Sunday, September 27, 2009

It's September

Hello again. Since I have been back from Vancouver for a few weeks now I suppose it's about time I write a new blog. Today is September 27th, which also happens to be my birthday. It was a pretty fun one. Several friends from Fort st. John came up for the weekend which made for an enjoyable time. Football was watched, games were played, cake was eaten, so it had to be fun.

On to the medical side of things. At the beginning of the month I was down in Vancouver to get some CTs, MRIs, and to see a couple of doctors. At that time I didn't find out to much, but a few weeks later, after the doctors had gotten together to discuss me, I got an answer. That answer was... can you guess... more waiting. This at first may sound really annoying but it's actually for a good reason. The scans showed that there had been some healing where my spine attaches to the pelvis. This was one of the areas that they thought would be causing my pain. Well this healing hasn't helped a lot with the pain it's good to know that there is still some healing going on. So the new plan is to wait until Febuary-ish and then go back down to Vancouver for some more scans and another set of the injections I had in the spring. This time they want me to hang around for the day afterwards and document how it effects my pain levels. Last time I had the injection, I had to catch a flight about an hour afterwards so it didn't give them a very good chance to see its effects. If the injection seems to make a substantial difference they may decided to try a surgery to fuse the bone in that area. At the moment they are still hesitant to do a surgery because they are unsure if anything they could do would have a high percentage of helping my pain. They are also scared of thing like causing nerve damage resulting in loss of some of the fuction that I have, or things like infection and bleeding. The othopedic doctor said she was amazed at the level of my recovery and the amount of function I have. She said that many people my age with similar injuries end up in a lot worse shape.

The spinal doctor had sugessted that I start doing some physio in the pool. I had tried this when I was at GF but I got sore so quickly that I wasn't able to accomplish much. The pool is closed for maintence for most of September but it will be open next week and I'll begin going twice a week. Before the pool closed I got the chance to go once. I was able to last for around 30 minutes and while I didn't have mush of a workout plan I was able to to walk around in the water a bit and do some simple exercises to work my legs. When I start in October I'll be going with a physio therapist so hopefully when that starts my legs can strengthen up and get used to walking without crutches.

I think that's about all thats going on here right now. Thanks for all the comments, encouragment, and prayers. It still means alot to me.

7 comments:

Friar Pat said...

Happy Birthday ol' boy! I hope it would be alright to bring over some greetings sometime next week?

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday (belated) Robert, Good to hear you had northern visitors to help you celebrate. May God bless you with an amazing year.

Darcy & Kerstin

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Robert. Thanks for the update.Had our first snow storm yesterday but it is all gone by noon. Only 8 months till spring! Yahooo Judy

Anonymous said...

Hey Robert, happy belated BD. So did you actually have fun or did you just fake it? You know when your team is loosing and you put on this fake happy face and inside you just want to give those individuals that bug you a "High five" under the chin! Well maybe you don't know. I think you are too nice a guy to actually do that! Was it chocolate cake? :)
Larry K

Anonymous said...

Hi Robert! Sounded like everyone had fun. Colin came here that same week-end. It was good to hear how you're doing. Sounded like you guys had a good time bowling too. Thanks for the news. God bless! Love Ron & Debbie.

taborviewranch@telus.net said...

Well Happy Belated Birthday Robert!!! Sorry, I didn't know. Thank you for the update, and how you are doing. Thanks for letting us know how and what we can pray for. You continue to be in our prayers.
Forbes Family

Anonymous said...

7+5+5+4=21...You crack me up! That means you were newly 18 when you came to DTS! WOW! Thanks for posting an update, I always hope for an update when I check in here. Yeah for healing growth! I'm excited for you to have some pool therapy, being a 3-4 time a week swimmer myself! I hope and pray that goes well. So what are your plans until Spring? School? Work? Girls? What is your latest. Message me on facebook, I'd love to hear your plans! I'm praying for you brother! And I so admire your courage and attitude. I think you have challenged us all with the example you set! All the best, Laura (Jacobsen) Maddox