It's now two months since I got out of the halo! Time really has flown. By now I've caught up with most of the people who haven't seen me since I got out. I still enjoy doing my party trick of moving my head in all directions. People love that.
I'm finally able to look up without doing an awkward lean back from the waist and now I'm really able to enjoy the art deco light fixture mouldings in this house. I'll take a picture for you some day, they are wild.
Now I would estimate that I've got about 90% of movement back in my neck. It feels like it's come back very quickly, but I am not really trying to hold back. I'm doing my own little physio routine, which involves:
Looking left, looking right, looking up, looking down, tilting head to the right, tilting head to the left (tilting still feels fairly limited, but how often do you use that anyway?), and then going around the world both ways. In the absence of proper physio, I feel like it's been quite effective. But given that it was my thoracic spine that was broken, and not the joints in my neck, regaining movement probably was never going to be as much of an issue for me as for most halo brace patients.
As I have said to many, many people over the past couple of months, I broke my back in the best possible way.
Then they say, "You should buy a lottery ticket!"
And then I do, and then I lose, and figure I've already used up all my luck for the rest of my life on not being paraplegic.
Scars are still present. Not much to say about them. I have continued to rub the stuck one whenever I remember. I think it's improving? Still stuck but seems to have a bit more give to it. People are constantly amazed that the scars are as small as they are. I had a mosquito bite right in the middle of my forehead the other day and one of the nurses at work mixed that up with a halo scar. Ferocious mosquito.
While on the topic of cosmetic changes, my acne and backne are finally clearing up. Looks like I was correct about it returning to normal once I was doing normal things.
Also, I've lost my halo-abs and regained my pre-halo weight. Looks like everybody was correct about it returning to normal once I was doing normal things!
That's regression to the mean, for you.
Got my follow-up appointment at the end of next week where I have my x-ray taken while stretching everything into different positions. Hopefully that will be the end of the doctor visits, and I can start some real exercise again.
I'm finally able to look up without doing an awkward lean back from the waist and now I'm really able to enjoy the art deco light fixture mouldings in this house. I'll take a picture for you some day, they are wild.
Now I would estimate that I've got about 90% of movement back in my neck. It feels like it's come back very quickly, but I am not really trying to hold back. I'm doing my own little physio routine, which involves:
Looking left, looking right, looking up, looking down, tilting head to the right, tilting head to the left (tilting still feels fairly limited, but how often do you use that anyway?), and then going around the world both ways. In the absence of proper physio, I feel like it's been quite effective. But given that it was my thoracic spine that was broken, and not the joints in my neck, regaining movement probably was never going to be as much of an issue for me as for most halo brace patients.
As I have said to many, many people over the past couple of months, I broke my back in the best possible way.
Then they say, "You should buy a lottery ticket!"
And then I do, and then I lose, and figure I've already used up all my luck for the rest of my life on not being paraplegic.
Scars are still present. Not much to say about them. I have continued to rub the stuck one whenever I remember. I think it's improving? Still stuck but seems to have a bit more give to it. People are constantly amazed that the scars are as small as they are. I had a mosquito bite right in the middle of my forehead the other day and one of the nurses at work mixed that up with a halo scar. Ferocious mosquito.
While on the topic of cosmetic changes, my acne and backne are finally clearing up. Looks like I was correct about it returning to normal once I was doing normal things.
Also, I've lost my halo-abs and regained my pre-halo weight. Looks like everybody was correct about it returning to normal once I was doing normal things!
That's regression to the mean, for you.
Got my follow-up appointment at the end of next week where I have my x-ray taken while stretching everything into different positions. Hopefully that will be the end of the doctor visits, and I can start some real exercise again.
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