Thursday, July 31, 2014

Putting a dollar value to #Spinal Cord Injury

A friend and I used to play a game, "What would I do for a $1,000,000."

I was thinking about this, and if someone offered me $1,000,000 to relive the past two years, or never have experienced spinal cord injury, and just have gone one with my life as it was, which would I choose?

Of course, the outcome would have to be where I am now with the recovery, which has been pretty remarkable and (in my opinion) an almost complete recovery.

The answer is, $1,000,000 is not enough.  How about $5,000,000?  No. $10,000,000?  To be honest, maybe.  But that's only because of how much I have recovered.  If I were still using a walker, or even dependent on a quad cane, the answer would be "No."  Truthfully, no money is enough to want me to relive this ordeal.

In reality, I don't get compensated for being sick, in fact, I pay out - for extra medical bills, for health aids that insurance doesn't cover, time lost by going to doctors and labs more often than I used to, adjustments I make to live as normal a life as I can (and here I am fortunate because to see me from the outside, you'd think there was nothing physically wrong with me).  Although I never carried really good comprehensive medical insurance, I carried one that met my needs, and thank goodness for that because at least I have been able to deal with the medical bills.

When I hear stories about people selling their kidneys for $20,000 because they need the money, I am saddened.  If I really needed the money, how much would you have to pay me to go through the last two years?  The sponsor would have to pay the medical bills also, and the money would have to be tax-free, but except that I'm sure the amount I would accept would be less than $1,000,000, it is not something I would want to have to think about.

Money can buy many things, including better access to healthcare, but it cannot buy your health.  And although objectively, we can all say, "Health is more important than money," this is a statement I understand emotionally as well.

I still have to make the best of it. I still need to work hard to maitain what I have recovered and work hard to recover more. I have to motivate myself to keep trying harder. I need to be grateful for the amount of recovery I have experienced, and I need to be as positive as can be.  The reality is that no one is going to give me money just because I got sick and sustained damage to my spinal cord.  But these are all things I'm willing to do without any compensation.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

24 Hour urine collection

Back in May, I developed kidney stones, so my doctor ordered a 24 hour urine sample to find out what type of stones are forming, since I couldn't capture any when I was experiencing the stones passing.

It brought back memories of catheterizing, but without the pain and hassle.

Kidney stones can come from different sources, such as calcium.  I'm pretty sure my stones are from calcium.  To deal with my bowel issue, I eat a lot of fiber, now, and most of is through eating shredded wheat for breakfast - and with that, a lot of milk.

Also, around the time I developed the stones, I was taking 3x more vitamin D2 tablets than I normally do.  This was because I was experiencing multiple boils in multiple parts of the body, and thought the vitamin D would help me heal faster.  I don't think the stones came from excess vitamin D2, but I still don't plan on taking vitamin D2 after this current bottle runs out.  I am walking better and am planning for even longer walks, so I will be out in the sun a little bit more than I have been, lately.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Good Enough Adjustments

One of the things about Spinal Cord Injury (and many other conditions) is that adjustments need to be made when things stop working right.  For me, bladder and bowel control is what causes me the most grief.

Even if I say I have recovered 90% on these issues, the remaining 10% calls for adjustments to be made.  I have a bowel movement almost everyday, now. And in that respect, I can say my bowel functions are back to normal.  However, my daily evacuation doesn't take place at the same time each day.  Generally, they do take place mid-morning.  But the difference between now and before I suffered spinal cord damage, I could force an evacuation earlier than it would occur naturally. Now, even though I know stool is ready to be evacuated, I can't force it out.

The consequence is that I generally don't leave my home, except for maybe a max of a half hour, unless I have a bowel movement.  And hopefully, it would have been a satisfactory bowel movement.

When I have a bowel movement, two things are assured.  I usually leak a lot of urine when having the bowel movement, and an empty bowel usually means an empty bladder - thus I don't have urine accidents.  Second, once I have a nice bowel movement, I don't have to worry about having an unexpectedd bowel movement.

But what about those times when I have a bowel movement, but I know some stool is left, but it just won't come out.  On those days, I am also reluctant to leave the home.  I know a few hours later I will have another bowel movement - but fortunately, I am pretty confident that the bowel movement can usually be delayed by not eating - but that's not a given.

So, what happened was that I lost a dear friend last week, and her funeral was on Saturday.  The funeral was 9 A.M., and I'd have to leave my home at 6 A.M. Under normal conditions, I wouldn't leave the house that early because I'd most assuredly would have an bowel and/or bladder accident.

As it turned out, I woke up at 4:30 A.M., and had a bowel movement at around 5 A.M.  But it wasn't a complete evacuation and I knew some stool was left and I'd have another movement around noon.  I thought about not going to the funeral.  However, I knew I could make it to the funeral, and I it was my way home that would be the problem.  When I was healthy, I could just force an evacuation before I would leave the church, but now, I can't force evacuations - bowel movements occur when my body is ready, not my mind.
So, this was not an option.

Anyway, I decided to go to the funeral and would worry about the bowel movement on my way home.

And it worked out.  I got a ride home from two friends, and even stopped for lunch once in the vacinity of my home.   I did end up having a bowel movement, but it was about 15 miuntes after I returned home.

If I had to take a bus home, I would have gotten home around the same time, but without eating lunch.  And I think lunch helped push down some of the left-over stool, so I most likely would have made it home without an accident.

The moral of this story?  It's okay to be cautious and concerned, but don't let these things cause you to be irrationally fearful of doing things.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Me, an American Ninja Warrior? Yeah, Right

I had watched Ninja Warrior ever since it started getting aired in the United States about 7 or 8 years ago.  Now, we have American Ninja Warrior due to its popularity in the U.S.  In a nutshell, "Ninja Warrior" is a show where contestants battle a difficult obstacle course, divided into 4 stages, each successive stage more difficult than the previous.

I had never had any intention of being on it, and I still don't.  However, the fitness style of the participants is called "parkour," and it is a type of exercise that uses what is available to strengthen mobility.  Often we see participants running along the tops of walls, and jumping over the body of cars.

For me, one of the last issues I'm dealing with in regaining my ability to walk is balance.  And recently, I worked at this by walking along the edge of a planter.  I'm happy to report that I rarely fell off (even though it is only a few inches off the ground, so no harm anyway).  And I walked back and forth many times.

Me, a ninja warrior? No.  But happy to be able to walk along an edge.