My Motorcycle Injuries

I gave a member of our church some advice a while ago. He's several years older than me and he's had some issues with his health over the past couple of years. We were talking about exercising and he mentioned that he was trying to do some push ups but he could barely do one. I gave him a suggestion involving a technique that I learned in physical therapy eleven years ago. One of my therapists taught me to do push ups on a kitchen counter. She taught me to lean on the counter at an angle with my arms stretched out and to push up and down away from the counter. My arm and leg were not healed enough or fit enough to do real push ups on the floor at that time, and the counter method helped me greatly as I sought to strengthen my upper body. This friend of mine at church was really happy to hear my advice and determined to give it a try. This past Sunday he told me that the counter method helped him greatly and that he had now moved up to doing regular push ups on the floor. I thin...

I have sometimes written on this blog about my inability to sleep well. It's been going on for eleven years now, so no biggie. The latest thing, however, invloves discomfort. Yeah, physical inquietude of the body, that's what it is. I have always just laid there staring out, but now I just can't seem to get my body to rest in a comfortable, pain-free way. I have to change my position several times in order to find the proper physical arrangement that grants limited pain and maximum relaxation. It didn't used to be this way. In the past I couldn't sleep, but it was just because...I couldn't fall asleep. Now, I have to spend my time finding a good position in order to optimize the potential for sleep. A "no need to focus on your bod" orientation, if you will. When I wake up in the night, I have to shift things around again in order to stand a chance for further sleep. Tiring? You betcha! Frustrating? Uh-huh... The aftereffects of the motorcycle accident ...

I used to know someone who was in her 80's, and she would tell doctors that she had lived in her body for "x" amount of years, and that she knew her body. She would say this to various medical professionals whenever she felt that they were wrong in their assessement of her condition. This lady was almost always right. She always knew what she was feeling and was able to tell when there was something wrong.  I personally don't always understand the things that the medical community hands to me as a diagnosis when it comes to my health in relation to the various aftereffects of the motorcycle accident. Machines, equipment, and blood tests help doctors to tell me that everything is alright, but my body often tells me that something isn't right. I experience certain pains and noticeable weakness within my hip, knee, and arm that keep signaling to me that there's a problem within, but everyone keeps telling me that I'm fine. One day it all feels OK, and then on...

I fell a couple of weeks ago. I was unloading some things into the garage from the trunk of my car, but it had been raining and I slipped on the garage floor. My one leg is neither strong nor stable enough to hold me up when something like this happens and I went down like a broken elevator. I could have landed in several different ways, but me and fate decided to land on my bad knee while attempting to break the fall by also landing on my bad hand. Yes, life is a cornucopia of exciting and wonderful events. I just noticed this morning that the pains associated with this little tidbit of fun have finally gone away. There's still pain at each location, but only the regular stuff. The potential to fall has always been one of my greater concerns since the motorcycle accident occured years ago. It has happened to me a few times over the years, but the thing is that I'm learning to fear it less as time marches on. I know that a fall can lead to some serious damage, but it's just...

Overcoming physical trauma is a tough job. Those of us who are fortunate enough to recieve medical attention are given great help toward survival and recovery. Those of us fortunate enough to take part in physical and/or occupational rehabilitation are doubly blessed. Unfortunately, these resources don't often last forever. Such was the case with my recovery from the motorcycle accident. I was basically expelled from the hospital when they realized that I didn't have a lot of financial resources to cover the medical care. I then received rehabilitation help for a couple of months before the insurance coverage ran out. What was left of me was someone who had made a good deal of progress in my recovery, but not nearly in a position to function normally or freely. I couldn't walk well yet, and my overall mobility and physical function was very much limited.  One of the things that I learned when I wound up alone at home for the bulk of each workday was that I had to take charg...

  My mother in-law injured herself two days ago. She broke a couple of bones in her foot and has wound up staying in my house as a result until she gets (much) better. I'm in my early sixties, so you can only imagine her age, since a gentleman never says. We set her up with a lot of things here at my house with all sorts of accomodations because she cannot walk very well on her own. One of the things that we have supplied is a walker, although she's having a very hard time getting around with it. That walker is the one that I used way back, when I wasn't allowed to put any weight on my broken leg. I haven't really touched it much in the garage over the years, except for times when I've moved it off of the christmas tree storage bags in order to get them into the house every year. My mother in-law is a pretty tough lady and has always remained active regardless of her age, but this injury has left her pretty helpless. As I watch her trying to use the walker without m...

I went to my audiologist this morning for my annual exam. I have really bad hearing and I wear hearing aids. It's not necessarily an old guy thing. I've worn hearing aids since my thirties, and I had an audiologist then who told me that the type of hearing loss that I have is something that I was born with. He said that it would get worse with time, but he also told me that it's something that I've had all of my life but only noticed as an adult. Anyhoo, my insurance company requires that I see an ENT along with my audiologist, but they work together in the same office so it's easy to do. They both told me that I've had no further hearing loss within the past year (unusual, but yay for me), so everyone was happy. However, as the ENT guy was checking me out he noticed a scar on the corner of my mouth. It's from work that was done on me when I went into respiratory arrest while being treated at the hospital after the motorcycle accident. I personally don't...