So most of my verbal spew on this blog tends to be on the lighter side of this whole shit show I'm involved in. This one is just going to spell it out, just as things are. Today I really felt reasonably recovered from the surgery. General Anesthetic is an ass kicker, I'd happily revert back to Orthepedic monkeys stripping bone screws all day over getting conked out and getting intimately involved with a scalpal and searing surgery lights.
Tuesday went well, I rolled into the surgical bay and was met by Raj and 5 onlooking prospective neural people. Apparently my injury comes around once every avalanche cycle, so the theater seats were opened and the practical learning began. The anthesisiologist informed me I wasn't gonna remember much after this and the next thing I knew I was vomiting over Nurse Susie's new shoes about 5 hours later. I'll tell you though, I remember going into that surgery with pants on! I sure didn't come out of it with any on. What's up with that, my arms are no where near that region! I guess we'll never know.
Anyway, after dropping my guts Raj came in, smile on his face. I guess that should be a good thing? He found the issue with the upper arm, muscularcutaneous nerve. Trauma, contusion, neuroma to the nerve around the break. Minor brachial plexus injury. Intervention, graft new nerve in and cut out the scarred up nastiness.
So thats exactly what he did.
This is good news, it doesn't mean everything is going fix but the chances have improved. Better than 2 months ago when I was told to get used to not having an arm any more...
The battle continues, now there's a light.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
One more week
One more week until I hit the Gurnee again and go under for another knife job. I can't wait. My bicep now is about the size of a beer can.
No, I didn't hit my head as it may seem here. This is me flexing my bicep, kinda thing you do on the beach while twirling a cane.
I've added a few more shots from our trip below.
This is me sun tanning, Arab style. I learned alot from my time in the hottest places on earth, never expose thy skin! The texan lady behind isn't reaching for sun tan lotion either, more like a 12 gauge.
And this is the girl who stole my cane a couple times, leaving me stuck in the roomwatching BBC World. She may be the toe paint perpetrator as well!
No, I didn't hit my head as it may seem here. This is me flexing my bicep, kinda thing you do on the beach while twirling a cane.
I've added a few more shots from our trip below.
This is me sun tanning, Arab style. I learned alot from my time in the hottest places on earth, never expose thy skin! The texan lady behind isn't reaching for sun tan lotion either, more like a 12 gauge.
And this is the girl who stole my cane a couple times, leaving me stuck in the roomwatching BBC World. She may be the toe paint perpetrator as well!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Mexico and Back!
Alright, first of all I have to apologize to everyone for not putting a half reasonable post up within the last moon cycle. Thanks for the kick in the ass Rebecca and Will.To be honest, it's been pretty dark of late but a recent trip to Mexico to get things rolling has made a real difference.
As you can see from he picture I'm up and running, on a cane now. Or as I fondly refer to myself, The Tripod. Here we're in Mexico takin a breather...
The past month has been nothing short of eventful. I'll start at the beginning to make thing chronologically clearer for everyone. After leaving the hospital in March I didn't think i would be ever going back, but as usual surprises keep rearing up at all points. This particular occasion my family and I were at a wedding party for an old family friend, at the Georgetown (pub in Canmore). Lots of people, boozin, good times all in all. Half way through dinner my chest was hit by some preverbial sledge hammer to the chest (not really but it felt like it), for some reason I couldn't breath. With half a burger in my hand I attempted to regain my breath but every in take of air just lead to a sharp flesh shredding pain to my left lung, at first it felt very much like the feeling I had experienced after collapsing my lung when I was 18. My brother ran off for the wheel chair, at the time I was still hardly mobile, and my dad the car so they could get me to the hospital. Surprise, back in the ringer for another round I thought.
Getting into emerge worked pretty quick and I was managing to keep myself relaxed so that I could get enough air into my system. Entering the Emergency was like entering a high school reunion, every nurse and doctor I new personally from my days not long before. Relaxed and jokingly they greeted me, taking the piss "back already hey Ben?!".
The pain began to subside and the breaths became deeper. The Doc though was very concerned about blood clots, which are deadly and happen to people in my position who have experienced extensive trauma. Back in the ambulance and off to the foothills again, "yeeaa hah" I thought as they wheeled me off the floor.
As usual a 12 hour wait at foothills proceeded, CT scans, X-Rays, the full gammit. Fortunetly no blood clots but no real answers either. They released me a day later.
"What the hell just happened" I thought?
Anyway, time passed had no problems with my lung at all until a couple weeks ago, that story I'll leave for my next post...
Most of you are probably wondering how things are progressing, outside of the occasional unpredicted bout like above the healing has been going as planned, except for the arm.A while back I went into my most recent arm exam with my neuro guy. Nothing is expected at the moment with my radial nerve but n improvement with my muscularcutaneous nerve either. I guess thats what you get from trying close line a 6inch diameter popular going 40 km/h...
So, surgery 13th of May. This is going to be kind of intimidating, its one of those deals where you go under the knife not knowing whether your going to come out with a minor scraping of scar tissue off the nerve and slap on the healing pelvis out the door or come out with calf implants (not sure what these are but I guess they exist). Basically they dont know what to do until they get in there, that means minor surgery of scar tissue removal, nerve grafts, muscle transfers who knows. What I can say is that anything though will be better than the current situ of not being able to bend the arm at all. I'm pretty confident this neuro guy can hook me up with a functional limb...
So thats the arm info, I guess we'll know more after the 13th. The pelvis is healing well, hobling around the cane is no prob. The leg still has a gap between the tibia, so during the same surgery for the arm they are going to add scrapings off my hip and throw them in the leg, otherwise known as a bone graft.
my bone doctor ran me through a pretty good adventure just after I had seen my neurosurgeon. Going to Calgary and I thought I'd be just going in for a routine x-ray and to talk about how my leg and arm were healing. to my surprise, he mentioned that my left leg actually was about a half centimeters longer than my right leg. He stated to me he wanted to take screws out right then and there to see if the left leg would decompress as I start to walk around more. I said "you want to take screws are right now ?". He said, "Yah, its routine". So, he shuffled me into a private room in the cast clinic, busted out his surgical unit injected me with a small amount of freezing into my upper Tapia and cut me open. One hour later, he was still digging around with a screwdriver. And after to much time he began swearing like a construction worker. I told him that "there's only two people to be concerned about swearing around you. one is your helicopter pilot and the second is your doctor. I told them, now I've experienced both what the hell is going on down there?". he looked at me and said, "they gave me the wrong screwdriver", and then walked out into the main lobby and told a nurse that he needed x86 screwdriver stat, I thought to myself, that is the only time I've ever heard that referred to me in a serious sense... I thought construction workers justy do this, Doctors?
30 minutes later he came back with a screwdriver. By that time the freezing and worn off, and have a screwdriver fit and he started turning. I can tell you that it was not a pleasant experience, just another adventure dealing with this whole thing.
I drove home hoping not to get gang green to the wound from our trip to Mexico.
As you can see from he picture I'm up and running, on a cane now. Or as I fondly refer to myself, The Tripod. Here we're in Mexico takin a breather...
The past month has been nothing short of eventful. I'll start at the beginning to make thing chronologically clearer for everyone. After leaving the hospital in March I didn't think i would be ever going back, but as usual surprises keep rearing up at all points. This particular occasion my family and I were at a wedding party for an old family friend, at the Georgetown (pub in Canmore). Lots of people, boozin, good times all in all. Half way through dinner my chest was hit by some preverbial sledge hammer to the chest (not really but it felt like it), for some reason I couldn't breath. With half a burger in my hand I attempted to regain my breath but every in take of air just lead to a sharp flesh shredding pain to my left lung, at first it felt very much like the feeling I had experienced after collapsing my lung when I was 18. My brother ran off for the wheel chair, at the time I was still hardly mobile, and my dad the car so they could get me to the hospital. Surprise, back in the ringer for another round I thought.
Getting into emerge worked pretty quick and I was managing to keep myself relaxed so that I could get enough air into my system. Entering the Emergency was like entering a high school reunion, every nurse and doctor I new personally from my days not long before. Relaxed and jokingly they greeted me, taking the piss "back already hey Ben?!".
The pain began to subside and the breaths became deeper. The Doc though was very concerned about blood clots, which are deadly and happen to people in my position who have experienced extensive trauma. Back in the ambulance and off to the foothills again, "yeeaa hah" I thought as they wheeled me off the floor.
As usual a 12 hour wait at foothills proceeded, CT scans, X-Rays, the full gammit. Fortunetly no blood clots but no real answers either. They released me a day later.
"What the hell just happened" I thought?
Anyway, time passed had no problems with my lung at all until a couple weeks ago, that story I'll leave for my next post...
Most of you are probably wondering how things are progressing, outside of the occasional unpredicted bout like above the healing has been going as planned, except for the arm.A while back I went into my most recent arm exam with my neuro guy. Nothing is expected at the moment with my radial nerve but n improvement with my muscularcutaneous nerve either. I guess thats what you get from trying close line a 6inch diameter popular going 40 km/h...
So, surgery 13th of May. This is going to be kind of intimidating, its one of those deals where you go under the knife not knowing whether your going to come out with a minor scraping of scar tissue off the nerve and slap on the healing pelvis out the door or come out with calf implants (not sure what these are but I guess they exist). Basically they dont know what to do until they get in there, that means minor surgery of scar tissue removal, nerve grafts, muscle transfers who knows. What I can say is that anything though will be better than the current situ of not being able to bend the arm at all. I'm pretty confident this neuro guy can hook me up with a functional limb...
So thats the arm info, I guess we'll know more after the 13th. The pelvis is healing well, hobling around the cane is no prob. The leg still has a gap between the tibia, so during the same surgery for the arm they are going to add scrapings off my hip and throw them in the leg, otherwise known as a bone graft.
my bone doctor ran me through a pretty good adventure just after I had seen my neurosurgeon. Going to Calgary and I thought I'd be just going in for a routine x-ray and to talk about how my leg and arm were healing. to my surprise, he mentioned that my left leg actually was about a half centimeters longer than my right leg. He stated to me he wanted to take screws out right then and there to see if the left leg would decompress as I start to walk around more. I said "you want to take screws are right now ?". He said, "Yah, its routine". So, he shuffled me into a private room in the cast clinic, busted out his surgical unit injected me with a small amount of freezing into my upper Tapia and cut me open. One hour later, he was still digging around with a screwdriver. And after to much time he began swearing like a construction worker. I told him that "there's only two people to be concerned about swearing around you. one is your helicopter pilot and the second is your doctor. I told them, now I've experienced both what the hell is going on down there?". he looked at me and said, "they gave me the wrong screwdriver", and then walked out into the main lobby and told a nurse that he needed x86 screwdriver stat, I thought to myself, that is the only time I've ever heard that referred to me in a serious sense... I thought construction workers justy do this, Doctors?
30 minutes later he came back with a screwdriver. By that time the freezing and worn off, and have a screwdriver fit and he started turning. I can tell you that it was not a pleasant experience, just another adventure dealing with this whole thing.
I drove home hoping not to get gang green to the wound from our trip to Mexico.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Numero Dos Examinationo
I've been neglecting my Blog duties of late. I've been hunkered down in disciplinary Physio and wellness accumulation of late. Full bore. Not much of an update as far as the arm goes, but I guess thats expected. We shouldn't see anything for another few months even if all the nerves get working again.
My month of training to be a geriatric (practicing with the use of a walker) has thankfully come to an end.I'm on a cane now which I see as a much more civilized form of transportation. No Doctor has ok'd it, I guess I could be stumbling around just a piece of rod (the one drilled down my tibia). I'll find out more about that this Wednesday. Tomorrow I'm off to see my NeuroSurgeon again. Basically he'll decide whether or not I'll be going into surgery or not at the beginning of May to probe around my bicep for a functioning nerve...
I'll brief further manyana
My month of training to be a geriatric (practicing with the use of a walker) has thankfully come to an end.I'm on a cane now which I see as a much more civilized form of transportation. No Doctor has ok'd it, I guess I could be stumbling around just a piece of rod (the one drilled down my tibia). I'll find out more about that this Wednesday. Tomorrow I'm off to see my NeuroSurgeon again. Basically he'll decide whether or not I'll be going into surgery or not at the beginning of May to probe around my bicep for a functioning nerve...
I'll brief further manyana
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Freedom
There's about 60 seperate reasons about this picture that are "Bon".
First of all it may not seem obvious to all but the location of this is greater than 500 meters of the nearest hospital, which means to those who don't know I've extricated myself from the hospital. Permanently. Yep, 2 1/2 months and they've willingly released my ass. Thats a good thing. My doctor and the hospital has given me probationary leave, meaning they've released me to my parents place. 20 days until I turn 30, nothing like living with my parents again. As usual they have been nothing more than amazing during this whole thing, even after scaring the $#%# out of them for 29 years. Seen as I have about 2 appointments a week and 6 different doctors and Phyisio's to see in Canmore and Calgary heading back to Squamish isn't really in the books for the next while, thankfully my house is renting out with minimal complications, which is unusual.
As you can see as well my truck landed back in the Can. Fresh from sitting in Squam and from Utah where a bought it back in October. I've never been a motorhead, but needless to say I'm pretty psyched on this thing even though I'm having trouble climbing into the cab and the biggest crux of the day is even managing to get down the 10 degree slope needed access the door. Don't tell anyone but I'm not supposed to be driving, I say I've never been more prepared, most people drive with one arm, and most with one leg. Most of all I've been sitting and on my back so long being strapped into the seat is as familiar as snuggling up to my favorite foothills gurnee. I figure I'll make my way back into the club. I'm human again, I can get around, stumble my way into houses and clinics under my own power. Ahh the silver bullet, good to have it back. By the way it's for sale.
You may not notice from the pixilation but there is a shimmering and fresh disabled parking tag hanging from the rearview. I had a dream. A quick comment, Canmore needs a more disabled parking, I spent all of friday driving around and managed to find all four. You'll find me hanging out in front of Safeway and Rusticana for the next 2 months.
The high grade ergonomic walker rental is my constant companion, I'm managing to hop around with my right leg, meaning the pelvis and sacrum break is pretty well healed, although it doesn't necessarily feel like that when I wake up in the morning. The tibia shattered break is taking it time, which isn't uncommon. Most people would use crutches but the arm situ negates the use of them, therefore I get to practice being a geriatric for the while. And last to note is the yellow flagging, kind of like a reflector so when I'm crossing the street I'm visible to oncoming traffic.
Onto more serious things, many of you have been wondering how the past week has gone as I've been in touch with two peripheral nerve specialists both brought in to give there opinion on whether or not they think they can get my arm running properly again. Since leaving the hospital and trying to get back into a some what normal existence having my arm back would be nice. This may seem weird but its almost harder the more normal things become because the difficulties really begin to present themselves, for example it takes me about 10 minutes to do a zipper up. Just annoying. It'd be nice to climb again, even if it was 5.9.
Monday I met with Dr.Midha. Strong with the peripheral nerve force Midha is, possibly the most Yoda'ish in Canada. His synopsis was a minor brachial plexus stretch and a major traction injury to the muscularcutaneous nerve which works the bicep. This better news from what I was originally hearing but more importantly solidified my beliefs on the subject. Rule number 86, take great heed to what YOU may think the issue is when dealing with medical issues. You live with the condition.
Basically if nothing improves by beggining of May then he wants to dip in with the scalpal. Anything can happen from there as it could mean a whole variety of htings to simple diagnostic tests or nerve transfers. Basically the use of my arm is still up in the air, and more waiting, patiently, without a real diagnosis...
The second specialist basically reiterated the first which I appreciated, but I'm still considering going to see a specialist in the States and selling the house in Squam. Seems like a reasonable trade. I've been referred also to a sports Physiarist, not really sure what a Physiatrist does but I believe more heads the better.
So, I'm at my parents place for the next ? how long, working on the computer, coding (By the way for those of you in Vancouver, www.vancouver-traffic.com is up and running) and hanging out with "bob" the dog and hanging out. Feel free to drop by.
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