« June 10: Continued Progress | Main | September 25: The Road to Recovery »
June 27, 2013
June 27: Working, Driving, and Chugging Along
The last two weeks have been especially busy for me. I returned to work on Monday, June 17. I'm trying to reintegrate my work life with my personal life and rehab routines while working from home. It is difficult to strike a balance, but I'm trying hard to do these three things in addition to getting enough rest.
Work itself is not so bad. The project I had been running was canceled while I was out, so I am trying to find new ones to attach myself to. There is enough work to go around though, so this is not hard. The difficult part is just getting back into the routine. The emails, meetings, conference calls, and the work itself all keep me very busy. Typing continues to be difficult for me. I'm using my left hand and the index finger of my right hand. It is frustrating because I used to be a pretty fast and accurate typist. Now I am extremely slow, make lots of mistakes, and need to review everything I type. I can make mistakes in an email and it's not the end of the world. But if I'm actually doing computer work, syntax is everything. Small typos can cause large problems. I need to be extremely careful with all of my computer work. Of course I always needed to be careful, but it was a lot easier before. Luckily my job doesn't require me to make actual production changes. Mostly I am planning projects and writing documents, scripts, and automation tools. This limits the scope of what I can break.
My rehabilitation continues as before. I'm done with my outpatient occupational therapy for now. I hadn't been thrilled with my OT's guidance, so I am not unhappy to be done with her. After my next neurosurgeon visit, towards the end of July, we will revisit future OT programs. I'm still doing my manual dexterity exercises, but progress is slow and hard to quantify. My symptoms still fluctuate, and there are days when my hand feels like Captain Hook's. Some days are better though and I feel almost normal at times. Right up until the point where I need to pick something up, or type, or even just remove my keys or wallet from my pocket. Then I am reminded that I still have problems. In the grand scheme of things, I'm actually in good shape. I'd love to talk to someone with a prosthetic hand to see how my situation compares to theirs.
My physical therapist is frustrated with me. At my last visit, I was a bit of a mess. I had rolled my ankle a few days before, and I re-rolled it during our session. I had also gotten an irritant into my eye the night before, so my vision was affected. She thinks that I am going too fast in some areas, like strength-based exercises, and not paying enough attention to basics like balance and control. She did not like the fact that I am doing regular push-ups when she had recommended wall push-ups. She does not like that I am jogging outdoors when she thinks I should be doing tightrope walks. The balance and core exercises have gotten pretty boring, and I admit that I have gotten aggressive with some of my other exercises. We had a good discussion about this, and came to the conclusion that my workout had become unstructured and needed to be reordered. We agreed that I would do 10 to 15 minutes of balance and control at the beginning of my workout. Then I would move on to the things that I find more interesting, like push-ups, squats, and other strength and conditioning exercises. I told her that my eventual goal is to be able to do a CrossFit routine. She thinks that that is reasonable, but cautions that I need to focus on fundamentals first. Reluctantly, I agree. To that end, I've joined a new gym. I am going to the same gym that Julia goes to. This makes it easy to coordinate our workouts as well as the kid's swimming excursions. I'm going to visit with a personal trainer (note: not a physical therapist) to try to figure out a good routine. Right now, I am not entirely sure how to structure my routine at a gym with so many machines, weights, and amenities. I've spent a lot of time there standing, staring, and trying to decide what to do. I have been doing all my workouts at home, with no accessories, for two months, so the options at the new gym are a bit overwhelming. I intend to continue to work hard at physical therapy, and the gym will help in the long run.
My medication schedule is still being tweaked. I cut back to once a day on my primary muscle relaxer. I am still taking steroids, but probably need to back off them again. My doctor wants me completely off them two weeks before my MRI, but I think that they are actually helpful. Maybe I just need to drop down to an even smaller dose or frequency. My vision has returned to normal. I thought it was being affected by one specific drug, but that drug is the one that I continue to take at the same dosage and frequency. Maybe it was another drug, or the combination of them all, that caused problems. But in any case, I'm happy not to have blurry vision anymore.
I have also started driving in small amounts again. I am doing daycare drop offs and pick ups, which Julia appreciates greatly. I'm also running local errands. I haven't had any problems yet, and hope to continue to expand my range and duration. I might even drive into the office next week. I don't envision driving every day, because it is a bit tiring, but I think I will gradually work up to that.
Overall, things are good. I have been in good spirits, stayed healthy, and kept a good attitude with the kid. I'll continue to work hard. I'll continue to rest. I'll continue to stay positive. The most difficult part for me is that this will take a long time. Being patient has always been difficult for me, but it is more important now than ever.
Posted by jon at June 27, 2013 8:59 PM