Another step

I’m back on the road. Got back behind the wheel this week. Started Monday, driving to a poker game of course. Game was close to home so figured it was a good place to start. Had intended to start over the weekend but the stomach virus put the kibosh on those plans. Since the grip is still a bit weak I had Dad put a knob on the wheel to give me an assist but I find that I do not really need it as much as I thought though it does come in handy every so often. I was going to wait a bit longer, trying to get more strength in the arm and hand, but came to the conclusion that waiting wasn’t really helping. Over most of the rehab the last couple of months I concentrated on doing exercises to build strength but lately had seemed to hit a wall. While I tried using the arm and hand it was more hit or miss than I like to think about. Over the last couple weeks I decided to make a major effort to do things left handed, things I might not even normally do just to push it. Carrying things, opening doors, picking up objects. It’s not easy, especially since I’m a natural righty, but the more I did with it the more I was able to do. I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t strength that was needed but reeducation of the limb also. Hence the driving. Figured the sooner the arm got used to the wheel the faster it would return to form. So far, so good. While driving I try keep my left hand on the wheel as much as possible to retrain it. It seems to be giving the arm and hand a hell of a workout. I’m getting some swelling on the hand that’s affecting the grip somewhat but overall it’s not too bad. The arm itself must be getting a hell of a workout though since it’s tired as hell. Had what I take a good signs the last night and today, got some muscle flex in both the bicep and the forearm, something I hadn’t seen in 5 months. It ain’t consistent yet but I know I saw and felt it. Means I’m still improving.

That last sentence means a lot to me. I was starting to get worried. A lot of reading I had been doing was starting to scare me on the rehab. I was trying to get a timeline on things and checking on the Net and everything that I was reading about rehab was stressing learning to adapt and do things with what was available rather than about recovering use of the affected limb. Now my therapists seemed to concentrate more on the bad arm and had a lot of encouraging words for me but the reading was getting me discouraged. Was the happy talk just encouragement or was it straight talk. As I read deeper though I started to find more recent stuff that helped my mood. It seemed that more recent findings on stroke rehab contradicted the long time accepted principle of adaptation and encouraged the use of the stricken limb to get it working again and even mentioned certain device developed mainly to assist in these tasks. So I started on my reeducating program. Word of advice for anyone who might be rehabbing and reading this, push yourself to reeducate that limb. Do, or try to do, things with the bad limb. Don’t wait for recovery, you have to chase it. There will be frustration along the way, that towel will drop, that switch won’t turn, especially at the beginning. Just remember, most progress in recovery is done in the early months so the sooner you push the better.

BTW, thought I was gonna make Eh-Vegas if I could get behind the wheel. After all it’s only about an 7-8 hour drive, piece of cake. Don’t look like it’s happening. Did not realize exactly how tired the arm would get after just a few days of driving to work and back. By today I could barely keep my arm up and on the wheel. It obviously ain’t makig no 8 hour road trip. Damn.

I don't need no steenkin' resolution

What can I say, back to work barely over a week and already looking for some time off. Gramps is missing his afternoon naps. Amazing how much your muscles and stamina go to hell sitting around doing nothing. Not to mention the weight gains. After busting my hump for the first 9 months of ‘08 the last 3 put me right back to ground zero, if not worse. Man, the doc going to give me another tongue lashing next Mon. Only good thing is I haven’t put on any more since the last visit. What’s really frustrating about this is that for the last 3 years I have been in a grind. I start out at the gym in Feb sometime (Jan is too crowded with all those resolution people) Takes me about a month or so of stop and go to finally get myself into a regular regimen. By May I’m feeling good, dropped some pounds, built some tone and starting to get frustrated because I’ve plateaued somewhat, at least as far as weight loss and waist size are concerned but I keep slugging, especially this year because I was able to strike a balance between gym visits and poker games. Before it was an either/or situation. July usually finds me going on vacation and, over the last couple of years, as if the break in routine wasn’t bad enough, not to mention all the Boardwalk food, I usually found a way to injure myself so that I was out of the gym for 3 to 4 weeks after vacation was over. The routine was broken and while I would try to start it up again I could never really get it going until maybe Nov or so and then came the start of the holiday season and who feels like the gym during that time. Add in all the overeating and along comes Feb again. Wasn’t quite as bad as the previous year but most of the work was shot to hell.

Then came this year. Came back from vacation without a scratch on me. While I didn’t jump right back into the full routine right away I didn’t completely layoff either so that within a couple of weeks I was getting more and more into my regimen. Thought that, Hey, this year I break the cycle. Gonna be able to keep it up, keep working through the holidays and hopefully break that damned waist size plateau. Was actually starting to also, the current slacks were starting to get some slack in them and I could actually shoehorn myself into the next smaller size, All I needed was a few more weeks and I would have to buy new Christmas clothes. Fat chance. Beginning of Oct a little thing known as a stroke came along. Now, not only did I lose gym time, I couldn’t do frigging anything. Feel like a frikkin slug right now and although I haven’t regained all the weight what I have is pure fat, muscle tone and strength are totally gone to hell in a hand basket. Add in the fact that the arm is still screwed up and who knows when I can start a routine again. I plan to though. Biggest stumbling block right now is the same one affecting my poker outings, I still can’t drive. I’ve been well enough to hit the gym for about a month now and actually have gone a few times but being back at work screws the situation up even more. Gym time now has to be in the evenings if I go and that is right about the times my drivers are settling in and getting comfortable. Yes, if I ask they will drive me but I already am putting them out because they are making two trips a day taking me to and from work (There’s that damned work screwing things up again) and I hate imposing any more than necessary. So I now have a lot more incentive for getting this arm back in action. I need to drive, not only for my mental health but for my physical well being as well. Just ordered two thing I was using in therapy to try to help speed up the process. One, a hand strengthener that works on pulling the fingers against resistance as opposed to a squeeze ball or grip where you push, and of which I also have, Figure this is actually better though since part of the recovery process is not just strengthening the grip but also extending the fingers, something this should help with. First thing I thought of when I knew I needed to do this was the old Kung Fu grip strengthener. Those of you who can remember reading comics when they were 12 cents might remember that item. Was advertised on the back cover with the X-ray specs and Charles Atlas 99 pound weakling ad, promising the “killer, crushing, kung fu grip” for those of you too young, didn’t read comics or whose memory is just failing them the damned thing looked like a circle of steel with springs leading down to 5 smaller rings for your fingers so that you put your fingers in and squeezed to build up grip strength. The springs offered resistance and would also pull your fingers back to their starting position when you relaxed. Being advertised on the back pages of comics made me wonder exactly how good it was but the principle made it the very thing I need. Alack and alas, a Google search couldn’t even turn up a reminisce about them let alone any info so it look like I’m stuck using something that looks like a rubber sieve called the Web. Probably works well but just doesn’t have the glamour of the Kung Fu Grip Strengthener.

The other thing I acquired was a kid’s toy. Not merely a kid’s toy but a toddler’s toy. It’s a bunch of large plastic pegs that fit into each other and a rubber pegboard. Kind of makes you feel like an idiot trying to stack them but when you have restricted use of your arm and hand it’s a real bitch trying to manipulate the damned things. Whole idea is to retrain the hand and recover manual dexterity. Luckily I found the thing on Amazon for about $11 total with shipping since most stores wanted $18 to $30 for the thing, not counting the shipping. Paying those prices for it would really make me feel like an idiot. When I get done with it I guess I’ll have to go find a willing participant and have another kid so it doesn’t go to waste as my daughter is a bit beyond such things. Hah!

Speaking of my daughter, thanks to the MLK holiday I get to see her this weekend. Cutting out of work early and heading to pick her up. Still haven’t figured who my driver will be for this trip but looks like it’s going to cost me dinner somewhere. Last one was at Red Lobster. Damn, I gotta get back driving. My nephew has absconded with her Wii after she left after Christmas and told him it better be hooked up where she left it before she gets down here. If it ain’t she’ll rip him a new one, literally. Never saw such a rivalry as the one that goes on between those two. No problem if I or her Uncle John had made off with it, but her cousin? That means war.

Ok, got some things to do so time I posted this paragon piece of boredom so I can put my followers to sleep. I have a great following among insomniacs. Thanks for lending me your ears. I’ll try to return them next week.