9/14
Can muscles that are waking up and growing also perfusively sweat at night? Is this a good sign of neurological recruitment and growth?
So here’s what I found here, and seems to be the case,
• Sweating is controlled by your autonomic nervous system (sympathetic branch). After a spinal cord injury, sweating patterns can often change (reduced or absent below the injury, excessive above it, or sometimes patchy). When you start noticing sweat in areas that previously didn’t sweat, it often means nerve pathways are re-engaging.
• Muscle recruitment and “waking up”: When dormant muscle groups begin firing again, they demand more blood flow, oxygen, and metabolism. This can locally raise temperature and stimulate sweat glands if the sympathetic nerves to those glands are reconnecting.
• Night sweats specifically: If I’m only noticing it in the regions that are also showing more muscle activation or fullness, it could be a positive marker of neurological reconnection and metabolic activity in those areas. Some people in recovery report night sweats when their nervous system is “rewiring” and recruiting new motor units.
In my case — if my legs/glutes are waking up and I’m sweating there at night when I didn’t before, that’s likely a good sign of neurological recruitment and improved autonomic function, not just random sweating hopefully! At least that’s what I’m telling myself, which is half the battle.
So, turns out, I actually slept pretty dang good this past night! I have returned to getting up in the middle of the night to go pee, but at least I’m able to get back to sleep and be rested! And also my left hip and abdomen wasn’t spasming like crazy! I’ll chalk this one up as a win! Pilates really does do some really great things for my body, now ifs just putting it all together, with a full plate throughout the day, that’s the challenge!
9/15
I’m…. Tired. It’s 6:07pm, and truth be told, I’m ready to sleep. I’m sometimes in shock with how my body responds to all the activity.
So at dinner, my abdomen/ low abdomen/ pelvic region is absolutely making some crazy changes. I can feel him making these movement, almost like hip thrusts? The first thing that came to my head was what Therese is always saying, I need to drop my abdomen, it’s my abdomen, trunk, and core that’s going to get me standing! She said, she would be talking to a client who was a surgeon, and say, “cut off your legs, how much are they going to move? Not much! Maybe a little?” And truth be told, every day, little by little, I can feel it myself in my body. My abdomen is what is moving my legs. Even if it’s just the spasms, it’s really my abs, it’s intense. I’ll tell you what, there’s something really special to be said, about a lifetimes worth of learning. I can see it.
Take almost any Skilled Trade out there, and sure, you could find “How-To’s” or books, or even tutorials and YouTube videos for doing something, but it’s never a replacement for actually getting your hands dirty, trying it, and doing the work. Then also learning from what you messed up, and making refinements. Everyday. One of our family friends who came over from Germany as a young fella, had done his apprenticeship in Germany as a machine tool and die maker way back in the day. My father described one of his tasks, as squaring up a block, by hand, with a file. Each side adjacent to one another needed to be perpendicular to the other, forming a perfect (or as perfect as possible) square. The amount of time, dedication, and skilled effort that would go into that single task is never something that can be fully quantified into a book, it’s something you have to do. It requires actually physically doing the work. So you take a task like this, and build on that for weeks, months, years, you really start to hone in on your craft. This seems to be the same even with the human body. There are people who have been working with and around our bodies for decades, and they have an understanding that far exceeds what you can try to absorb in a single short form article on the internet. Even some texts, for that matter. It’s honestly amazing, what the human body and mind is capable of storing and retaining. My mind sometimes is the one I’m most astounded by most recently! Makes me realize what we are all capable of.
So, what I’m getting at, is I’m learning from someone about the body who’s got a killer instinct, for how we move. And it’s honestly been a really interesting experience, because it’s so different from my experiences at PT. I guess sometimes you really can’t replace years worth of training and learning! I’m pretty amazed every session when she points out something I wouldn’t have even started to consider. Therese sure is something!
I’m in the standing frame right now. It’s 8:06pm. I’m really trying to get my body more and more used to being upright. This is a good way to do it! Spend some time up here, then time for much needed rest!
9/16
That’s pretty interesting last night when I got up to go to the bathroom, when my legs came out of the bed, the amount of proprioception had increased another step change! My right thigh had such a big area of newfound feeling! Pretty interesting! Same thing too every time I get up in the bed! I’m able to feel that much more in my low back!
It’s been wild too, how yesterday I don’t know how I felt about the new shoes. I wasn’t sure if I was making different stride lengths from my left to my right side, but I definitely felt like my left leg was swinging farther in the device so I’m not really sure yet? It’s crazy! It’s all coming together! It’s all coming to head! Fortunately, we don’t really have much else to do for the wedding! Just making sure we got to last things buttoned up and also just making sure I’m gonna be able to take care of my body on a long day like that. I think that’s what has me most concerned because we got a lot of different things to do and I’m gonna need to make sure that I get in the standing frame before I get out the Exo and also bring the leg stretcher. Maybe I can bring the theragun too? That’s probably a good idea. I don’t want that happening like it has all those days in the past with my left foot slipping out.
I’ve noticed how much my lower abs have been engaging. It’s interesting too because with my abs it’s almost with like pumps “I’m able to pump my abs up”. It’s interesting because when I do this, I try to do this in a standing frame even with my legs, it’ll be a squeeze, hold, squeeze, hold, and what’s interesting about that is how I need to do that to get deeper and deeper activation in my legs? Almost like the squeeze and holding process, is allowing my body to understand that it can squeeze the muscles with a deeper contraction and longer also? I don’t really know, but it seems to me like I should continue exploring this idea and working on this idea. My body has been responding in some pretty amazing ways.! It’s just this left leg sometimes, he’s gotta be what feels like 10 minutes late to the party. He’s getting so much stronger, getting more and more into extension, and my left hamstring and hip flexor gotta be just that much more troublesome!? I don’t really know why? But last night I did something different. Well, I did do this the other day too, where I was working on this after I got up in the standing frame at the end of the night. I got down and grabbed the leg stretcher And started to do some pumps. When I do this, it’s almost like doing 100 but for one leg at a time. And then I do some circles with my legs and that’s when I really feel the magic happen! Because I can feel inside and outside of my legs really engage! It feels very cool, and that’s why I’ve been noticing the increased proprioception especially my right leg almost like down my IT band. So then from there once I pull out the stretcher the magic circle from Pilates comes out, and then do some pumps on the inside and the outside!
interoceptive integration and somatic narrative processing – hmm what can I do about exploring this idea more?
Book Ideas
Eckhart Tolle – The New Earth – the ego
Alan Watts –
& Mind Wandering
So what’s interesting, is the past couple nights I have tried to take some magnesium, the cyclo, then I get out of the standing frame, and grab the IdealKnee and magic circle. It’s wild how loose my legs get, and how good they start to feel!
9/17
Okay well last nights wake up wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for the day before the wedding…. I hope and I’m going to do my darndest to make sure this isn’t a UTI! Cloudy urine they say is the first sign, and I haven’t had one in an almost a year and a half? It’s been a very long time, I hope I can fend it off! Goodness maybe I am stressed!
It’s interesting how my body reacts to this, it gets tight and stiff. More so than usual.
So right now in the standing frame, I’m doing some shoulder flexion exercises. It’s weird how my left abs are really fighting me with my arm down, but when I go to really squeeze in the flexed position, my abdomen eases up a bit?
Getting ready for the wedding, and family is all in town! Really excited for these next few days!
I was in the Exo in the grass for the first time today! It was really hard, the grass was thick, and it was hot out! It was fun too because mom and dad showed up to therapy right when I get up in the Exo to stand! It was really great being at standing height when mom and dad walked over in the grassy field! Shoot I got all teary eyed! Sure is special seeing them like this. Also too, Ashley gave dad a chance to try to help me behind the Exo, and boy! Was it HARD! I had no idea how much Ashley was really helping me until today! I was a bit bummed I wasn’t able to do it better with dad walking with me, but boy did it open my eyes to how much work I have to do! This will be a challenge on Friday! Let’s see how it goes!
9/18
What is the ‘Lump of Rock’ I’m clinging to? What current am I in? How do I use the wind? Is that what I am? Is that the dot on the page that I am? All things I’m thinking about from the listening I’m doing this morning. It’s interesting, to think about ourselves in this way. It gets our mind working, and I like how it helps broaden my perspective.
“The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it is really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad.
Because you never know what will be the consequences of the misfortune. Or, you will never know the consequences of good fortune.” – Alan Watts
It’s been a busy time getting ready for the wedding, with everyone in town and so many things happening these past few days! Really hope everything goes well tomorrow!
We were able to do our Rehearsal at the church! Ashley brought the Exo by! Which was sweet! Again everyone is being so supportive. It’s been amazing. All the little ones were finally able to look up at me. Something interesting too, is how well it’s going! I’m really excited for the day tomorrow, I think I have the practice in! Let’s make sure I stretch out good tomorrow before hand! Let’s go get some dinner!
9/19
See Other Blog post for wedding day events, happenings, and festivities!
9/20
It’s 2:58am. My right side lung/ area from the lobectomy is honestly fiery and red hot! Like those candies, Franks Red Hot? Yeah that’s the spicy I’m talking about. It’s been the most spicy that it’s been in what feels like forever! This is insane! Oh yeah, we finally made it to bed at 3am…. I would NOT have been able to have made it back home as easily as I did without George. That boy, he’s always there for us when we we need him! Truly a good friend. So loyal! I can’t believe it, what an amazing night! Need to get some rest!
So, we “started” the day at about Noon-1pm. It was a long day and night before this, and now we are planning on doing this again?
Made it on the boat! Therese made it out with us! She also let Anthony know, and then Anthony let Matty know too! So! Callie got to meet some old friends. Goodness, it was surreal too, talking with both of those guys, because I was hanging out with them the days & weeks right before the accident. Crazy. Matty actually met my brothers in the most peculiar way. Him and I had talked about me storing his bed for him, when he moves out and goes to Norway, and one day I was just gone. So one day, he was walking outside, and by my place. But instead of finding me, he found a bunch of “big dudes” moving my stuff out of the apartment. And that was how he found out about the accident. Pretty sad to say, but glad we are talking about it now.
So! After the boat, we made our way to the Old German Beer Hall (OGBH). We ended up having a great time! we even got the kids playing hammerschlagen! One of my all time favorite drinking games! It was a great afternoon, so much fun!
I did not make it in the standing frame, it’s been a busy day! I need to get some rest today. It’s been a long week. So grateful, so many great memories, and so much love. I’m really fortunate, for everything that has happened this week. I sure do love and appreciate my Cal. Goodness. It’s been a wild ride.
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