I never imagined I would still be dealing with this stuff... Nearly four months later, I feel like I know less of what is going on with my body than when this all started. To briefly recap, in late October I was bitten by a brown recluse spider on my right Achilles tendon (at least we're pretty sure that's what it was). That led to surgery, which led to a myriad of doctors appointments with a wide range of doctors, lots of gross wound photos, and two months attached to a strange device called a wound vac.
My assumption was always that after the wound healed I would be back to normal. However, the wound is closed now, and I am far from being my normal self. Within the past couple of months I've discovered that I am unable to move either of my feet. Also, both of my hands have become strangely weak and struggle with fine motor skills (using keys, writing, buttoning clothes, etc). I can't even physically play guitar at the moment. The doctors have run several tests on me, but so far all of them have come back normal.
Despite all of this, I am still hopeful that this will all pass soon. God has been faithful to me during this time and He has been teaching me much through this process (all of that is being compiled for a post to come later). As with the Road to Recovery post, I'll update this periodically as new developments come along and as time permits.
2/21/12 - Recovery Day 110: It has been a quiet and somewhat frustrating couple of weeks. I've not had any more tests or any more appointments. I don't even have any appointments scheduled. There are a couple of referrals in the works, but they are slow in materializing. In the mean time, my condition hasn't seemed to get any better or worse until today.
Despite the long waiting process, I've had a couple of significant encouragements over the past week. First, there are a couple of men from my church who have really been helping me out on the medical side of things. It has been a great encouragement to feel like someone has been working for me in that area. Second, this morning I noticed that I can move a couple of my toes for the first time since early December. It doesn't sound like much, but it's the first real progress I've seen in a month. Hooray for small victories!
2/29/12 - Recovery Day 118: The last few weeks have been really
uneventful. I've just been waiting on the doctor referral process. As
of yesterday I finally have an appointment scheduled, but it won't be until
mid-March. By that point it will have been a month and a half since my last
doctor's appointment. At the beginning of this process I was having as many as
five medical appointments in a week. Lately it's been a struggle to get one in
a month. I'm hoping this new doctor will be able to identify the problem quickly.
3/19/12 - Recovery Day 137: I saw a new doctor starting last week, and things have been moving a bit more quickly. After an initial evaluation he told me that he thinks my loss of motion in my feet and strength in my hands could be from nerve damage, probably caused by the antibiotics I was taking after the surgery. We seemed to confirm that this morning with an EMG. There is definite nerve damage below my knees and in my hands and forearms.
The good news is that now that I'm off the antibiotics the nerves can heal and I should make a full recovery. The only downside is that it is uncertain how long that recovery will take. I have been off the antibiotics since mid January and so far the recovery has been minimal (I can move 3 of my toes). It is progress though, and the doctor also said that he was encouraged by the EMG that some of the nerves have already begun healing. I asked if there was anything I could do to expedite the process, but he said there is not. In the mean time, I do get to sport some pretty huge ankle braces to help my balance (Coming soon...).
So, it looks like the road continues from here, but I am encouraged that is only a matter of time. All of this could have been much worse. I am thankful to God for His mercies through this process.
4/7/12 - Recovery Day 156: They've prescribed some custom ankle braces to help me walk better and prevent me from breaking my ankles while I'm healing. I've had them for about a week and a half and the jury is still out over if I like them or not. They enable me to walk almost normally, which makes many activities easier. On the other hand, they are a bit uncomfortable, and they make it harder to use stairs, drive, and walk on inclined planes. Basically, it's like wearing ski boots all of the time. One nice thing is that most people don't notice them when I'm wearing long pants. Several people have thought I have made a quick recovery when in reality I don't think I could fall over in these things if I wanted to. Also, they've increased my vertical leap from 0 to 3 inches. I'd like to see Air Jordans do that... :)
3/19/12 - Recovery Day 137: I saw a new doctor starting last week, and things have been moving a bit more quickly. After an initial evaluation he told me that he thinks my loss of motion in my feet and strength in my hands could be from nerve damage, probably caused by the antibiotics I was taking after the surgery. We seemed to confirm that this morning with an EMG. There is definite nerve damage below my knees and in my hands and forearms.
The good news is that now that I'm off the antibiotics the nerves can heal and I should make a full recovery. The only downside is that it is uncertain how long that recovery will take. I have been off the antibiotics since mid January and so far the recovery has been minimal (I can move 3 of my toes). It is progress though, and the doctor also said that he was encouraged by the EMG that some of the nerves have already begun healing. I asked if there was anything I could do to expedite the process, but he said there is not. In the mean time, I do get to sport some pretty huge ankle braces to help my balance (Coming soon...).
So, it looks like the road continues from here, but I am encouraged that is only a matter of time. All of this could have been much worse. I am thankful to God for His mercies through this process.
4/7/12 - Recovery Day 156: They've prescribed some custom ankle braces to help me walk better and prevent me from breaking my ankles while I'm healing. I've had them for about a week and a half and the jury is still out over if I like them or not. They enable me to walk almost normally, which makes many activities easier. On the other hand, they are a bit uncomfortable, and they make it harder to use stairs, drive, and walk on inclined planes. Basically, it's like wearing ski boots all of the time. One nice thing is that most people don't notice them when I'm wearing long pants. Several people have thought I have made a quick recovery when in reality I don't think I could fall over in these things if I wanted to. Also, they've increased my vertical leap from 0 to 3 inches. I'd like to see Air Jordans do that... :)
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