fair enough

Boa tarde! Quick recap of last week.

Therapy: All sorts of Giger and e-stim biking. Weights on Monday (segunda!), short sit on the mat on Friday (sexta!). Wednesday (quarta!) was about an hour of Giger/weights, cut short by an outstandingly brief trip to the ER for a non-emergency. Nothing too entertaining, huh.

Not therapy: As I have stated previously, I went to see Death Cab on Wednesday. As I have also stated, it was like a dream. Saturday (sabado!) the dad returned to c-ville to do a little work here and there. No sharp little pieces involved.

This weekend in Detroit there was a large art fair downtown, complete with art nouveau fingerpaintings, a giant sand sculpture, and several rather small stages for odd local and international bands. The mom and I attended for a little while Saturday aft/eve to browse through the booths and listen to Peter Lewis and friend. Mr. Lewis was the front man for Moby Grape, a late 60's-early 70's rock group that I must confess I had never heard of... Anyway, it was super mega hot and humid out, so after that performance we went back to housing to roast indoors. Did I mention that I'm still reeling from the DCFC show? I would melt to see them again. For some odd reason though, they weren't playing at the fair.

There's not really more worth mentioning, and I should probably be getting to bed. Thanks for reading, pals! Rock out.

downtown punctuality

This is so incredibly not health-related.

So last night I had the chance to see a wonderful show down the street here in the guts of Detroit. The headliners were Death Cab for Cutie. It was like a dream. If you are not familiar, Death Cab are an indie rock-ish ("college rock" or even "quasi-emo" perhaps?) band that have been extremely popular in the past several years with those my age and a bit older I think? Anyway, there were quite a lot of people there, 20-year-olds and otherwise. The show was at the stunning and enormous Fox Theatre, which is located pretty much as downtown as you can get. Surrounding were plenty of bars and restaurants and such, as well as another venue showcasing Stone Temple Pilots for the evening. Notably, the Hockeytown bar that even I had heard of on ESPN was right next door.

Sports fans can already see where this is going...

Last night was also game six of the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals, with Detroit's Red Wings preparing to Zamboni all over (my team, if I can claim to have one) the Pittsburgh Penguins, here in Detroit. The Red Wings were up 3-2 in the series, such that if they won, they would be this season's champions. It should be noted that hockey is a pretty big deal in Detroit - who wears a hockey jersey to a concert? - and since the home team was just a game away from the Cup, everyone was wound up and a little wild.

The game and the concert started around the same time. After the opening rockers finished up their set (Rogue Wave, for those keeping track), the emcees announced that the Wings were up 1-0 at the time, followed by plenty of cheers and whatnot. On it goes; commence DCFC. Pretty deep into their set I think some people found out the game was over and that Detroit had won, as I could see some crazed dudes running up and down the side aisles of the theatre...

Concert ends. Showgoers dump out into the downtown night. Commence madness. The streets were already fairly full of bar-prepared fans from Hockeytown et al, and now add a theatre's worth of hipsters excited from the show... It was nuts. Traffic was in the process of being stopped, so there were still a few cars trapped in the mix; police vehicles were all over the place. Everyone was honking horns, yelling, cheering, hi5ing, watching the big screens, (vomming on the sidewalk) celebrating in general. It took us at least 15min or so just to get a few blocks away to meet dad with the van. eek!!

Great timing, eh?

onest p0st!!

Hello pals! Welcome to thejlink, home for John-related news, updates and such (take two). Feel free to read as much as you want and leave commentary where you see fit. Your interaction is highly encouraged and appreciated - even if it's telling me how dumb I am or just saying hi, your comments keep me writing.

Subject material:
Of course, most of the information in these posts will be related to my medical state and progress, therapeutic activities, and other details of my health, because that stuff is interesting and the rest of my life really isn't. However, since this is not a medical blogging site and I have an extremely short attention span, I don't feel particularly obligated to stay on topic all the time. So, beware?

Me:
You (1) probably already know and (2) can find this info in the appropriate profile section, but let me pass on a few relevant details about me.

To start, here's the important part (in extremely summarized form). On 24 December 2004, I was in an automotive accident that left me with an incomplete C4-C5 spinal cord injury. Then on 11 April 2008, I underwent experimental non-embryonic stem cell spinal surgery to treat this injury. Directly after this surgery, I began physical therapy in Detroit, Michigan, for rehabilitation. This is where I am as I write this post, and it's what I'll be talking about the most.

The injury - I broke vertebrae C4-C6 in the accident, including a burst fracture of C5. The spinal cord lesion was incomplete and approximately 2.4cm in length, at the C4-C5 level. By chronic phase (several months post-injury), I achieved a score of B on the ASIA examination.

The surgery - Spinal surgery was performed in Lisbon, Portugal, approximately 3.5 years after injury. The procedure was an olfactory mucosal autograft - a transplant of stem cells from my nose to the injury site. The medical team was led by Dr. Carlos Lima of Hospital Egaz-Moniz.

The rehab - Starting 5 May 2008, I have been performing physical therapy at the Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery (CSCIR) in the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM), located in downtown Detroit. RIM is a part of the sprawling Detroit Medical Center (DMC). I currently live in DMC International Guest Housing, about a block away from RIM. So far, therapy has been one three hour session every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for a total of nine hours each week.

Other jlink details - I was born in 1984, and I have lived in south-central Illinois most of my life. I have two older brothers. I graduated in 2007 from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. I majored in mathematics and minored in computer science. I am quite obviously a total nerd. I like long walks on the beach and late summer sunsets... Are you actually reading this far?? Anyway, I was a Resident Assistant at school for three years, and I loved it. I really like that kind of stuff. I'm also pretty big into anything related to music and musicians, as well as other languages and computational holism. Let's move on already.

--

OK, that's all for now. Thanks so much for dropping by. I can't even pretend to convey my appreciation of your support. Keep an eye out for updates, and I hope to catch you again soon. Au rev, mes amis!

first last post?

SATURDAY, MAY 31, 2008 10:13 PM, EDT
Hey all! Lightning-quick week summary, and I shan't monotonize your brain with more.

Nothing profound has happened all week in the medical department. Monday was a holiday, so my sessions were Tues/Wed/Fri instead. Some sitting balance and weight training, coupled with plenty of Giger and e-stim bike amusement. The goal here is to keep you updated, but I don't mean to bore you with the same "ladybug and FES" post every time I write! zzzzz

Quick and dirty enough, I hope? I think I'll be moving the blog to another platform soon; I'll keep you posted - ha ha - when that happens. Not that anyone is reading, anyway. Go Penguins! Later.

lappy days

SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2008 09:33 PM, EDT
Whatup! Updates and rambles coming, as usual. Watching Juno at the same time, so no promises on concentration...

Therapeutic activities:
Wednesday saw a coincidentally convenient break from the Gigerbug. The Giger bike (and quite a few other activities) requires hand grip, which I can't do voluntarily; to emulate this function, there are all sorts of ways to affix my hands and wrists onto upper appendage equipment. Unfortunately, the straps we've been using, combined with the quite repetitive motion of arm cycling, have worn my knuckles pretty redtastic. So that day sans Giger was appreciated.

Now that I've said all that, Wednesday's replacement activity was lifting weights on the machines on the first floor... With the same grip straps. Oops! It was a different motion, though - rowing, sort of - so not a problem. Some mat work, kinesio tape removal (ouch!), and time on the zap-bike rounded out the Wednesday session.

Friday was back to the Giger for a chunk, then free weights downstairs, then the e-stim bike. Pretty typical, eh? While I was on the bike, my rockin' also-therapizing neighbor did sitting trunk balance on a "peanut" (think two exercise balls fused together like a big 3D rubber Venn diagram) and simultaneously racked up twenty plus consecutive knockouts on Wii boxing... She's good. I can't even throw a Wii punch. Or sit on a peanut. Mmm, legume therapy.

I mentioned "lifting weights downstairs" without explanation. The Center for SCI Recovery, where I have therapy, is the second floor of the Brasza Outpatient and Fitness Center (part of the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, itself part of the Detroit Medical Center, whew). The first floor of the Brasza dahdeedah is basically a big gym - gym as in "gym membership", not courts and basketball hoops. There are zillions of weight machines and mats and treadmills and stuff. I think there are all of the necessary machines for a complete Nautilus fitness sequence, but no guarantees. I've been working on a rather all-purpose machine that I can't even pretend to describe well; it has cables that facilitate curls, tricep extensions, lat pulldowns, etc. Weee.

I haven't said anything about blood pressure either! Wow. As of Wednesday, I'm taking twice as much midodrine as before, which actually just brings me up from the starter to the normal dosage. Now that it's been a few days on the larger-dose regimen, I think it's helping some. To start, I'm trying to avoid putting my feet up. It's tough to tolerate, but I'm getting slightly used to it. Vision still goes sparkly during travel between home and rehab, courtesy of sitting up + brightness. One day at a time, they might say? I'm also adding extra salt to pretty much everything (I put salt in V8!). It seems so wrong.

Nerd therapy note:
I finally broke down and got a new laptop, and it arrived a few days ago. I claim that it has therapeutic benefits. Here's why.

First and foremost, it has a pretty big, glossy display that reflects more than a Kate Chopin essay. It's like sitting in front of a mirror all the time. I have to look at myself constantly no matter what I'm doing. Vain? Bah. Equivalently, I must stare at my terrible sitting posture and watch every screwy little thing I do that makes me twist my neck poorly, tilt my shoulders, fold up my wrists, etc. etc. etc. (In case I was not sufficiently self-conscious) Benefit: it's awful to look at myself, and I knew I was doing these things anyway; now I see when they happen and what to do to remedy.

Next, the keyboard includes a number pad on the right, such that the QWERTY section is offset quite a bit to the left. The touchpad is pushed over a gauche as well. I initially thought this would favor my left-handedness, but not so! The leftmost keys are far enough over that my armrest gets in the way, and I have to either reach around the outside of the armrest or use my right hand to press q, a, z and the like. Also, my left arm is straighter and the shoulder is higher when I use the touchpad. Benefit: mandatory exercise of left shoulder and right arm/fingers.

Finally, this thing is even bigger than the last lapster, and getting the "extended" battery does not conjure images of feathers and breezes. As in about ten pounds. The screen hinge is stiff, and a larger display means [radial integral] pushing it a greater distance to reach the same angle as before. The CD drive is on the opposite side, so I have to work harder to get to it. The media buttons on the front are difficult to press. Benefit: pushing the behemoth around on my lap/desk, simply using it might qualify as real exercise! Evil rubber feet.

So, wasting my life away on this new purveyor of zeros and ones is a justifiably healthy activity, even ignoring the actual intended utilities of such a machine. Ha. QED.

All done, methinks. Tune in next time for, umm, more letters and maybe words and sentences. Thanks for reading.

multitask... fail!

TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2008 03:26 PM, EDT
Hey cats! A quick update - I'm in the process of transitioning from one computer to the next, so I've been short on chances to recount. This battery is about dead, too. Excuses excuses. Here goes.

Friday therapy: Giger aka supine beetle, weight lifting, e-stim bike. Again, a huge increase in resistance on the Giger. Am I working here?? Otherwise, business as usual.

Weekend: Sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep! :-)

Monday session: Lots of mat work. My blood pressure was behaving nicely, so we worked on sitting balance = positioning upright on the edge of the mat, feet on the floor, etc., like sitting in a chair with a therapist back rest. Currently, most of the work is keeping head up/neck straight/shoulders back; if you have ever seen me post-injury, you are likely aware that my upper body has learned to slouch into an unhealthy position so I can stay balanced... Yet another thing to unlearn! In case it would be too easy, I also have really weak neck and trapezius muscles (for keeping my head from falling forward), and very little control of the correct back muscles to pull my shoulders back and straighten my spine. Oh well. During all of that, we also did some random arm reach exercises, and as a break I would lean on my arms to work on that kind of balance.

Next was reclining on a wedge on the mat (30 degrees or so) and doing simultaneous neck exercises and estim-assisted bench press. BTW, I am incapable of concentrating on more than one aspect of a single exercise at once, let alone multiple complicated activities... There are some funny stories to be had there, but I don't think I have enough battery to divulge at the moment. Probably only entertaining to me, anyway. After these exercises was some prone (face-down) time on the mat, doing arm lift and head lift stuff. So hard! As I stated earlier, I have little voluntary control of my back muscles, and the ones I can contract are not strong. Weak, I say. Weak. Wrapping up the session was the usual time on the e-stim (FES, RTI, ERGYS) bike.

After the mat work, I had some Kinesio Tape stuck on the back of my neck, running from my hair down to the middle of my back. Google it.

"You're out of time!", Liquid Snake would say. I'm sorry that this post is rather incomplete and uninteresting; more to come in a few days. I'm not sure who you are, oh current blog reader, but I probably miss you. Thanks for your support. Rock out.

Rx: supersize

THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008 09:10 PM, EDT
Whatup! Therapy, doc appointment, blah blah drugs blah.

Wednesday's rehab session was dope uncut, especially relative to Monday's sad struggle for systole. Plenty of Giger with the resistance cranked a fair bit higher than before. To illustrate, consider that the Giger functions quite similarly to a bike, and we keep track of work according to the total number of cycles performed in a session. Each session has been 45-60min. Over that period, I only managed half as many cycles on Wednesday as either of my two previous sessions. In other words, I had enough of an increase in resistance to accomplish half as much measured work, still sustained over a cardio-worthy time period. Weee! Further, I'm not sure what effect it has on the workload that both arms and legs are attached. On one hand, since I don't have any voluntary leg muscle contraction, so my arms have to do all the work. That sounds like a tilt towards mass-building exercise for my shoulders. On the other hand, how would it be different if arms and legs were all functional? Hmm.

After the Giger was the Total Gym, as advertised by Mr. Norris. It's a grizzly bear-sized apparatus where you can lay on a sliding rest part and push against another side part with your feet or whatever. Don't mistake me for someone who can describe stuff accurately. I used it for assisted inclined squats: lay on slide part, angle whole machine so I'm inclined about 30 degrees head-up from supine, have therapists help me go through knee bend/straighten motions. This exercise doubles as a controlled weight-bearing procedure; more on that some other time. To make it even better, we attached electrical stimulation to my quadriceps muscles so that I could perform some of the leg straightening actively. Even even better better, we talked about running track and how incredibly bad I was... Between squat sets I did quasi bench press with my arms, which were pretty much blobs of goo after so much Gigering.

Then was a good load of FES (RTI, e-stim) biking and watching of the somewhat-new Transformers movie. I'm glad the toys were not as complicated as their onscreen CG counterparts...

Thursday = first appointment with the doctor here. The only part worth mentioning is that I now have midodrine at my disposal to combat hypotension. Midodrine, often sold as ProAmatine I think, increases blood pressure via peripheral vasopression - that is, it shrinks blood vessels, reducing circulatory volume and therefore [physics equations] increasing circulatory pressure. The hope is that I can take some before therapy and be able to do sitting balance and other upright work without almost passing out every two minutes. Sounds good to me!

Pointless commentary coming! Taking meds to increase blood pressure seems all wrong. Millions of people around the world work so hard (or don't) to fight precisely the opposite issue; I feel like I have been prescribed McDonald's three times a day, for my health? But it is obvious that I need it to do, well, just about anything, and I've tried just about everything else... So strange! More tangibly, I'm slightly concerned with autonomic dysreflexia issues and the likelihood of oxycodone and midodrine simply cancelling each other out. But again, these are matters for their own posts. We shall see how it goes.

Also, chalk up yet another doubter to prove wrong. Bring it.

C'est tout, je pense!