Padraic
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2006
- Messages
- 1,755
All:
I've been trying to avoid posting the news of my recovery too often. I think the YouTube video link in my signature is plenty indulgent enough. Still, yesterday's news is worth sharing.
Paul G, my ole fishin' buddy, took me to a doctor's appt. The results of my latest MRI were in. They took scans of my spinal cord at the point of the injury. Evidently, the spinal cord dies below the point of injury. In the case of an incomplete injury, such as mine, the nerves die in line behind the injury. So what you have is a partial spinal cord. The level of your recovery is then limited by two things... the injury itself and the resulting atrophying of the spinal cord behind it.
Well, in my case, the cord is fighting the good fight. I have an injury to the spinal cord (obviously), but nerves behind it do not appear to be dying off. This means I have the potential for a better than expected recovery.
Of course, I have to be pretty realistic in my expectations. The cord is damaged at the site of the injury. So I will never regain full use of my body below that injury. But I should continue to regain movement and strength. Maybe I will be able to get around with a walker, and, like Doc Fritchey used to do... use a walker to get out into a stream and fish from a lawn chair! It'd be fun to fish the Green Drake hatch that way! :-D
Thanks for all the good wishes I have been receiving. It makes a big difference to know that there are so many good folk behind me.
I've been trying to avoid posting the news of my recovery too often. I think the YouTube video link in my signature is plenty indulgent enough. Still, yesterday's news is worth sharing.
Paul G, my ole fishin' buddy, took me to a doctor's appt. The results of my latest MRI were in. They took scans of my spinal cord at the point of the injury. Evidently, the spinal cord dies below the point of injury. In the case of an incomplete injury, such as mine, the nerves die in line behind the injury. So what you have is a partial spinal cord. The level of your recovery is then limited by two things... the injury itself and the resulting atrophying of the spinal cord behind it.
Well, in my case, the cord is fighting the good fight. I have an injury to the spinal cord (obviously), but nerves behind it do not appear to be dying off. This means I have the potential for a better than expected recovery.
Of course, I have to be pretty realistic in my expectations. The cord is damaged at the site of the injury. So I will never regain full use of my body below that injury. But I should continue to regain movement and strength. Maybe I will be able to get around with a walker, and, like Doc Fritchey used to do... use a walker to get out into a stream and fish from a lawn chair! It'd be fun to fish the Green Drake hatch that way! :-D
Thanks for all the good wishes I have been receiving. It makes a big difference to know that there are so many good folk behind me.
