Jan wants to go somewhere tomorrow and I'm all about accommodating her wish to get out of the house. It takes about an hour to wash her hair, get cleaned up and a new t-shirt wriggled under the vest. The portion I trimmed away in the front and back of her neck opening was agreed to by the NP for anyone that thinks I'm being reckless. I assure you I am not doing anything to harm her or endanger her recovery. Most of the time I feel like I'm the only one that is trying to make it as fast and painless as possible. The medical people certainly have little regard for the mental state of anyone wearing one of these things. Heal the spine, damn the person!
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. The NP and the halo expert both said the long protruding bar in the back may account for some of her discomfort when laying on her back. I doubted it because it is resting against a quarter inch of hard plastic which is then padded with massive amounts of lamb's wool. They nonchalantly loosened all the attaching points for the offending bar and proceeded to push it up. When I saw six inches more of it going up above her head, I vetoed that! She can barely get into a Honda Pilot, a very tall vehicle, with the existing height. If it stuck up six more inches she'd be bumping it and hanging it on everything in sight. You can't make a 5'6" woman suddenly have to deal with a 6' stature! I asked if I could chop it off with a cutoff saw and they didn't seem to like that idea. I'm telling you, this is a mechanical problem and these people must have never seen an erector set as children.
At any rate, her medication is doing wonders. She takes it at 8:30 PM and it knocked her out at just before 10:00 PM last night. She wakes up at 5 AM and takes a valium and rests a bit more before getting up. Once she's up and has had breakfast, she lays back down for a few hours for a nap. She is going to try taking it at around 10:00 PM tonight to see if she can sleep until 6:30 AM and then stay up.
She's sleeping so much better that she finally bugged me enough about the tingling and numbness I have between my shoulder blades when driving to go see her chiropractor. I did mention this to the GP when we had our shared visit on 12/23/2008 that it had started after the accident. I said it gets numb and tingles like it is asleep between my shoulder blades when I drive or have to have my unsupported arms in front of me. He said take advil or motrin without even touching me or seeing exactly where I was indicating. Jan says I don't complain enough. I was unaware that was a trait I needed to develop.
The chiropractor x-rayed me and did some e-stim, which is also called a TENS unit, on the first day. They put four pads on my back and the tingle of the e-stim feels just like the tingle without the numbness. Strangest sensation, indeed.
I got the results of the x-rays yesterday. My neck has lost the curve from C1 to about
C4 when viewed from the side. My neck has a very slight "S" when viewed from the front. It would appear Jan's spine is in better alignment than mine! The chiropractor said it was definitely from the accident. This is just a cell phone camera shot so the detail isn't good but it is pretty obvious from all the spine pictures I've seen lately.
I also told the GP at the same visit that I wasn't sleeping much and he suggested benadryl. That was a flop! The dramamine didn't seem to have much impact either. I stopped short of combining Wild Turkey and benadryl.
Jan then called in and got me a prescription of Ambien. I took the first one last night about 11:30 PM. I wasn't really tired but I needed to get some sleep. I immediately went to bed upon taking it as it is supposed to take effect in 15 minutes. I closed my eyes and the next time I opened them I looked at the clock. It was now 12:00 midnight. I closed them again and tried to fall asleep. When I opened my eyes again it was 12:30 AM. One more time I tried to drift off and again I saw 1:00 AM on the clock. This is actually worse since I was getting midnight to 3:00 AM and then an hour between jolting awake episodes. Luckily, I was out from 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM.
Is that an improvement? Five contiguous hours is better than three but I wouldn't call it a night's rest. Have you ever had those dreams where you are falling and are jolted awake with every muscle in your body tensed as if to brace for impact? That's what happens to me constantly through out the night. My heart is racing, I have a bad feeling and I braced for impact. I do not remember the dream as much now but I suspect it is still something accident related.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. The NP and the halo expert both said the long protruding bar in the back may account for some of her discomfort when laying on her back. I doubted it because it is resting against a quarter inch of hard plastic which is then padded with massive amounts of lamb's wool. They nonchalantly loosened all the attaching points for the offending bar and proceeded to push it up. When I saw six inches more of it going up above her head, I vetoed that! She can barely get into a Honda Pilot, a very tall vehicle, with the existing height. If it stuck up six more inches she'd be bumping it and hanging it on everything in sight. You can't make a 5'6" woman suddenly have to deal with a 6' stature! I asked if I could chop it off with a cutoff saw and they didn't seem to like that idea. I'm telling you, this is a mechanical problem and these people must have never seen an erector set as children.
At any rate, her medication is doing wonders. She takes it at 8:30 PM and it knocked her out at just before 10:00 PM last night. She wakes up at 5 AM and takes a valium and rests a bit more before getting up. Once she's up and has had breakfast, she lays back down for a few hours for a nap. She is going to try taking it at around 10:00 PM tonight to see if she can sleep until 6:30 AM and then stay up.
She's sleeping so much better that she finally bugged me enough about the tingling and numbness I have between my shoulder blades when driving to go see her chiropractor. I did mention this to the GP when we had our shared visit on 12/23/2008 that it had started after the accident. I said it gets numb and tingles like it is asleep between my shoulder blades when I drive or have to have my unsupported arms in front of me. He said take advil or motrin without even touching me or seeing exactly where I was indicating. Jan says I don't complain enough. I was unaware that was a trait I needed to develop.
The chiropractor x-rayed me and did some e-stim, which is also called a TENS unit, on the first day. They put four pads on my back and the tingle of the e-stim feels just like the tingle without the numbness. Strangest sensation, indeed.
I got the results of the x-rays yesterday. My neck has lost the curve from C1 to about
C4 when viewed from the side. My neck has a very slight "S" when viewed from the front. It would appear Jan's spine is in better alignment than mine! The chiropractor said it was definitely from the accident. This is just a cell phone camera shot so the detail isn't good but it is pretty obvious from all the spine pictures I've seen lately.I also told the GP at the same visit that I wasn't sleeping much and he suggested benadryl. That was a flop! The dramamine didn't seem to have much impact either. I stopped short of combining Wild Turkey and benadryl.
Jan then called in and got me a prescription of Ambien. I took the first one last night about 11:30 PM. I wasn't really tired but I needed to get some sleep. I immediately went to bed upon taking it as it is supposed to take effect in 15 minutes. I closed my eyes and the next time I opened them I looked at the clock. It was now 12:00 midnight. I closed them again and tried to fall asleep. When I opened my eyes again it was 12:30 AM. One more time I tried to drift off and again I saw 1:00 AM on the clock. This is actually worse since I was getting midnight to 3:00 AM and then an hour between jolting awake episodes. Luckily, I was out from 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM.
Is that an improvement? Five contiguous hours is better than three but I wouldn't call it a night's rest. Have you ever had those dreams where you are falling and are jolted awake with every muscle in your body tensed as if to brace for impact? That's what happens to me constantly through out the night. My heart is racing, I have a bad feeling and I braced for impact. I do not remember the dream as much now but I suspect it is still something accident related.
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