Discharge

I am not one to fear hospitals, in fact the though of having someone else take care of everything while I sleep is something I find particularly attractive however, there are certain circumstances where even I just can’t wait to get out. Today was one of those situations. I awoke fairly mobile but unable to get out and walk due to the IV in my hand. I was therefore reduced to peeing into a bed bottle (something that is harder than you would imagine) and counting the hours until the nice nurse came on to shift to get the medieval torture device out of my arm. After what seemed like an eternity of medications, discharge documentation, visits from doctors, surgeons and physiotherapists I was finally told I could leave. I packed up my meagre possessions and limped out of the ward to my first real challenge, walking to the hotel, a mere 50 metres from the Hospital. I knew that the walk wouldn’t be as bad as the car ride and I was right. Sitting in my usually plush seats was excruciating for me, and as much as I love the drive up the DVP on a sunny day I was driven to distraction by what felt like my non-existent stitches ripping out of my scar one by one. We had to make quick stops for medication but we got to the house as quickly as possible where I was faced with what seemed like a pleasant choice pre-surgery. Was it to be the recliner or the bed? To my surprise I felt like the only solution was to take the memory foam topper off the mattress and use the bed. Since laying on the memory foam was incredibly painful it was actually a real treat to lay on a relatively firm mattress. Sure, it wasn’t the adjustable bed I had been used to over the last 48 hours but at least it was bearable. I spent the rest of the day (which by this time was actually the evening) trying to get more sleep and gauging just how well I could do without the Percocets.

The answer, surprisingly was that I could make it through on lack of sleep and one Perc every 4 hours.

When it rains…

Our Bell satellite TV is playing up, this evening in fact I can’t even boot the damn receiver any more. Lightning, our cat, has been sick the last few weeks and we finally decided to take him to the vet to find out what is wrong. We are still waiting for those results. Add my wife being sick in the one country in the world where you don’t want to get sick, ‘merica and you have what is turning out to be a rich tapestry of my life. I am sitting on the recliner, having been told that it’s the best place for me by my physio, down to 1 Percocet at a time and marvelling at what a massive contrast my last surgery was to this one.

Yesterday we left the house at 515am, tired child requesting timbits and the two of us bleary eyed trying to get to the Preop lounge at St. Mikes by 6am. And when I say lounge, this place looks like the setting for the opening scene of a Hitchcock movie which at that time of the day is a little bizarre. I had been dropped off, since there was really no use in having the whole family present while I waited around to be prepped for surgery, and after a relatively short stay in the boudoir of Madame  Surgerypants I was whisked off to have my gown strategically placed across parts of my body as I tried in vain to play twister with my bodyparts and a handkerchief. It wasn’t long before I was in the OR ready to go, I was told to take deep breaths and as I commented on the fact it was raining on my face in Chile I was out.

I awoke to an all too familiar feeling of what can only be described as a clothes iron being rolled slowly up and down my spine, pointy end first. To be honest, I was immediately aware of how much better I felt than I had that New Year’s Day in 2003.  I was groggy, my back and leg hurt like hell but I was acutely aware of exactly what was hurting and why. I was also able to move gently from side to side, almost like I did when my back used to go out and I would be trying to avoid the electrocution of my spine that came with making the wrong move. It was around 1130 when I woke in the PACU next to a guy who I remembered was in a wheelchair that morning in the Bunny Lounge. After a few minutes we struck up a conversation about our circumstances, our history and actually ended up having a very lengthy and interesting discussion about our lives. Now, anyone who knows me would agree that I am not that guy, I am not the one for friendly conversation and small talk but Jessie, the guy in the bed next to me, had such a similar story to mine and such an interesting history that talking to him was not only a great distraction but was also genuinely pleasant. After about an hour of entertaining the PACU with our war stories and our sporting endeavours we parted ways, I went to the 9th floor to the Neuro ICU and he went to the 4th floor. I had meant to try and check in with him as I left but unfortunately time and circumstances did not allow it. So if you know a Jessie who is a teacher in Ajax, had back surgery on April 24th 2013 and was once a pretty good volleyball player, say hi for me!

Once in the room, it was up to me to try and distinguish the pain from the medication and to figure out a way to plot my next move. It’s still pretty foggy to me, but I had a nice nurse, Joanne who was happy to encourage me to try and stand and get myself to the washroom. In fact, after the first time she assisted me (truth be told she was never going to catch me, but rather just be a soft landing for me) she left me to my own devices to get to the washroom and back which I did only a couple of hours later. As I drifted in and out of my Percocet dreams I strove to move as much as I could, to try and stand when I was able and to gauge just how capable I was. unfortunately there was a wrench in the works. My blood pressure had been dropping steadily since the surgery and hit an all time low of 96/53 at which point they sent in the butcher of Bakersfield to put another IV into my hand. It literally felt like she was ripping at my veins like Edward Scissorhands doing sutures and that pain was to stay with me until the IV came out as I left. Happily the BP started to rise and after just one bag I was fine again.

The most interesting part of the night was still to come as my roommate, who had been hit by a car on the sidewalk only a few days before, fracturing his neck, clavicle and upper back and was now part rod and screws, decided it would be cool to go and have a cigarette in the washroom. Now, I get it if you are an addict, it can be hard, but let’s remember he was harbouring an open flame in a room containing several under pressure gasses not least of all was the oxygen HE WAS ON! Thankfully we didn’t all die in a massive explosion, and I have to admin the nurses took a lot more notice of us after that!

I do have to say that although Joanne did a great job and had a wonderful bedside manner, the quality of the nursing left a great deal to be desired. I think it was mostly a timing thing, and that itself may also be a product of the lack of technology in use. If you can believe it, the nurses were recording medications and vitals on scraps of paper in their pockets and then transferring them into the computer system on computers located at several locations along the hallways. This could have explained why it took over an hour to get medication, or why after requesting washroom assistance for my second trip nobody ever came which is why I took it upon myself to go it alone. The quality of the surgery and the obvious skill of the surgical staff is undeniable, and the reputation of the organization is impressive however at the nursing level I am afraid there seems to be quite a way to go. Maybe I am spoiled but it would certainly serve some of our nursing staff well to come over to St Mike’s for a couple of days to make them realize just how lucky they are to work at an organization that supports them with such impressive technological advances.

I drifted off to sleep, however like clockwork after 3 hours I would awake, immediately aware that it was getting close to my medication time…

 

 

 

 

On the brink

Tomorrow is the day.

In fact, it’s 9pm here and I am due to check in at the OR tomorrow at 6am. Surgery is scheduled for 745am and after that I am guessing it will be 36-48 hours until I will be back home. Probably then another 24-48 until I could possibly be back here to post an update.

For today, I did go and do a brief bench workout in order to make sure that the bench is set up for my recovery. I have made sure everything I need is at hip height or above and that I have enough pulled pork and home made sugar free bbq sauce to tide me over for at least the next 5 days or so.

I have to admit that I am a little surprised at my nonchalance this time around. I suppose I could be mired in self-pity and anger as I have been in the past however it really wouldn’t do me any good. This time I am scheduled (which makes a difference) with a spinal neurosurgeon rather than being rushed into an emergency department, stuffed into an MRI like so much sausage meat and operated on by the nearest orthopedic surgeon they could find. I suppose I have a little more confidence in my own recovery this time also given my experience / maturity and vastly improved physical condition. As my gym kids told me last night via a very touching greeting card, I am one tough cookie and I suppose this new attitude is a reflection of that.

I will be back to comment some more, I am hoping my optimism will have proven accurate and I will be on the mend and able to post banal and monotonous updates rejoicing in the fact that I was able to make it all the way to the mailbox and back in one go!

Wish me luck…

Countdown to surgery

It’s Monday, I have spent the best part of the last week at home on the floor with a heating pad trying to get rid of the pain radiating from my back down my leg and through my hips. The initial pain that was in the right shin is gone, leaving a drop foot that I can only hope and pray isn’t permanent. The pain in the back is actually gone now however I can feel the near impingement almost every time I move. It’s as if the scar tissue that is apparently at fault is resting against the nerve just waiting to press against the root causing the familiar screaming pain. As far as trying to stay in shape before the surgery itself I have been able to do very little. Last week I managed to bench one day and do a small bicep workout another day. I have broken out the EMS unit I used back in early 2003 when I had my original surgery. Although my documentation of that time in my life is not great, I do have some information that I found:

What started out as a simple herniation of the disc creating pressure on the spinal nerves which causes an effect somewhat similar to Scoliosis developed into a severely displaced disc fragment that impacted the sciatic nerve. This caused excruciating pain down my right gluteus, into the quadriceps and terminating in the knee. When the cortisone injections into my spine did not help the situation, it was determined form both a CT and an MRI that surgery was going to be necessary to remove the portion of the annulus that was touching the nerve root. This was in preference to a discectomy that would have required removal of part of the nucleus of the disc in order to reduce the overall size of the disc. Most procedures that are available to patients with severe herniations are effective over time but require the procedure to be performed while the disc is healthy and normal. Even the newest and most promising procedure, referred to as Percutaneous Microdecompressive endoscopic Spinal Discectomy with New laser Thermodiskoplasty for Non-Extruded Herniated Nucleus Polposus as it’s name suggests requires that the disc be in a non-extruded state.So my options were limited, and under the trusted care of Dr. ****** I went in for surgery on New Year’s Eve 2002 at 4pm.
Since the surgery, I am glad to report that the localized pain is gone both in the spine and the thigh. However, there is still pain in the knee and much of the strength in my upper leg is gone. I left the hospital on crutches, unable to support any weight on my right leg. I am happy to report that I am now able to support myself without the use of crutches, however I am unable to climb even the smallest of steps. Much of the loss of feeling in my leg has also returned, however from the top of the knee I still have little or no tactile sensation. It is normal for this numbness to remain up to 9 months after sciatic nerve injury, and from what I have read, it is normally 6 to 8 weeks before the pain is completely gone and normal strength returns.Since walking requires very little bending of the knee, I am able to walk without crutches for short distances (a hundred feet or so), however any incline or decline which requires strength from the quadriceps is impossible to negotiate without crutches.

I will continue to post some of the information I can find from last time, however the most significant difference this time is that I will be going in as a scheduled surgery with a neurosurgeon named Dr. Lo at St. Mike’s in Toronto rather than being admitted on an emergency basis screaming in pain and having to be rendered unconscious in order for the techs to get me into the MRI machine.

So what happened? I hear you ask. Well, it’s a long and as usual confusing story. I wrote about the initial effects already but it’s now days later and the foot drop is still there, in fact it seems worse than in the beginning. I had the MRI, I was then told I needed to go and see a neurosurgeon to get a professional opinion. Almost as soon as Dr Lo saw the MRI he knew it was going to require surgery. I asked about the disc replacement and also the idea of fusion however his indication was that since there is no misalignment of the spine that fusion is unnecessarily risky and that disc replacement surgery would be massive overkill. He told me that the success of the initial surgery is 90% but the success of follow up repeated surgery is only 75%. However, not having the surgery would almost certainly lead to permanent disability. So I am booked in for Wednesday, I have a 3-5 hour pre-op appointment for Tuesday and once that is done I should know a little more about what is to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serious Injury Time

It’s that time of my life again. I am thoroughly petrified at the thought of having done serious damage to my body by another back injury. It was nothing of note, just some soreness and hip pain but after doing a cardio workout on Sunday my back felt very sore. That night I took Elyse to the bathroom and felt a painful twinge in my back. I took the next day off work and lay on a heating mat all day and took my pills. However, the end result once I was able to stand up was what seemed like massive shin splints in my right leg. However, I had lost about 75% of the lifting strength in my shin, causing my foot to droop. I am currently not able to walk properly, I can’t keep my foot elevated as I walk so my foot slaps against the ground as I walk. My doctor confirmed it is the same palsy as drop foot and did not give me any indication as to whether it would heal. Since I never recovered my thigh mass from the surgery and never recovered my hand feeling from my shoulder injury I am understandably scared that I may have a life long nerve damage that will cause me to limp for the rest of my life. The thought of never being able to run properly or maybe even do any kind of lower body work with any regularity makes me sick with worry. I know I am only on day 3 of this injury but the fact that I am still unable to walk properly is very frightening. This morning the pain was also back in my hip, I have to assume it’s part of whatever muscle thread was damaged by the pinch and the other muscles now are fighting to pick up the slack. I have a feeling I am in for a few weeks of pain and yet more lopsided lower body development.

This sucks. I really wish I had been fused the first time so that this pinch would have not had the ability to happen again. I am suposed to be going for an MRI and also to see a neurologist and a spinal surgeon. It may be time to go under the knife voluntarily this time to get this issue fixed for good.  I guess only time will tell but I can tell you that this time I will be pushing for a solution, not a band aid. My fear is that another spinal event could leave me with a paralyzed foot, or worse, some paralysis affecting my bladder or bowels. I know that disc replacement is common now where it was in it’s infancy when I had my original surgery and that alone gives me a little ray of hope from a surgery perspective.

Monday April 8

Abs and legs Crossfit style

20-30-40-30-20

Full crunch
VDSnap
Box jump
Squat
full situps
side crunch
1 leg squat
step switch

Wednesday April 10

Body Beast – Supervised not led

Bootcamp Wednesday – Long One!

20 shoulder crunch
20 leg up crunch
10 full situp double twist
10 side crunch
10 hanging leg raise

10 pullups
10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold

20 shoulder crunch
20 leg up crunch
10 full situp double twist
10 side crunch
10 hanging leg raise

10 Knees at wall assisted squats (Sissy Squats)
20 Air squats
20 step back lunge front kick
20 belt kicks
20 front lunge

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups

20 shoulder touch
20 hip touch
10 spider each side
10 knee to elbow each
10 knee to opposite elbow each

20 Air squats
20 step back lunge front kick
20 belt kicks
20 front lunge
10 assisted squats half distance (Sissy Squats)

10 pullups
20 single leg knee raise
20 super skaters
30 second chair pose
10 front kick back kick each side

20 shoulder touch
20 hip touch
10 spider each side
10 knee to elbow each
10 knee to opposite elbow each

10 pullups
20 single leg knee raise
20 super skaters
30 second chair pose
10 assisted squats full distance (Sissy Squats)

10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise leg raise
5 Worlds slowest burpee with clap

Still booting

With March Break and so on we had a disruption in service, however all is back to normal now and I am going to commit to keep more up to date. The problem with not keeping up is not only do I lose the record of what I have done and what I need to do but I get a bit aimless in my workouts away from bootcamp and start to slack off.

Last week we did a bodyweight class with bosu that looked like the list below. After that I alternated with Olympic lifts (deadlift and clean) and a bench day, also a MMA day where I hung the bag in the garage away from everything breakable and did about 40 minutes of kicking and punching along with a little kettlebell swinging. However it all feels a little haphazard and unfocused. So I am going to try and put together a couple of weeks plan here and stick to it. I have to say I have been keeping up with the 5-6 days a week which I am happy with but I have also not been keeping good enough tabs on my dairy intake which I think is keeping me a little bloated.

Anyway, here is last week, I will post tonight tomorrow if that makes sense!

Balance Of Death

x2 in a row 1 off bosu 1 on bosu
10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

Sit on bosu

20 in and out
20 crucnhy frog
20 knees to elbow alternate
20 in and out abs hands on upside down bosu
20 side crunch per side

x2 1 on BOSU 1 on SB
10 SB pushup boing
10 SB Burpee lift ball
10 SB Plank to sphinx
10 per SB elbow plank side raise

Feet on SB

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

20 Crunchy Frog
20 vsnap
20 laying triple bicycles
20 full situps

Arms on SB 20 360’s
Arms on SB plank to sphinx
10x feet on SB walk out and back
20x feet on ball face down roll ball in to chest
20x laying hamstring pull

20 laying leg lifts
10 per rainbow leg lifts
10 per scissor hold on count
25 per side to side scissor rapid

BONUS ROUND!!

Burpee ladder – 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
on the minute every minute (10 min burpees)
rest in plank position.

Just to be clear

I wanted to post a little something about my recent foray back into what most would consider weight training. That is to say good old fashioned bench press! I really just wanted to make sure I had documented the type and the volume of workouts that I have been doing. Let’s take this week for an example. On Monday I had a short bootcamp which was mainly just abs since I had decided I would use march break as a rest week of sorts. However on Tuesday I decided to go with bench press and close grip bench. Bench was first and since it’s been a LOOOONG time since I did any benching I was only able to get up to 265lbs but I started at 95 which was, well, rather embarrassing actually. I did the following:

4×10 95
3×10 115
2×10 135
2×10 165
2×10 185
2×10 225
2×5 265

I calculated the total out to be a shade under 20,000lbs which is a little light compared to the 30K I used to do for major bodyparts. Since I was pretty happy with myself and I knew I realized that I needed some bicep work I figured I would do some straight bar curls the next day to get a solid workout done. I made out the same calculations and got to a total of around 10Klbs which isn’t bad however I only managed to get up to 115lbs. Not too impressive. I guess I am a little restless because I haven’t been planning or recording like I used to. The Olympic lifting is great but I find I am often sore across the low back and have to make up a workout to keep it safe. Whatever it is, I have found myself back on the bench and enjoying it, I still feel that no matter how fit I am, there is nothing like feeling that raw beast strength.

On The Rebound?

It’s no coincidence that my ongoing struggle with this mysterious 8lbs I have gained is going hand in hand with my inability to keep up to date here. My focus is on work and family rather than on my fitness at this point and I need to redress the balance.

Last week was a strange one, I was on training all week and so after bootcamp monday I did a workout on tuesday but I can’t remember what it was. I think it was probably Tapout XT and tehn another bootcamp on Wednesday. Thursday was olympic lifting, Friday I was off and Saturday I think was a P90X2 workout. Sunday my wife and I went to the new gym up the street for a laugh and I did some push press work and some chinups. It’s now Monday and we are back to bootcamp which should look something like this:

Decending ascending

15 Curls
10 Curl and press
5 Burpee curl and press

15 high pull
10 high pull front raise
5 high pull front raise side raise

15 crunch
10 crunch vsnap
5 crunch vsnap bicycle

15 flat leg lift
10 leg lift vsnap
5 leg lift vsnap full situp

15 squat
10 squat mk
5 squat mk front lunge

15 curls
15 high pull
15 crunch
15 vsnap
15 squat

5 burpee curl
5 burpee curl and press
10 military
10 military row
15 pushup
15 pushup in and out

isolation
10 knee curls
10 laying tri cross extension
10 laying pullovers
10 laying fly