A Month and a Half, or Half a Lifetime

Wednesday, May 12

8:00 pm

It’s been 44 days since my accident. That’s a month and a half, or half a lifetime, depending on how you’re counting.

From the beginning, the pace and extent of my potential recovery was a complete unknown. While I always believed I would be able to recover from this, that was just my ignorant optimism, because it was an extremely serious injury. But I’m already at the point where I can't think of a single function that I'm unable to perform at least at a rudimentary level. With the function there, it’s now up to me, over the coming days and months, to continue to build the foundation of strength and coordination that I’ve begun to establish over the last 44 days.

My ability to concentrate has also improved. I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I don’t have to think consciously about every single little motion anymore. Now, if I want to scratch my nose, I don’t have to think, Okay, raise the arm, lift the hand, move the arm back and forth—the movement is just automatic again. That frees my mind to be able to concentrate on whatever I’m doing in the moment. (Between his fine motor skills returning and his concentration improving, Christine senses that she is going to lose this new blog-writing gig pretty soon—he won’t need me!)

The days at home have become fairly routine: if I don’t have an OT or PT appointment, I do both on my own; I walk around the cul-de-sac with Linda every day; and I’m increasingly spending time in my woodshop and cleaning tools I will one day use again. (Christine notes that the family has imposed a “no power tools” rule for the time being, wanting him to keep the precious fingers he only recently began moving again. But she suspects he will break that rule before it is officially lifted, if he hasn’t already….)

Today I had an 8am PT appointment and a 9am OT appointment. I really like both my therapists; they’re very good, and they both push me without being cruel. I did a lot of strength work in PT today: push-ups, pull-ups (modified, of course), hip exercises (my right hip is still weaker than my left), and so on. In OT, I again did the exercises captured in the previous post. At the end of the two hours, I was pretty exhausted.

This afternoon, I had an appointment with Dr. York (my neurologist at UVA), whom I hadn’t seen since I left UVA for SAI. The appointment went extremely well. Dr. York’s PA Lucy met with Linda and me first, and she was delightful. She answered all our questions, walked us through all my medications, and was overall lovely to be with. She was also highly complimentary, saying they love to see patients like me who are on such a positive wellness trajectory. Linda and I were equally complimentary of the professionals who have helped put me and keep me on my current trajectory. When Dr. York came in, he was very personable and did a lot of the same tests that Lucy had done on me. What Linda especially took away from our conversation with Dr. York was that he said I may not fully recover, but he expects 95–98% (if not 100%) recovery. Linda was so happy to hear that; it was as if a certain weight were lifted from her shoulders for the first time since the accident.

They also took x-rays of my neck, which revealed that there is space around my spinal cord where there needs to be space, meaning that I no longer have to wear a neck brace during my PT appointments. Hooray! Dr. York showed me some of the earlier MRIs taken after the accident, and he pointed out where the ligament in my neck was torn. He also explained why they decided not to perform surgery on me. Based on his explanation, I understand better why many neurosurgeons might have, but thank god they didn’t. Not having to recover from surgery, in addition to recovering from the accident, set me on the incredibly positive healing path I’m on now.

Dr. York told me I can probably drive again in another month, which was nice to hear. Just 44 days ago I was in a hospital bed unable to move much of anything at all, and now I’m walking around my street 30 minutes a day and looking forward to doing things like working in the shop and driving and becoming more and more independent. It’s an astoundingly short time, despite the way it feels. Based on everything we’ve read about spinal cord injuries, I am just exceptionally fortunate.

I look forward to having more family and friends visit and working in my woodshop and spending time in the back field putting the Coogle Family Fun Farm back together. Keeps the cards and letters coming, folks! I read every comment, note, email, and card I receive, and I appreciate every one.