Monday, January 23, 2012

September 2011 - Still hopeful...

Here's the update I gave my family and co-workers in September.  I kept having to go back on the Decadron steroid, because each time we weaned off of it, it would seem that the swelling around my spine returned because my legs would get weaker and quit working again.  That cycle of constantly taking Decadron, which raises your blood sugar, would eventually push my system to its limits and tip me over the "pre-diabetic" cliff into full diabetes.

"I'm apparently going to be stuck at home a while longer while my nerves heal to fully restore all the feeling in my feet. The doc says this will just take time. Nerves regenerate verrry slowly compared to other kinds of tissue.  In fact the nerves in my abdomen that were damaged during the Aug. 5 surgery (more than a month ago) have just begun to repair enough to restore feeling to the skin of my stomach (so I can now begin to feel all the black and purple bruises my daily anti-coagulant injections give me LOL). Yesterday's scans showed no change in the fractured vertebra so it has not compressed any further; this stability is a good thing, but it still has more healing and strengthening to do. I will have repeat scans in 4 more weeks, and the surgeon still feels that more surgery in this area of my back would be extremely difficult and risky, and only looked at as a last resort.  In the meantime I will continue to work hard at physical therapy to rebuild the strength and stamina of my legs as much as I can, and maybe that stimulation is also beneficial to my feet."

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