Waiting

I’ve been back from Portugal for over a month now and I’m still waiting to find out when I will be starting therapy in Detroit. The interest that is being generated by the various reports about the operation I underwent in Portugal has created a logjam of patients waiting to receive therapy. Rehab Institute is in the process of hiring more therapists to accommodate everyone. Hopefully, I will begin my therapy beginning in June; although the fact that they haven’t been able to pin down a starting date for me yet, has been frustrating.

One of the reasons I’m so anxious to begin therapy, aside from staving off extreme boredom, is that in these reports of what other patients are accomplishing, I keep reading of goals they’ve recently achieved that I’ve surpassed months ago. And in most cases, my injury was more recent than these other patients. It makes me want to know what more I will get back as I undergo the rehabilitation process myself.

In related news, in conjunction with the CBS News report, the Free Press ran another article following up on Cortney Hoffman’s progress. Yours truly received some anonymous publicity in the article. In the section entitled “Making Progress,” in the second to last paragraph of that section, my recovery thus far is acknowledged. I’m one of the patients described as having “temporary loss of sensation,” and a “type of meningitis infection.” Those may not seem like things to go tooting one’s own horn about, but keep in mind we’re talking about being one of only two people to experience those complications in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD (of the relatively small sample of 52 patients, to date, who’ve undergone this one, experimental procedure)!

So in the time being, I’ve got that going for me.

If you want to read the article, point out my section to your friends, coworkers, neighbors, etc. and say, “I know one of these guys,” click here.

It's Not C.S.I., but...

Here's the link to last night's CBS evening news segment that profiled the surgery and some of the patients who are undergoing rehab in Detroit.

This is Lumbar Puncture!

If you didn’t notice, and judging by the lack of messages on my answering machine when I got home yesterday, you didn’t, I’ve been lying low at U of M hospital since midday Tuesday. I went to the ER with a massive headache that started early Monday afternoon and hadn’t dissipated at all through the rest of that day and was still prevalent Tuesday morning. I was thinking that is was dealing with a condition that people with SCI get called autonomic dysreflexia, which is a way the body reacts when there is a problem going on below the site of a person’s injury that the person can’t detect because of the injury. Usually, things like sores or ingrown toenails or even something as simple as needing to go to the bathroom will trigger autonomic dysreflexia; and how a person knows they are experiencing it will be headache or elevated blood pressure or even just feeling very flushed.

So, I went into the ER explaining that I had this headache and when I told the doctors that I had just recently returned from Portugal after having my surgery, that’s when things got a little more complicated. I was subjected to the usual testing: vital signs, blood draws, urine samples. The doctors were concerned about a possible infection relating to the surgery, so they wanted to get a lumbar puncture, a procedure I wasn’t thrilled about undergoing. One of the diamond-in-the-rough benefits of a SCI, though, is the overall lack of sensation when experiencing certain medical treatments. Because the spinal tap is performed so low on the back I really couldn’t feel a thing, which I’m assuming is a real plus with that procedure. The results of the spinal tap did show a high white blood cell count in my spinal fluid, so I was admitted overnight to get an MRI and I ended up staying through until Thursday afternoon. I’m being treated for bacterial meningitis, even though none of the cultures came back positive. I guess I have several of the symptoms, but no real evidence of having meningitis.

I’m home now, needing to be hooked up to two different IV antibiotics every twelve hours, which is always a blast. Since I started on the IVs, my headache has gone away and I do feel better, so hopefully this doesn’t set me back any farther.

News Of the Day

It's probably kind of ridiculous that I, of all people, don't have a primary care physician, but I don't. I mean, who goes to the doctor? I never really needed one before my accident, so when it comes to things like getting surgical staples removed those of us without primary care physicians need to go to the urgent care clinic. That means I get to answer questions from befuddled nurses like, “who put the staples in for you?” and “why didn't your doctor take these out?” After establishing the fact that I brought them back as a souvenir from Portugal, where I underwent an experimental surgery, I had the staples removed. Not a very difficult procedure, but just painful enough to make you wince and distract you as you try to keep a count. I think the total was somewhere in the 12 to 15 range. The doctor asked if I wanted to keep them, but I declined.

I've posted pictures in the photo gallery from Portugal, and I added captions to the old ones, but I think the old ones are pretty self-explanatory by now. Most of the pictures are from after my surgery, so you see me in yet another neck brace. I've decided that neck braces are a good way to eliminate a person's photogenic qualities. Hopefully, I'm done having the back of my neck laid open, and having doctors play around with my spinal cord. I think twice is twice is more than enough, so I'm guessing I've used up my quota. Dr. Lima did however save some of my extra olfactory cells, just in case down the line I need some sort of recharge.

By my calculations, I saw about 1.5 km of Lisbon, and that would not have been possible without my parents helping me up and over the uncut curbs and pushing me down the cobblestone sidewalks of the area around hospital. Lisbon was not wheelchair friendly, but I didn't really expect it to be. I'm sure there will be future American patients that go there and come away amazed by how inaccessible Lisbon is, but I think it's important to keep in mind that (a) it's Europe and (b) the city is also hundreds of years old. Those aspects of Lisbon that make it difficult for me to get around—the hills, cobblestone sidewalks, narrow streets, etc.—are also the same things that give the place character and that attract tourists to Lisbon in the first place. People don't travel to New York City to marvel at the wide sidewalks and curb cut outs. It isn't those types of things that attract people to visit place. That's not to say it wouldn't take too much to make it more wheelchair accessible, and maybe as more and more people go there to work with Dr. Lima, improvements will be made. I would definitely go back. It's a pretty place, and the weather this time of year was great compared to how slowly spring comes around in this part of the world. But, if there is ever reason for me to go back to Lisbon, hopefully the improved wheelchair accessibility, or lack thereof, will be a moot point.

For now, I have about a week to rest up until I go down to Rehab Institute of Michigan to meet with Dr. Hinderer about starting their physical therapy program. So until then, I should be around my apartment most of the time if you want to drop me a line.