My 2nd week

So, I know it's been a while. Tomorrow marks week two of discharge (from the hospital, no infections going on here or anything like that). The last week has been hard to describe. I still feel areas of numbness in the feet and legs. The daily therapy is going well, but in my mind things are moving much slower than expected. However, the "baby step" process of retraining neuro-brain communication is still the best practice in the long run. I am one to get moving fast, but the wise PT team keeps me moving progressively and sequentially, a longer but certainly more worthwhile sequential regimen in the long term.

So, my feelings this point are a mixed bag of impatience, optimism, and seeing an opportunity to finally slow down for real in life. Being one that likes to always be on the go, to be busy with a full schedule of responsibilities, it is certainly a hard adjustment not doing much outside of exercise and resting. My back incision still has healing to do, and I have to realize that rest is best at this point.

My pre-conceived timeline of milestones based on other patient's experiences has to be thrown out the window at this point. My body is unique with its developmental strengths and weaknesses and comparing to others is not wise.

The most pain is felt in the middle of the night. My PT equates this to daily muscular training which in all honesty, I've never done, at least not correctly with muscle firing in correct sequences. So, sleep is bad, but pain meds are good. I usually only wake up once, take my pills and am good til morning. Be sure that I am not over-working. I have a morning routine of 20 mins, my daily therapy visit of one hour, then another evening routine of 20mins.

I am feeling stronger, but still using the walker. It is too easy at this point to let the body go back into old habits, which is counter-productive to this whole process. So, I purposely use the walker and purposely move slow to retrain the body through clear, precise feedback. It really is a game of re-wiring the system. It will be, as expected, a long process.

I appreciate all the comments and emails, I do read them all! It is not easy to respond personally to all of them, which is why this blog was created in the first place...to keep communication open to all those adoring fans in one central location.

So, in conclusion, although I do not see drastic changes, those who treat me do. They are who I must trust over my own impatient need to be self-ambulatory after two weeks of major spinal surgery. I am curious to compare these thoughts to those of next week.

Thanks for reading and for the thoughts, prayers, and good wishes!

Ken