Now that I have been successfully venoplastied- again, it is time to rehab- again. This is not a complaint! I am grateful for the opportunity to to rebuild what was lost. It feels awesome to work my muscles until they burn. Pre-liberation I could only exercise as long as my nerves were willing to send signals to my muscles. No amount of motivation on my part could convince my muscles to do one more rep than my nerves would allow. And then I was faced with hours of recovery time for the 10 to 15 minutes of, what was for me, great exertion.
Post-liberation I can push these muscles to work harder than they remembered that they could. My positive attitude now really can push my legs to do just one more squat if I tell them to! The tail is no longer wagging this dog. I am in charge once more! I say how long I will pedal the bike, or how many leg presses I will do. There is little to no recovery time necessary now. My nerves are at the mercy of Nicole, not the other way around. I love bossing my body around. It is intoxicating!
I look forward to seeing just how much I can rebuild my body in the coming year. Twenty years of neurological damage cannot magically be fixed by simply opening my veins. I will do everything in my power to regain as much strength and functioning as humanly possible, and hope doctors figure out how to help me maintain my gains.
Eventually my goal will be exploring ways to repair the damage that an overactive immune system has been doing to my nerves for all these years. That means stem cell therapy, and while I am clearly willing to try new things, that's one that I can wait to let other brave souls try first!
For now I know that I've got my hands full, but it costs me nothing to peer around the corner to see what's coming next. It is all so exciting and wonderful! I couldn't have said that even a year ago. For the first time in too many years, I am optimistic about what my future might look like. Not a bad way to begin a fresh, new year!
I hope that the new year will bring Liberation to all who are waiting for their turn. Nobody guarantees us success, but everybody should have the opportunity to see if he or she is a lucky responder.
Still wishing you all much health and happiness in 2011!
Nicole
7 comments:
Dear Nicole:
You are the person doing the angioplasty 3 times(the most I've ever seen on internet). May I ask about the reason of the 3rd procedure? Did you feel something worse like 2nd time? Is it restenosis? I am also looking for the second procedure(1st time didn't fully open yet).
Best wish and Happy New Year!
I did restenose. Most of my symptoms returned: fatigue, balance problems, weakness, foot drop all came back.
Jimmy,
To answer your other question, I did an ultrasound about a month before my 3rd treatment. It was not very informative. I don't know if that is because of the limitations of US, or the inexperience of the technician (I was his 8th patient.)
Neither my IR nor I believe that any test, US or MRV, is accurate enough to truly diagnose stenoses. He puts more weight on symptom changes. If you have improvements post treatment, then begin losing gains, he assumes restenosis.
At least with me, that has been an accurate assumption.
Hope that helps!
Nicole
Nicole,
Hope it holds this time and you can move forward. May I ask why you feel that you will not restenosis again? We are still waiting for Dr. H's IRB approval, so that my husband can have his first treatment.
Hi Anonymous,
I actually said in an earlier post that I am pretty sure that I WILL need to do this again. That's just how it seems to be these days.
I hope that Haskal gets his approval soon so that your husband has his shot to feel this good. I'm sorry that you and so many others have had to wait unnecessarily long. I'm seeing him on Wed. I'll post any info I get from him about the state of his study.
Nicole
Dear Nicole:
Thank you so much for sharing! ^^
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