Land of the Free?

I am, as I have mentioned before, not a student of our constitution or of our government system in general. But it seems to me that starting in grades school our teachers drove into our little brains that the country was built on the premise of "freedom of religion", amoung others. To me that means folks have the right to pray to whom/whatever form of god or idol or tree or rock that they wish, or not. And they can do so without fear of persecution.

Yesterday evening, during my drive home from work, I listened to a story on NPR that just... just disillusioned me yet again about the people we have elected to run this great country of ours.

Incoming Rep. Keith Ellison intends to use a Quran at his unofficial swearing-in ceremony. But the Minnesota Democrat is being criticized by some who say he should use a Bible. Ellison is the first Muslim elected to Congress.

One of the most vocal voices in this debate is from the esteemed republican from Virginia who apparently wants to stop this non-sence. He wants to stop illegal immigration in order to stop muslims from immigrating and thus Muslims will not be elected and then would not swear the oath of office on anything but the bible. He says it is "Un-American" ....

And folks think Muslims are fanatical!

Day 25 Update

Greetings all,

It's 5:00 AM and I just finished up my physical therapy regiment. I woke to a throbbing in my right ankle, and both feet. It has become some what of a ritual over the past couple of weeks. Waking up between 3:00 and 5:00 to one pain or another. I general take something for the pain and after 30-40 min I can go back to sleep. This morning however I got up and exercised instead.

The sore ankle is the same ankle I have sprained several times in the past. I do not have pain accross the lateral tendons, typical with the rolled ankle I am so proficient at. I mostly have pain near where the achilles attaches to the heal, mostly on the interior side, and in the joint where, to quote Ezekiel, "th foot bone is connected to the leg bone" in front. In addition I have crampy achy pain in the bottom of my feet and heels. It constantly feels like I have been walking for hours. I get this pain generally in the evening as well as in the wee hours of the morning.

But, if you notice, when I first started complaining about the various pains I was experiencing after surgery, it started from by buttox all the way to the bottom of my feet. Now it is limited, for the most part, to just my feet and ankles. Maybe a little still in my lower calfs. So there is some progress. My back does not generally hurt unless I do somthing stupid or I sit too long etc. and that goes away pretty quickly once I relax etc.

I started Physical Therapy on Tuesday. The practitioner and staff are really nice. So far she is prescribing the same type of exercises and stretches I have seen from my other PT experiences over the years. Though this time I have some that I do on a exercise ball that I have not done before. So I had to go out and by one of course. I scheduled 4 appointments. Hopefully after that I can just to the routine at home and perhaps check in with her after a month. The insurance co-pay hurts more than my back does.

Back to work

Today is my official first day back at work. I worked a couple hours yesterday after my Doctor appointment. He cleared me to work and drive and I can even pick up the cats...

The back feels fine. No significant or lasting pain. I can get it to hurt if I move to far in one direction or another but overall its good. I still am having leg pains however. Mostly at night.

The doc is not concerned about it. He is confident it will go away over time as I continue to heal and start doing some Physical therapy. In the mean time I take the meds as necessary, usually before bed and again around 4:00 AM.

Looking forward to the new year

I intended to blog every day or two to journal my recovery but ... well I can't say I have been busy. Much like everything else I seem to do I can't seem to keep with it. I am Just a little un-inspired I guess.

My back is overall better. I was hoping to be pretty much off the meds and chomping at the bit to get back to work. And I generally don't need any meds durring the day. At night, sometime around 2:00 - 3:00 it starts to ache. And I have to take the meds, and again sometimes after I get up for the day. My back generally feels pretty good, though I am not allowed to do much. I get some weird crampy feelings in my legs some times throughout the day but overall I am getting better day after day.

Christmas time is really not my favorite time of the year. I am getting stir-crazy around the house. Nothing about this move has gone as planned,every transaction, it seems requires 3 more phone calls to get it right. Things cost more here, taxes, insurance, utilities, window treatments.... My boss has been really understanding the past several months but I gotta get off my arse and be the high-producer I use to be I have been saying that for 4 months now... I am out of excuses.

Time to turn things around eh?

Day 6 Report

Yesterday (Friday) I woke up sore and had the chills in the morning but once I was up and about I felt pretty good until late evening; I started to ache some. Karen and I took a couple of walks down the block but mostly I watched TV and rested. I did not wear the brace Thursday night to bed but I wore the brace most all day Friday, and word it to bed Friday night. I did not wake up in the middle of the night and have to take pain meds like I had the previous couple nights. In fact I did not take them until close to 10:00 Saturday morning.

Friday I called TBI with a couple questions and my concern about the chills/fever. They answered most of the questions I had but said they would call me back concerning the chills. They did not call back however. It is not a big concern since the symptoms have dramatically been reduced.

I would guess the average pain level for Friday was 2-3. A little higher as the meds wore off. I mostly felt fatigued.

Saturday I woke up, again a little sore but once up and about I felt pretty good. So much so that I decreased the dosage of the pain meds. I have warn the brace most all day and have not had the chills/fever feeling today. a few hot flashes if anything. Again, I am more fatigued than sore. We took a walk this morning and went to "The Ranch" after lunch. I mostly napped and watched TV while the rest of the gang played golf or billiards.

Today the average pain level has been 2-3. Even the pain spikes, when sneezing or moving incorrectly, have been lower, probably a 6 out of 10.

I am on Short Term Disability leave from Nortel probably for 2 weeks. But I feel confident that by Monday afternoon I will be able to cut back on the meds and be able to concentrate enough to do a little catch-up at work. At least go throught the e-mails etc. There are some on-line training classes I am signed up for that I have not been able to start the past several weeks due to back pain/meds. Hopefully I can get started on those courses next week.

I have noticed a "popping" sound / feeling coming from my back the past couple of days. It probably is normal joint popping that I usually instigate but since I have the brace on and I am limiting my back movement they occur autonomously and therefore are more noticeable. I sincerely doubt it is coming from the implant.

The biggest problem I am having is in my biologic "throughput." My output has ceased since last Sunday morning. The nurses of course, were concerned and did not want to discharge me without some signs of improved activity. But I was released anyway. I have been taking appropriate medications to get things moving but so far there has been little signs of change. I suspect that some of the other symptoms I am experiencing are related to or being exacerbated by this work stoppage. TBD I guess.

This is probably getting boring for most of you. My apologies, I will try and post non-back related blogs as well since I am feeling better. I just want to chronicle the recovery process for my own future reference.