Some good, some bad
Posted By Russ Emerson on November 12, 2008 at 7:28 pm
“So, Russ,” you’re asking yourself, “how’s your health been the past month or so?”
That’s a strange question to be asking yourself, but I’ll try to answer anyway.
I’m still doing physical therapy a couple times a week, though at this point it’s more of a maintenance thing than an improvement thing. I’m no longer getting any better, in terms of capability, though my endurance continues to improve a little. My legs are overall much stronger than they used to be, but I still have no strength in my hips and glutes — which are rather important for standing, walking, or stair-climbing.
I have noticed that some of my symptoms aren’t doing any better. I have some good days, some pretty bad days, and some pretty awful days. There is still a lot of peripheral neuropathy; even with medication, it is bothersome to some degree every day, and bad enough to keep me awake some nights.
Hovering in the background is the prospect that there’s been more than one thing wrong with me all along. The hydrocephalus having been dealt with, I suspect I should probably be doing better than I am. I dunno, maybe they need to open the valve in my head a bit wider.
Or perhaps they need to look at my lower back after all. Since it was determined early on that I had central nervous system problems, the doctors didn’t focus on my lower back, where I had suffered my Army-career-ending back injury.
I don’t know, I just don’t know. I said before the surgery last December that if I could get back to the point of walking with a cane I’d be happy… and mostly that’s true, but with as much progress as I’ve made, I’d like to think there’s room for further improvement.
I see the neurologist again in a couple of months; I’ll see what can be done to dig deeper into things. And just maybe I’ll be able to ditch my cane some day.
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