Stronger

I bought a bike back in June and have been riding it around downtown ever since, mostly to get to work and back home. I can now get to work in about 10 minutes, faster than if I ride the bus.

Two weekends ago, Lyndsay and I did a cycling tour of the Sunshine Coast. We took the ferry to Langdale on Saturday morning, then cycled about 30 km to Sechelt. The purpose of the trip was to attend a wedding reception, and unfortunately we missed most of it due to the longer than anticipated time it took to get to Sechelt.

Because it was starting to get dark after the reception and we would be riding on a highway with no streetlights, we threw our bikes on a shuttle and took the shuttle to Roberts Creek (about halfway back to the ferry), stayed in a B&B overnight, then rode the remaining 15 km back to the ferry terminal on Sunday. We went up and down many hills. I looked at Google Map's terrain prior to the trip and noted all the hills I might encounter, but those were only the super-big inclines and declines. There were many smaller ones that I didn't see on the map.

Here's a map of the Saturday trip, which took about 4 hours. The Sunday return trip took about 1.5 hours.

Since that trip, I've noticed that it's just a bit easier to bike around, especially going up the same hill on my way home from work. I don't have to gear down as far to avoid fatiguing myself.

In just over a week, I'll be moving out of my home and living in West Point Grey. My plan is to bike to work in the morning (~45 min and mostly downhill) and ride the bus back home with the bike on the bus' bike rack, at least for as long as the weather holds out.

Great news

I had an appointment with my neurologist today for a nerve conduction test. The previous test was Mar 28 last year.

The results showed about a 33% increase in the speed in which my nerves conduct pulses of electricity in my legs and arms. One number went from 3.2 to 4.2 in my right leg, but I don't know what the unit of measure was. She was saying that the speeds recorded are about average for the entire population (which includes older people). Therefore, it's likely that for my age, I should still see more improvement. I don't have any statistics from before I got sick, so there is no specific benchmark to compare against.

This is still great news and shows that I've had a lot of nerve regrowth in the last year.

Walking to work

Today was the first day I came to work without my crutch. I took the bus in, but I plan to walk home.

The first time I rode a bus without the wheelchair (using a crutch) was the Saturday of Chinese New Year back in the spring.

Gym

I've been focusing on my lower body in the gym for the last few months, primarily on the stairclimber. The improvement has been huge and it really shows each time I traverse a set of stairs. I'm now at a point in which I can walk around safely without a crutch, but still need it for stair climbing. For small sets of reasonably spaced stairs, I can step down them without holding on to something for support. I'm still working on getting up the stairs; that will still take some time.

As my strength has improved, I've been spending more time away from home at night and haven't been going to the gym regularly enough. Last night, I did some upper body exercises, and it was a challenge to lift the same number of plates that I was doing a few months ago on the triceps pulldown and chest press.

One year

Monday, July 17, was the day I transferred to GFS last year. It's now been more than a year since my hospital stay.

I haven't posted in a while

It's been a while since I last posted. I stopped using the wheelchair shortly after my last post, which would have been more than a month ago. It's been sitting in my apartment since. I don't want to put it into my storage locker due to the risk of theft (it does have a high monetary value).

Stair climbing is the next milestone. I'm getting very close to not needing an aid to traverse stairs. On smaller steps, I'm using my crutch more for balance than support, and on larger regular size steps, I'm relying on the crutch and handrails much less. My target is to be able to do stairs by the end of the summer. I've already booked a trip to Las Vegas for the Labour Day weekend, so that would be a nice time to have conquered stair climbing.

The first night of lindy at Showboat was two weeks ago. There is no way I can step up on the stage: I tried, and nearly fell backwards. I can, however, make it up the ramps around the back. Last year, I was only able to show up a few times when it first started, and then I was in the hospital. I'm in much better condition now. There was a point last year when I had to call someone to help me walk there from my car. That was scary. But, it's in the past and right now I'm continuously progressing.

Toe

I saw a podiatrist last Thursday because of an ingrown toenail. I've never had one in my life and I didn't even know what it was until I saw a doctor a few weeks ago. It was getting more and more painful and wasn't healing.

He cut away both sides of the toenail with surgical scissors and bandaged it up, and after some minor initial pain when the anaesthetic wore off, it feels much better now. My pain tolerance is much better now than it was a year ago. It was odd not feeling anything while he sheared away the nail, and seeing the blood when he was done (although there was very little blood). It also felt odd not feeling my big toe when I walked out and for another hour before the anaesthetic wore off.

When I was in the hospital last summer, my feet swelled a lot due the lack of circulation from lying in the hospital bed for so long. It got so bad that I couldn't even put my shoes on. They gave me anti-embolism TED stockings that compress the foot and leg to prevent swelling. The compression is supposedly what caused the ingrown toenail.

I'm glad I had a podiatrist do it, because the doctor I initially saw wanted to remove the entire toenail. That might cause complications, as it could dig into my skin as it grows back and, along with the discomfort, would require repeat visits back to the doctor to fix.

Almost wheelchair-free

Last week I started going to work with my crutch instead of the wheelchair. It's going well, and this morning I was able to get there on public transit while also carrying my laptop. Going to and from work was the only remaining recurring need I had for the wheelchair, so I'm hoping very soon to pack it up and store it away somewhere where I won't see it. I won't get rid of it, just in case of a recurrence or something ever happens to my parents as they grow older. Wheelchairs are not cheap to buy, and my insurance only covers the first one.

I'll probably cancel my HandyDART trips to work and back soon. It's a very expensive service to run, and one of the drivers quoted the average cost to taxpayers per trip being around $30. The 25-year old electric trolley buses are slowly being replaced with new accessible electric low-floor buses, and the route that connects my office and home has mostly been replaced with the new buses. Apparently there are about 40 of the new buses in service now, although the first pilot bus was numbered 2101, and I saw number 2168 go by on my way home today. Either way, nearly every trolley route goes down the street in front of my home and I'm seeing many more of the new buses.

Still improving

I'm still seeing strength gains. A little over a month ago, I bought four big containers of juice weighing roughly 20 lbs and carried it to my car from the store. It was a real challenge to get them to my car, leaning on my crutch on one side and carrying my purchase on the other. Last week, roughly one month later, I bought some more and it was noticeably easier to carry the same weight to my car.

Last Friday, I took the elevator down to the food court in my office tower and walked to Quizno's for lunch with one of my coworkers, without using my crutch. It felt good being able to walk around the office tower.

Yesterday, I did 25 minutes at 45 resistance and an incline of 7 (max 10) on the stairclimber. That's a noticeable improvement from even a few weeks ago. I'm running out of magazines to read.

I just tested my resting heartrate, and it's down to around 70 bpm. The last time I checked was about half a year ago when it was in the mid-eighties. I've also noticed that my waist is getting slimmer. I've had to tighten my belt a notch.

Stairclimber

25 minutes at 30 resistance last night.

Stairclimber

I'm now up to 16 minutes at 27 resistance on the stairclimber.

I have another EMG test scheduled with my neurologist at the end of this month. Although the clinical results are awesome and beyond what she was expecting (which anyone who has seen me through this in the last year can attest to), I'm looking forward to seeing the test results too.

Goals

I've really started noticing the improvements I've been making in my recovery since December. I have a follow-up scheduled with my physiotherapist in about two weeks, which is three months from the last time I saw her. She's going to be impressed.

There are many things I want to do right now but just can't because of my condition. I thought I'd make a list with some realistic timelines.

• I've already started swimming.
• I should be able to do some bicycling this summer on relatively flat terrain, like the Stanley Park seawall.
• I may be able to start some ice skating at the end of this year.
• Inline skating will probably have to wait until summer 2008.
• I don't think I'll be able to do ice hockey until the winter of 2008/2009.
• Dodgeball and aikido will also have to wait at least another year to early 2008 at the soonest.

One year

Today marks one year since my first symptom of what I've been going through.

I was at SFU, running down the sidewalk to get to the transportation centre to catch the bus back home. My legs gave on me, and I went down on my knees.

45

I'm now up to 11 minutes on the stairclimber, and at a higher resistance than when I was first able to use it back in December. I have no idea what the unit of measure is, but it varies between zero and 100 with a default of 15. My setting is now 25.

Ascending stairs in general has also become much easier, and I can get up less steep stairs without someone helping. At this rate, I think within 3-4 months I may be able to ascend stairs without putting any weight on a crutch, using it just for balance.

44

Jojo held a blues party on Thursday night. I got tired of sitting and watching everyone else dancing, so I gave it a shot. Blues dancing is all about leading the follow with downward body motions. My leading was nowhere near where I used to be, and I couldn't sink too low for fear of falling, but I got through it. That's the first time I've danced since April.

In the gym, I started using the treadmill and stairclimber about 2 weeks ago. I'm only able to walk on the treadmill, but I crank up the incline to really work my quads. I can only go for about two minutes on the stairclimber, mainly because I'm taking a lot of weight in my arms. That's still a huge improvement, because I tried the stairclimber back in September and couldn't even go one step without feeling like I was going to fall backward.

43

I can now stand up off my bed without using my arms to push myself up; only my legs. I can't do it consistently yet, but neither could I stand up consistently when I was first able to, using my arms, back in September.

I've been thinking. It took me about 5 months from the first symptom until I was treated. It has also been about 5 months of improvement since then, and I would say right now I'm physically at the point I was about 2 months before I started getting better.

I'm making an assumption of a linear rate of improvement and that I don't plateau, but at this rate it is taking about 2.5 months to recover for every month I got weaker, which leaves at least another 7 months to get back to 100%, around June 2007, which is one year from when I was admitted into the hospital.

42

I've been exercising nearly every day now, either in my gym at home or at GF Strong in the physio gym or the pool. The progress is slow, but I am seeing improvements. I can almost leg press my body weight. I'm hoping I can hit that threshold by the end of the month. One of the challenges I wasn't yet able to do in my last blog entry was stand up off my couch. It sinks down when one sits in it, and I had to do a pivot transfer onto the wheelchair and stand up from there. It takes some effort, but I can now stand up from the couch.

I can actually feel the muscles in my arms. That feels very good, considering I could wrap my hand around my skinny upper arm back when I was in the hospital four months ago. Friends have been commenting on how scary skinny I was back then. My endurance is better too. I've been doing hyperbaric oxygen treatments each week at Yaletown Holistics, and the two-block trip back home is a slight incline. A month ago, I had to stop halfway to rest before continuing, and now I can push myself for the entire trip without having to stop.

My resting heart rate is down to the mid-eighties. That is still high for someone my age, but it is a huge improvement from the 110+ when I was lying in bed in the hospital. Hopefully that will continue to improve as I get healthier. The risk is that at some point I may plateau and not improve from there. I'm hearing differing opinions. My rehab doctor thinks I'll peak at 70-80% of normal, but he has also never seen a case like mine before. The last EMG test showed a slight improvement in my nerves.

My goal is to get better than I was before. Right now, I'm in the pool twice a week, in the physio gym twice a week, and in my gym at home four times a week. That's about eight hours of exercise each week. I'm up to 25 minutes on the exercise bike at home, and I can pedal faster than when I first started using it at home three weeks ago.

My physiotherapist is impressed that I'm doing a lot of exercising at home. I just view it as something I need to do, but a lot of people just accept being in a wheelchair, even when they have the potential to get better. The downside is that I'm neglecting a lot of friends, since my weeknights are spent at home in the gym, instead of out and about.

Work is awesome about letting me take the time I need to get better. The VP of our group understands my situation. She suffered an injury skiing when she was younger, and had to spend a year doing rehab to walk again. I'm working from home one to two days a week, and my aggregate hours add up to about 3.5 to four actual days of work.

I'm driving now too. I'm in better shape now than when I stopped driving back in May. It feels good having the freedom to get into my car and go out whenever I want to, instead of relying on public transit or asking for friends to go out of their way.

I'll never know what caused all this to happen, but I wonder if stress played a role. An MD would probably discount this theory and say that there is a scientific reason, but a naturopath takes a different approach to these things and would consider it. There were a number of factors contributing to a lot of stress for me late last year, within a few months of the first symptom. Regardless, I'm staying much more laid back now.

41

Yesterday was the first day I was able to use the exercise bikes in my gym since everything started. I was able to go for 15 minutes. The bikes are pedal-powered and require a certain minimum resistance to keep them going, and I just haven't had the strength in my quads to meet that resistance until now.

I'm spending two days a week now doing physio at GFS in both the pool and gym, and the rest is up to me to do on my own. The first week back to work was pretty overwhelming, but now that I've made tentative arrangements so that I can work less than full hours, it should be easier to work and do my physio too.

Last Thursday, my rehab physiotherapist gave me two canes with wrist braces to use at home: not because I'm ready for them, but because she got worried when I told her that I've been walking around my apartment.

My car is still in storage. It took half an hour last week to pull the wheelchair apart and put it into the car piece by piece while sitting in a chair. Since there is no practical way for me to get the wheelchair in and out of the car on my own, I will have to wait until I have a walker that I can easily get in and out of the car before insuring it for road use. I also noticed a squeaking sound from one of the belts under the hood. I want to get that checked out too before I start driving around.

I forgot to call HandyDART today to book my trip to GFS on Thursday. Hopefully I can sneak onto the schedule if I call first thing in the morning.

40

Today was my first day back at work. I spent the day at work setting up a new laptop (so that I can work from home on the days I have physiotherapy), and at GF Strong for my first day of outpatient physio. For now, my schedule will be physio on Tuesdays and Thursdays, consuming about half of the workday, and work for the rest of the week. I have 15 days to reopen the case if it turns out I can't handle work and physio at the same time.

It was also my first time riding HandyDART. The service is pre-booked with 30 minute pickup windows, so it means I must lead a very structured life for the next few months and always carry something to read while I wait.

It feels different being back home. GF Strong makes life so easy. They cook for me, clean for me, make my bed... Now I'm stuck doing all that on my own. It's been three months since I've lived at home and it feels a bit like I'm moving out on my own again.