Christmas!

With the onset of the Christmas season, it has been a while since I posted an entry. In the past four weeks, I have continued to get great news from my (many) doctors.

My blood chemistry has returned to normal, and my broken left leg is "fully healed". After examining the final x-rays, my doctor tells me that I am fit to do pretty much anything. I am still limping a bit, and I am tenative going down stairs, but I can feel some improvement almost every day.

I can now imagine a day in the not too distant future when I will catch myself running out to the car in the rain or racing to cross a busy street, and I will look back at this period of time and think "man, a few months ago I was in a wheelchair". So needless to say, I am pretty amp'ed up on life right now.

Speaking of being amp'ed...

We had a great Christmas here in the Maisey household. The time spent with friends and family was all the more special considering I almost didn't survive to see the day.

I have enclosed a couple of pictures to commemorate the event. The first is me (note the beard - a post accident addition), and my girls. The second was taken by my father-in-law from his back yard. We got 6-8 inches of snow about a week before Christmas. Even though it was rainy and in the 50s our back yard was still covered on Christmas day. (probably as close as we will get to a "White Christmas" for quite some time).

Cheers for now,

Sean

Spinal Tap! - 11/23/09

Well actually the day had nothing to do with the fake band, but I liked the title...

Today it was another trek back to MCV/VCU for a checkup on my two broken vertibrea. I worked most of the day and headed off to Richmond after lunch.

Milestone: Today I drove my Caddilac CTS-V (Tremec 6-speed) for the first time since the accident. Last week I drove my truck and Marsha's Grand Cherokee (both automatics), but the MCV parking garages are low and tight. Besides I look at driving the CTS as additional physical therapy.

I arrived at MCV 15 minutes early (1:25ish), thinking I could be in-and-out in less than an hour. Boy, was I mistaken. After a quick set of x-rays I was led to an examination room. The nurse took my vitals, asked a few questions and told me the doctor would be by shortly.

I waited (2:00) and waited (3:00) and finally decided to hack the computer in the room to look at my x-rays and web into my work e-mail. This kept me occupied until 4:30 or so when another nurse stopped by to apologize for the wait and do a few basic neurological tests. She left me a few minutes later, again promising that the doctor "would be right in"...

So I waited (5:00) and waited (5:30) until FINALLY the Doc arrived. We spent a few minutes looking at the pictures of my T5 and T8 vertibrea. He showed me the 'before' images (essentially a crush/compression fracture) and the results from todays x-rays. The GREAT news after all of this waiting is that he told me that they were healing great and I was clear to do whatever I felt up to.

So I asked (as I had about the leg last week) "Jumping out of an airplane?" "Tackle Football?". His reply was "If you feel up to it, go for it". So, more great news!

On the bad news front, my slow shuffle out of the Ambilitory Care section of the hospital seemed to correspond with the mass exit of visitors. It took another half an hour to get out of the parking garage. But the news was enough to keep me smiling as I cranked up Classic Vinyl on the XM radio...

11/18/09 - Back to work!

After putting Sammy on the bus by myself (for the first time in a long while), I headed in to work. (I am an IT Manager at Colonial Williamsburg - www.colonialwilliamsburg.com .

I was amazed on the drive in at how natural it felt to be back in the work groove. Passing by all of the familiar places, it really didn't feel like I'd been away for nearly three MONTHS. But the cool temps and falling leaves reminded me that I had missed the end of summer (and much of the Fall).

Arriving at my office, I spent most of the day greeting visitors as the word got around that I was back. I really can't describe how gratifying it was to have so much support and concern for my well being. I am lucky to work with so many great people.

The day went by very quickly, and althought I intended to cut out early, before I knew it, it was 5:00 and time to head home...

Update 11/16

Today I traveled back to MCV (thanks to the Mom and Joe taxi service) for a check on my repaired left femur. In the accident I suffered a compound fracture about 5-6" above the knee. Dr. Cheatham did the original surgery on August 23rd, and inserted a titanium rod through the center of the bone from my knee to my hip. (Note to self - next time stay down after the crash)

Good news... The bone is knitting well, and I am cleared for full activity! Of course the 2 months of bed rest on top of the original injury have not been kind to my flexibility.

Natalie from Sentara Home Health Care has been working with me for a few weeks now, and great progress is being made.

I am walking very tenatively but well enough that I have scheduled a return to work this Wednesday (11/18). I call this major progress!

I have a couple of pictures of the repairs to my leg. (I will edit them into this post shortly.)

Progress report 11/15/2009:

On Thursday, I had a followup meeting with the Orthopedic Specialist who 'reconstructed' my badly broken right arm.

Attached are pictures of the arm immediately after injury (8/23) and repairs healing (11/9/09)

The good news is that the bones are healing nicely and the aligment is very good. The "bad news" is that my genetics are such that my body has responded to the severe nature of the elbow injury by growing extra bone to 'stiffen up' the joint. The result is that my right elbow is nearly locked.

Dr. Boardman is fairly optomistic that I can regain much of the range of motion after a followup operation to remove the extra bone. That operation must wait, however until the new bone matures... So I am looking at a left handed Winter this year.

Other Milestones:

Friday 11/13: We called the home health care rental company and had them retreive the wheelchair and hospital bed. The ramp rental company was due to remove their ramp as well, but with TS "Ida" raging they were a no show.

So - I am committed now. I must climb the stairs to get in to the house and to go to sleep at night. I have also put the crutches and cane away. My walking is slow, but getting steadier every day.

Hot Laps at VIR

I was going through my SDRAM card collection and came across this video from VIR earlier this year... http://vimeo.com/7462942

Personal Goal -> Be back in the saddle for the 2010 VIR Nationals

Enjoy,
Sean

See all of my published videos at: http://www.vimeo.com/user2591727/videos

Race Restart

After a long period of neglect, I am restarting this blog...

On August 23rd (2009) I was involved in a serious motorcycle accident. As a result I suffered from a range of injuries some of them minor and some of them life threatening. After a two month stay at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV), I am at home and working toward getting back to "normal".

I have decided to resurrect this blog as a place to chronicle the process (and hopefully my rapid progress)...