My Motorcycle Injuries

 I spent the first few years after the motorcycle accident getting better. The changes in my body progressed slowly, but they were noticeable almost weekly. It was always encouraging to notice the subtle changes and to know that I was getting better as time progressed. I noticed changes in my leg and my hand, along with my energy and strength. As I think back on that time, it was really a great thing to gauge the healing progress and to enjoy the thought that I was on my way to recovery and a more "normal" life. At some point I hit a plateau. Things were not as they were before the accident, but I had gained a lot of ground physically and I was functioning pretty well. I still experienced a degree of pain on a daily basis, and I did have some limits in my ability to do certain things, but I enjoyed the level of recovery that I was experiencing and I resigned myself mentally to the fact that this was the body that I would live with as I moved forward in life. I'm now at a ...

A part of the process involved with the motorcycle accident and all of the lingering aftereffects has been the way in which it affects others. My leg sustained a lot of damage and it is a constant source of annoyance. I often have trouble with motion when I first stand. Also, I feel pain often that spans from the hip to the shin along with everything in-between, and my leg sometimes swells to twice its (normal?) diameter from the knee to the ankle when I've been walking for a long period of time. Sounds fun? Sure is!  The people closest to me are very much aware of these things and, consequently, my daughter worries about me more than the average person. A few days ago she was speaking to me about something related to knee replacement surgery. She mentioned it to me in a very light way, but also as a reality for the not so distant future. The thing is that I have mentioned many times over the past year that I have decided that I will only have knee surgery if there is a sign associ...

 A few days ago I had to go and give blood for the sake of my endocrinologist. I had gone to an appointment with him the week previous, which included bloodwork, but some numbers related to my calcium levels were not good, so he sent me back for another bloodletting to make certain that there wasn't a problem with my thyroid (or whatever else calcium levels affect?). The second test provided normal numbers, so it's assumed that the original numbers involved a lab error of some type. It's a safe assumption because my calcium levels have always been normal. They had to tap into the same vein in my arm as the previous week because it's pretty much the only vein that accommodates the insertion of needles in any practical location on my body. I was told soon after the accident that my veins have become thin. No one can explain to me why in relation to my accident injuries, but it remains an issue nonetheless. More's the pity, right?  The thing about this vein situation, ...

 A friend of mine at church approached me a few days ago in order to gain some perspective concerning her son. He is an adult, married with children, who has been through a major physical trauma that almost cost him his life. His recovery process has been lengthy and challenging, but he continues to make progress and regain the use of his body. The circumstances of his trauma are quite different than mine (illness rather than accident), but the process of surgery and recovery is similar. This friend of mine asked me if I was more "emotional" after the motorcycle accident as I faced the long period of recovery. I have never spoken to anyone about this, so I hesitated for a slight moment and then answered her honestly with a "yes". I knew that I couldn't withhold this aspect of my recovery from her because she was very much worried about her son's condition. He had told her about the things that he is experiencing with his emotions, and she was quite worried a...

Over time I have griped on this blog about the subtle but steady decline of my various motorcycle injury aftereffects. The various issues that I face daily aren't a huge deal when compared to the things that other people face in this life, but they are often a source of physical annoyance. They often leave me wondering what these things will be like in the coming years as I continue to age.  I've been busy with things these past couple of weeks, and they are the type of tests that help me to assess where it is that things stand within my body. I've been cutting and trimming trees, moving Christmas supplies (don't ask), and doing general maintenance things around my house and the church. I haven't had a problem with any of the labor, and I feel pretty good when I finish each chore. Tired, but good. I've felt fine with all of the busy work over the past weeks, and I'm convinced that the best way to see where things stand is to get busy living. These are the ty...

Eight months ago I took a nasty spill in my kitchen. Not with milk, but rather with my body. I wrote about it in this blog that same day. The fall occurred when my foot hit a small, yea, miniscule blotch of water on the tile floor. My "accident leg" isn't really strong enough to remain stable when something like that happens, and I went down hard. I thought that I had broken my hip, but things got better daily and in time I thought that it was nothing. I now believe that it's something. The hip in question hurts from time to time as I function throughout the day, and I often feel pain that causes me to have to roll over to the other side when I lay on it in bed. The real drag about this is that the other side involves the hip that was broken in the accident and repaired surgically with metal screws. That side has been painful for years. What's that you're thinking, gentle reader?  "Hey bonehead, just lay flat on your back instead of on your side when in b...