Aaaaargh, broken back!

[jessmarimba]

Jane - thank you for the encouragement. I've had no contact with the doctor but the therapists just kept using the phrase "frowned upon" when I mentioned anything athletic. Glad to hear you're up and going

Can I ask - I've had a good chunk of titanium screwed into my back too - did your incision bruise over as it was healing? From what I can see, my back looks horric right now, and it hurts, but I can't tell if it's the bruise or the screws bothering me...?

[Jane Honda]

Jane - thank you for the encouragement. I've had no contact with the doctor but the therapists just kept using the phrase "frowned upon" when I mentioned anything athletic. Glad to hear you're up and going

Can I ask - I've had a good chunk of titanium screwed into my back too - did your incision bruise over as it was healing? From what I can see, my back looks horric right now, and it hurts, but I can't tell if it's the bruise or the screws bothering me...?

Let them frown all they want. Just tell them their faces will stick that'a'ways. If you stay stagnant, your body will deteriorate. Just make sure you start back into work again slowly. Let your body tell you what it's capable of. Go from there. If you quit moving, you will really QUIT moving. I'm serious.

I don't remember what my back looked like. I was pretty doped up, as I had massive road rash injuries along with other broken bones to add to my back injury.

I do know, that if I move the wrong way against the steel, it will hurt like the frikken dikkens. I mean screaming meemee hurt! My skin around the incision is numb, but my pain receptors are hyper sensitive. I feel no pressure sensations, no cold or hot sensations, no touch. Just extreme pain if there is a tiny amount of pain. I do end up with bruising on my back if I do crunches, but maybe that area is just more predisposed to bruising. I have no idea. Bruises are badges to me. So are scars.

I would consult with your doc about the bruising part. Maybe you have a screw loose (er... Please don't take that wrong? ) You could need the hardware adjusted, or maybe you can have it taken out. I can opt to have mine taken out if I can cough up the $90,000 surgery, and the months of down time. NOT. So, it stays. I'm proud of it, actually. It means I survived something way bigger than me.

[OakLeaf]

wow Jess, I only just read this. I guess this has become the collective broken back thread! So sorry that happened to you Heal up quick and DO take the advice of your therapists. There's a huge difference between accepting a limitation after you're completely healed, vs. causing more damage during the healing process.

This thread has really brought home to me how variable medical care is around the country (and even in the UK, as Clock has showed). All these little tips and tricks that you've had to discover for yourselves, the OTs and PTs showed to my mom after her knee surgery and my dad after her back surgery, before they were even released from the hospital, or on their very first home visit.

I hate the place where my parents live, you really couldn't pay me to live there even if they didn't ... but the more I see of the medical care they get vs. anyone else I'm aware of, the more I want their hospital and their therapists to move here!

[jessmarimba]

Oak, you'll be surprised to hear, then, that I wouldve gone home five days earlier with almost NO therapy if I didn't live alone. It took a whole day of the hospital nagging my insurance before they approved me to stay for rehab. At that point, I couldn't put the brace on without help and was still puking every time I stood up.

I'm obeying my therapists, promise! But they directly contradicted a lot of what my surgeon told me in the recovery room (aggravating). He doesn't work at the hospital, though, so he never got to re-approve me for things like showering with no brace.

And in most recent news, my mom (who was coming in a month to help with some housework) just fell and broke her elbow. Be careful out there!

(and now back to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...)

[ClockworkOrange]

Hey Jess, am going to make you real jealous, my physiotherapist let me do a whole 5 minutes on an exercise bike today..............I must have looked like I had a coat hanger in my mouth, as my smile was soooooo big!

Disappointed at being told I must not do any canoeing yet, now I only do real slow stuff, no shooting rapids or anything It's just an inflatable Sevylor but it's good fun but it will have to wait till next summer I think.

Now watching a cheapie exercise bike on ebay, so fingers crossed.

Hope things are going well for you, bet your cats like having you around all day.

Clock