The Report

Hello. hey is the report from the trip to vancouver. After some poking and prodding and a bunch of questions the specialist came to the conclusion that simply putting more screws into the areas that are still not healed wouldn't help my pain much. It seems that they areas tht are still brken aren't the reas that are causing me that much pain. She said that if it were those areas I would have extreme discomfort lieing on my side or when she pushed left hip, but it didn't. She thinks that it is more likely caused by excessive bone growth in one area that might be rubbing and catching on itself when I sit or stand. She Also figured that some of the hardware is the problem as alot of the pain is focused around one screw. It was told a lot more elegantly when she said it, but thats the gist. SO her plan of attack is that fisrt she wants to talk with the spinal guy to find out if my back is stable enough to take any hardware out. Then she want to have dye injected into the areas that have pain and take some real time x-rays of me sitting and standing to see if they can pin point the problem. An then if they think there's something they can do surgicaly to correct the problems they'll take that route. So I should be hearing back from her in the next week or so to find out what shes learned from the spinal doc and the radiologist.

In not my body news. The trip down was pretty smooth.We got to visit with some family on tuesday night. Always a good time. I also calculated that that was my 7th air ambulance ride and 17th time in an ambulance in under a year. Not really statistics you want on the back of your baseball card. Other then that things are pretty much sticking to routine. However spring is here. which makes it a lot nicer. I can now safely walk to and from the car without being afraid of slipping on the ice. I'm also thinking of taking the wheelchair out for a walk around the block. Its been awhile since I've been outside just to be outside. Not since GF strong. Oh glorious sun. Anyways I think thats it for now. Hope you all boing great.

Robert

On to April

Hey. Well here is the latest and greatest. About a week or two ago ago I got a letter from the spinal doctor with the results of my CT scan. Without getting into all the technical mumbo jumbo of it, it basicallny said that there are still areas that haven't healed. Which is what we already kind of knew, but it was nice to see it all officialy there rather then just being told by a secreary glancing at some notes. The letter also suggested that putting in somemore plates and screws could help get things to heal and help with the pain. Now I've been refered to a specialist in pelvic instability. Tomorrow I'll be flying down to Vancouver again, then will be seeing this doctor on Wednesday morning and then flying back home right after that. This trip is just a consult and I guess the real plans will be made after that. Hopefully they can start doing something soon so i can start sitting normally again. Another new bit of news is that I have started getting acupuncture done on my lower back and around my hips, as well as acupuncture with electricty hooked up to it in my quad. This to try and help stimulate it abit more. I haven't really noticed any difference from either of these things, but I'm willing to try most things at the moment. Thats pretty much all that's been going on with my body lately. In life I've still been learning lots of 3d animation stuff and some video and photo editing. I had to send my computer away to get a little problem fixed last week and it made me realize how much of my time I spend working on it. I really enjoy doing it so it's saved me from losing my mind over the last few months. Also a couple of friends have started having a bible study at my house on Thursdays lately. And yeah, that about all I can think of at the moment. I'll let you know what the plan will be as far as more surgery or whatever later in the week.

Robert