Beyond the Spine

So my spine has been stabilized and seems to be in good working order. Of course it is still stiff, painful, and needs a brace when I am out of bed, but all in all, is in decent working order. Just to fill in the blanks though, there are some other ailments from the accident that I'll talk about to let you know what I am working with in rehab.

As the doctors told me right after the operation, I was lucky and should be thankful that my body did what it was suppose to do. Namely, my bones took the brunt of the impact. There were many fractures but my skeleton absorbed the shock and protected my vital organs from major damage. Other than a quick flare up of the pancreas everything was left in tact, and for the force of the accident the doctors were very impressed with the lack of trauma to the organs.

Of course, that now means I am rehabbing with a host of minor and major ailments. First and foremost I have 5 or 6 fractures in my ribs. These are all expected to heal just fine but as many of you probably know, they heal slow, are easily aggravated, and can be very painful.

The frustrating thing is that each limb has its own problem. Some minor, some a little more worrisome. As for the left arm I have a fracture in the clavicle. It is not bad, although makes a funny bump on my shoulder, but the break is close to some ligaments. If I was to aggravate it in rehab it could damage the ligaments and mean another surgery, so for now, I keep it in a sling during workouts and it will be reexamined in a week or so.

I also have a fracture in my pelvis, it is thin and and doctors are not too concerned but the fracture does extend down into my hip bone. I just got the thumbs up to do weight bearing on it, but I would lying if I said it wasn't painful. It is frustrating because each small movement can set it off leaving me with shots of discomfort shooting through my body. Even with the pain, weight bearing means I am able to practice walking, so I will gladly work through some discomfort if it means I am able to walk.

The right leg is a bit worrisome. The right foot has nerve damage. Other than the instep of the foot I can't feel anything. I am able to move my toes downward and just a bit upward but not much else. This is a direct result of the location of the spinal injury. Based on the movement the doctors believe that feeling will return to my foot, but they say it may take some time, many months, possibly over a year to return, none the less the outlook is positive. It does make it hard to walk though when you can't feel your foot, and may mean I wear a brace for some months after I leave rehab.

And lastly my right arm. This is another area of nerve damage. It is not directly related to the spinal injury but probably more related to the flailing limbs in the crash. The doctors believe that I pulled, stretched, and damaged some nerves in my arm, and the results are a host of ailments throughout the limb. The thumb and pointer finger are painful, kind of an interior pain that hurts and tingles. The rest of the arm has a bit of a pins and needles feeling and an overall weakness to it. The wrist is extremely weak, picking up a one pound weight causes the wrist to crack at the joint and droop down. I can't fully extend the arm due to tightness. And lastly certain muscle movements are comically weak. All of this I am rehabbing, small workouts of all the individual ailments, and improvement has been pretty impressive already.

Each day the parts get just a little stronger, with a little more force, with a bit more range. Its encouraging but slow, very slow. It is nice to see improvement. And now that I can put weight on the left leg I am back to practicing walking. Two days ago I walked without assistance from the physical therapists, and with the aid of only one crutch. Fred Astaire I am not, but damn it it felt good to do it on my own. To feel a sense of independence, mixed of course with a sense of fear. The funny thing about rehab, each new movement is frightening, will my body do this or that? But after the first time, the second time is easier, and easier still after that, until you place that little bit of movement or action into the 'Can' folder instead of the 'Can't' folder.