April 28th – May 4th 2024: Appointments on Appointments!

4/28

Welp, got therapy today! Need to work on getting these legs out of bed so I can get up! I know that I got therapy in a bit and need to get moving!

It was a crazy last night!! My body sometimes is really awful to me, and doesn’t let me get much sleep. I’m trying every day to help with this, but it’s really hard. Not much else to report, my pretty busy today.

4/29

WOW. It’s been a crazy time taking notes on everything! I have taken a break for a bit and need to get back on track! Here we go!

So it’s getting close to bedtime, and I haven’t given myself a moment to write like this in what seems like forever. It’s probably only been a week, but who’s counting? Since this weekend, things are really progressing! I’m in the standing frame right now, and trying to make sure that I give myself the opportunity to breathe, and control my abdomen.

I’m really trying to get into a groove of being able to sleep on my stomach, and I was noticing today at the grocery store a really interesting feeling. I was holding onto the shopping cart when Callie was pushing, and I was holding myself up with only my abdomen, and it was going really well! I was able to react to all the twists and turns, and able to keep myself up! It’s really interesting, because right now, I am feeling so much in my abdomen. Almost like he’s trying to relax, as I take each breath, then the spasms will ramp up, pull me sideways, and I have to readjust and gather my footing and position.

When I was at therapy today, i was mentioning to Ashley how I was feeling so much more in my legs, that it was overwhelming to try and keep track of it all! It was really cool being able to do the treadmill with only 2 people instead of 3 this time! Just small little progress one day at a time!

4/30

Holy guacamole. I crawled 72ft!! I was busy today, and this is all I have to report on!

5/1

Therapy went so well today! It seems like I had another really busy day. Just trying to make the most of it. I can try and rest easy knowing I worked hard today.

5/2

Okay, it’s 7:02am and I made it to my first round of doctor’s appointments! I mean, I can’t believe I have 3 of them today, I’m not sure how that scheduling happened. I made these appointments maybe 3 months ago, and then last week, so for it all to coincide on the same day was kinda odd? Oh well, better to get them all out of the way! Funny being in a bathroom in a hospital that doesn’t have handicap accessible bathrooms? Oh well.

It’s so weird, and kinda interesting looking at people walking now. And looking at the bilateral movements, how everyone who isn’t carrying something, is almost perfectly swinging their right hands with their left legs, and vice versa.

Wow, more doctors appointments. Im going to see the Pulmonologist now. Just got done seeing the PM&R doctor! Honestly, that wasn’t really a very useful appointment, if I’m being honest… they don’t have a lot of info to tell me except “just keep doing what I’m doing”so that’s fun.

I’m glad we brought lunch, and I got on the floor to stretch and crawl about a little bit! This has been a crazy day, and I’m glad I am seeing the “lung”-ologist! Hopefully he can tell me how my legs are working and if there’s anything else I can do!

I’m glad I got to talk with him, he was such a cool guy! He actually was really helpful and also thought it was weird that no one had suggested that I do a follow up with a pulmonologist after my first surgery. I did get 40% of my lungs removed. You would have thought that would have been in the plans but nope. I have really had to take a lot of this into my own hands.

It was cool that he was willing to do some lung function tests for me! So I have to get these set up, and then we can see! I’m going to bring a Pulse Ox meter home for overnight sleeping, to see if everything looks okay! And then from there do a pulmonary function test, and a “sniff” test. I just got done with an X-ray of my lungs. It’s so weird seeing all that metal inside me from the X-ray image screen. I really sometimes have a hard time believing that it’s there, except for the fact that my back is stiff as all heck.

That metal back there is really troublesome sometimes. I can’t sit up without using my hands right now, and attempting to do a crunch or any sort of abdominal movement is impossible it seems. I’m really glad that I’m getting a lot of function back in my abs, but it’s sad to not be able to sit myself up in bed the way that I could. Every day though, I’m trying. I won’t ever believe that I won’t do it again. I just can’t do that to myself.

5/3

So, it’s about 10:33pm. I’m tired, can’t breathe through my nose, my legs are spasming, my back is tight, I had to change my pants cuz I had an accident, and I’m just really feeling pretty not so spectacular. It’s on days like this though, when I am completely wiped, that I really do feel like I am making progress, as poor as this all sounds.

I went in to work today for the first time by myself! It really had been almost a year since I had seen my truck, or anything that was inside it. It was all just so surreal. Seeing my truck from my angle was also really depressing. I usually saw him from my normally standing point of view, but today I didn’t. I was in the chair. I just realized how that was all such a different perspective, and I really can’t imagine what is going to happen to it now.

I did get down on the ground to crawl today! I have to get moving!

5/4

Okay, so I got up this morning with a wild urge at 6:40 in the morning…. “Okay Joe, why don’t you just get down and crawl for a bit?” I figured this has got to be my brain telling my body what it wants! And that’s to get moving!! I will have to act on some of these thoughts, but until then, I will lay back down to get some more rest. That’s always appreciated to.