My last update was exactly two weeks ago, on April 13. That post was focused primarily on use of my left leg, and walking. Since then I have been walking exclusively with a hemi walker. My steps are slow and measured, but I’m walking, not riding in a wheelchair. We have, in fact given the wheelchair back to the medical device company from which it was borrowed, and we have removed the ramp in our garage. We purchased a second hemi walker so we now have one for in home use and one for use outside the house. I have learned to negotiate steps, as long as I have something to hold on to as I go up and down. I walk through the kitchen to the door to the garage using the indoor walker, stand up on my two feet (which I can do for a short time), open the door with my right hand, and quickly transfer my right hand to the hinged edge of the door, leaving the indoor walker in place near the doorway. At that point I can step down, holding the door, first with my right foot followed by my weaker left foot. There are two steps to negotiate, so I repeat this process, getting both feet down onto the garage floor, where the outside walker is stored, positioned to the right of the steps. Once both feet are stable, I quickly transfer my right hand from the edge of the door to the outdoor walker. This is how I’ve been getting from the house to the car for the past two weeks or more.
I continue with outpatient physical and occupational therapy. I have two more weeks of that. We could schedule PT and OT for longer, but we’re choosing not to, simply because almost everything the therapists are doing with me can be done at home, and I’ve done it long enough now that I know what I should be doing. The only reason to actually schedule outpatient OT and PT is to make sure I actually do the exercises, so as long as I stay focused and committed to recovery, I can just do them at home and relieve Laura from having to load me into the car and drive in to the hospital for two hour-long appointments, which often translates to a three hour wait for her. The physical and occupational therapy actually has to continue throughout the recovery process, for two primary reasons. First, nerve recovery will happen according to what I “tell” the brain I want it to do. As I repeatedly make particular movements with my left leg, foot, hand and fingers, the brain will regenerate nerves that will communicate the message that I want those body parts to get. Second, once the nerves regenerate around the affected area of the brain, and proper signals can be sent to the muscles, if those muscles have atrophied too much they won’t be able to do the job the brain will be telling them to do. Loss of muscle tone is inevitable on the left side, but we want to minimize it as much as possible.
The nerves have not yet recovered. I believe they will but it will take time. According to the doctors, in the regeneration process, the nerves grow at a rate of about a centimeter per month. that’s a millimeter every three days. About as fast as finger nails grow. So it’s a very slow process. But I’m told that it does happen, and that full recovery is possible. The recovery I’ve achieved so far has likely been due to reduced swelling in the affected area of the brain, relieving pressure on that part of the brain that still works, added to my (actually, our – Laura’s and my) insistence on walking again as soon as possible, forcing me to learn to use what I still have to compensate for what I lost. According to the neurologists, nerve recovery will take a minimum of three months, and very well could take longer. The physical and occupational therapists tell me that nerve recovery is sometimes quite dramatic – that one day I could simply wake up one morning and the numbness will be gone, and the muscles will function properly again, although they will be weaker. It doesn’t always happen that way, but it could. What a wonderful day that would be!
I have written a lot about walking, but have not said much about left hand and arm recovery. That is the work of occupational therapy. Though I have lost some strength in my left hand and arm, I still have significant strength there, so my focus has been on redeveloping dexterity. Picking up pegs with the left hand and placing them into holes in a peg board, using the left hand to search through a container of rice that also has other items (beads and other small items) added to the rice, squeezing and otherwise manipulating therapy putty with my fingers, folding washcloths, etc. all with the left hand, of course.
So recovery continues. I remain very confident that full recovery is coming. I really do believe that God will heal me. In fact, I believe He told me as much one morning last week. I believe recovery is coming, but I don’t know when. And that’s the frustrating part for a naturally impatient person such as myself. There are positives to everything, and one positive aspect of all this is that I’m learning to be patient and gracious.