Honestly today was rough. I think the lack of a good night’s sleep got to me today. Each night they wake me up every 4-5 hours to do my catheter. Then they wake me up at 6am every day to give me a shot of blood thinner. So if my schedule has me cathing at 5am, it doesn’t work out so well. At 6:30am they take my blood pressure and heart rate. At 7:30am they wake me up for breakfast. I’m usually not asleep through the breaks, either, since they also have to turn me from side to side to keep me from having bed sores, not to mention I’m just not used to sleeping on my back. Not being able to move your legs makes it hard to get comfortable. Okay I’m done complaining. I just miss a good night’s rest so much.
After feeling miserable this morning, at 9am I had therapy with Jessica, my OT. We worked on getting myself dressed with as little help as possible. She had these straps made that velcro around my leg and provide loops for me to pull. So using those, I was able to put my own underwear and shorts on for the first time since the accident. Felt good but honestly it wore me out.
At 11am I had PT with Svetlana. Man, what a workout! I felt way better as we trained. We practiced transferring to and from the wheelchair using better leverage and positioning techniques. Once I got better at that, we tried getting myself into “bed”, using the training mats here. So far I’ve relied on others to pull up my legs into bed. This was practice for me to do it myself. I can’t tell you how hard this was, but I was able to make a lot of progress with it. My leg started spasming and she got excited thinking I was doing it, but alas, no, it was just a spasm. My mom got a couple good videos of this PT which I’ll try and post later. The staff here is slowly getting used to the fact that my parents are basically making a documentary out of this. They are constantly taking photos and videos. Pretty funny. I feel like I’m in a play in the 3rd grade or something.
1pm was group therapy with Jessica. Nothing too exciting. But afterwards, I spoke with Joe, another patient here. He’s always smiling and laughing so I wanted to get to know him better. He told me his story.
Joe was working construction when a machine malfunctioned, dropping heavy sheet metal on him, crushing him. He broke his C6, C7, T1, and L1. He also fractured his leg.
Just some reference there for ya.
The C6 and C7, specifically, were pushed in opposite directions, nearly severing his spinal cord, but not quite. They had to perform surgery on him in multiple places, including pushing aside his esophagus. He couldn’t talk for 3 weeks. Miraculously, he lost zero sensation or motor skills. He can move around fine and walk, however he’s in a brace much larger than mine that goes around his neck, as well. He’ll be released from here on Saturday. The goal is independence, which he achieved quickly. He will continue rehab for a long time and doesn’t get out of his brace for months.
Today I looked around during the group exercise, looked at my parents, and realized I am extremely lucky. Not only am I lucky because my injury is not as bad as others here, but also because my network of friends, family, and “prayer warriors” is pretty extensive. While I am extremely thankful for the prayers, I am feeling selfish and unworthy that they are all directed at me and my family. So please pray for Joe today. We both agreed that the accident makes you appreciate every little thing in life. Everything starts looking like a luxury. Going to the bathroom? A luxury. And as I said in my first kind of intense message/manifesto, legs are a luxury, too. He’s a good guy, so please pray for him. I’ll try to post a pic of him later. I didn’t want to make him feel weird so chickened out of asking him today. Thanks. Tomorrow I’ll ask for you to pray for someone else, but just pray for everyone here, and everyone going through any kind of illness or injury, for that matter.
James 5:16 - Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results
2pm - A little more workout on my own with the bike that moves my legs for me.
3-5:30pm - A long talk with Rebecca. I won’t go into details because it’s private, but this ordeal brings up extremely hard questions for a relationship. I realized today that while I am considerably strong when it comes to my own personal goals and motivations, I felt/feel extremely guilty and like a burden to Rebecca. It doesn’t seem fair that she has to suffer and give up things in life because of my situation. Same for my parents, but much moreso for Rebecca. So it was a good talk because I discovered that about myself. She has been strong when I am weak. I don’t deserve her. Rebecca, if you’re reading this, sorry if I shouldn’t share publicly.
After a quick dinner and more mexican train dominos with the parents, I crashed, until they woke me up again for the nightly bathroom rituals.
Two people in the last two days have said that I have inspired them to run a marathon or half marathon at some point. Not sure why me getting hit by a van inspired that, but… great! I told one of the therapists here, Tim, that I’m glad I did a fair amount with my legs before the accident, at least. He wants to run a marathon by the time he’s 30. He’s 27. So I said, “What the heck? Why did you give yourself 3 years? It takes 4-5 months to train for a marathon. Scott and Patti Whonsetler - you said in your card that you’d probably run the mini marathon in Louisville next year. That’s awesome! Why the heck are you aiming for something more than a year away? That’s not the only race around. Find something in August or September and shoot for that. Also, thank you for your amazing help with everything, Scott. You are helping a lot. Sorry for returning the favor by giving you and Patti a hard time and calling you out! Blame Patti - she wrote the card.
Everyone else, I’m glad this is somehow inspiring to some of you. I’m glad some good might come of this. Want more of a push? I’m happy to give it!….
If you have goals in your life or a “bucket list”, then what are you waiting for? When was the last time you accomplished one of those goals? Last year? 2 years ago? Ever? Life is short. Every day we have is a gift from God. One of the things that was tough to talk about with Rebecca was how our dream books (books we both have full of goals we want to accomplish in life.. read The Dream Manager - Matthew Kelly) might be altered a fair amount by my injury. But there are still loads of goals I can still achieve, and that motivates me to push through each day here. I’m not done, yet. Plenty to do.
So anyway, yeah, go do something you’ve never done before that you’ve always wanted to do. You never know, you might get hit by a van and not be able to walk :) Or worse.
I love you all.
Chip
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