tested my reaction time on what I can only call a pedal simulator.
This involved pressing a 'gas pedal' until a red light came on then hitting the 'brake pedal' as fast as I could. My reaction time was less than stellar, but it was not that far off the expected norm.
Next up? A real driving test.
We (The therapist and I. J had to stay behind) climbed in a 2002 Impala (VERY similar to ours) that had been rigged with a passenger side brake and hand control for the driver. The evaluator took the wheel and drove us to the local mall parking lot. Then I took over.
First we drove around the lot a bit, just letting me get used to things. The next phase involved her telling me to stop and seeing how well and quickly I reacted.
The first time I was kinda in la-la-land, just enjoying driving again so when she said stop, I didn't even hardly hear her, so my time there was pretty bad. After that it got better. After doing that for a while she had me hit the streets! In downtown Austin! We drove all the way from about 32nd Street down to Riverside Dr. via the frontage road. She left it up to me where to go from there so I tested my route to work and drove into the Statesman lot and out the other side onto Congress Ave., turned left up to Cesar Chavez, then down to I35. I turned left onto the frontage road there and drove back to the hospital.
Along the way we encountered our fair share of kooks as you will inevitable do when driving in Austin and I handled them all almost as well as I ever have.
When we got back, I was bracing my self for the inevitable news that more therapy was going to be required when she declared I can drive again with NO restrictions! I was shocked! Pleasantly, but shocked nonetheless!
When we got back into the clinic I told J it was bad news. (Pause for effect) I was allowed to drive! She looked kinda surprised too. Or was that apprehension and fear? I'm not sure.
Anyway, I need to start locally and develop my timing and reaction time before venturing farther out. I'll start with short local runs and working on my reaction times in parking lots and gradually build up to driving to PT and other local areas, then to getting on the tollway to practice maneuvering at speed, then it'll be on to I35 a bit, then driving to work again!
To quote Mel Gibson in Braveheart... FREEDOM! ;)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
It's been a while....
...and a lot has been happening.
First off, we have passed the 1 year anniversaries of the accident, my first surgery, and going home. We didn't do anything special for any of them, but they were a good time to pause and reflect a bit.
I am walking a lot more now. Not to say there still isn't a lot of discomfort and difficulties, but I'm dealing with it as best I can. That being said, there are moments when my ankles and stuff really don't hurt much at all (if any), even while walking. That's a welcome relief when it happens. My forefeet and soles are still always sore and I suppose will be for some time to come yet.
I am now down to 1 PT session a week to help spread them out and keep costs down in case insurance gives us fits again. We are still fighting with them over several sessions from last year.
To supplement the PT, we have joined the Baca Senior & Community Center and the Madsen Recreation Center. Both provide weight rooms, classes, Billiards rooms (actually helps my balance and range of motion), and other stuff. The Madsen center also boasts a pool, a walking track indoors around the basketball courts, and more. We try to get to either of those once a day, although we have not been very good about going on the weekends. We need to work on that.
I've also hit a new milestone. Last Friday I started coming into work on my own. No, I'm not driving yet. They have a shuttle service here called CARTS. I call them up and can get door-to-door service just about anywhere. It takes about 2 hours to get to work, but I can get there. It's nice to be back out amongst the folks again. Getting home is a pain, however. They want to pick me up around 1 and that doesn't leave much time for work. But a friend of ours works not too far from me and she has offered to bring me home each day. And, if needs be, there are 2 other folks that I work with that live near us that have offered to give me a lift if I need it.
But speaking of driving...
Dr. D has said I am clear to drive as far as he is concerned, but J want s something in writing, so I am scheduled to see an occupational therapist that will do an eval on me to see if, in their opinion, I am good to drive. If they don't think so, they have a program to help with that. In the mean time we may head to the Dell Diamond parking lot and let me try a little driving just to get a bit of the feel of it back and let me know where I stand.
I'm also trying to do a little more around the house. Airing up tire, feeding dogs, sweeping a bit, and other stuff. The more I use these feet, the sooner they are gonna feel better.
To cap it all off, I've stopped sleeping with my feet up. It hasn't seemed to make any difference on he swelling or how they feel in the morning and it is FAR more comfortable, so maybe I can sleep that way permanently now...or at least until the next surgery if it comes to that.
That's about it. It doesn't sound like much, but they have been some pretty big steps for me!
First off, we have passed the 1 year anniversaries of the accident, my first surgery, and going home. We didn't do anything special for any of them, but they were a good time to pause and reflect a bit.
I am walking a lot more now. Not to say there still isn't a lot of discomfort and difficulties, but I'm dealing with it as best I can. That being said, there are moments when my ankles and stuff really don't hurt much at all (if any), even while walking. That's a welcome relief when it happens. My forefeet and soles are still always sore and I suppose will be for some time to come yet.
I am now down to 1 PT session a week to help spread them out and keep costs down in case insurance gives us fits again. We are still fighting with them over several sessions from last year.
To supplement the PT, we have joined the Baca Senior & Community Center and the Madsen Recreation Center. Both provide weight rooms, classes, Billiards rooms (actually helps my balance and range of motion), and other stuff. The Madsen center also boasts a pool, a walking track indoors around the basketball courts, and more. We try to get to either of those once a day, although we have not been very good about going on the weekends. We need to work on that.
I've also hit a new milestone. Last Friday I started coming into work on my own. No, I'm not driving yet. They have a shuttle service here called CARTS. I call them up and can get door-to-door service just about anywhere. It takes about 2 hours to get to work, but I can get there. It's nice to be back out amongst the folks again. Getting home is a pain, however. They want to pick me up around 1 and that doesn't leave much time for work. But a friend of ours works not too far from me and she has offered to bring me home each day. And, if needs be, there are 2 other folks that I work with that live near us that have offered to give me a lift if I need it.
But speaking of driving...
Dr. D has said I am clear to drive as far as he is concerned, but J want s something in writing, so I am scheduled to see an occupational therapist that will do an eval on me to see if, in their opinion, I am good to drive. If they don't think so, they have a program to help with that. In the mean time we may head to the Dell Diamond parking lot and let me try a little driving just to get a bit of the feel of it back and let me know where I stand.
I'm also trying to do a little more around the house. Airing up tire, feeding dogs, sweeping a bit, and other stuff. The more I use these feet, the sooner they are gonna feel better.
To cap it all off, I've stopped sleeping with my feet up. It hasn't seemed to make any difference on he swelling or how they feel in the morning and it is FAR more comfortable, so maybe I can sleep that way permanently now...or at least until the next surgery if it comes to that.
That's about it. It doesn't sound like much, but they have been some pretty big steps for me!
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