What a day... I took my son to the ER since his Dr didn't have room to see him. Respitory infection mild right now but they gave him antibiotics to keep it from getting worse. They did Xray's... When the gal came to get my son.. who is 6'5 when he was standing and 219lbs. I asked her can you do his x-rays when he is in his chair?.. she said yes we can... and she wisked him off. They took forever.. When they came back she had a very distraught look on her face. She proceeded to tell me that she dropped my son on the floor trying to do a transfer. I bit my tongue and told her.. "You do know my son is a new Spinal cord injury and that he is on BLOOD THINNERS".. this made her even more distraught. They checked my son over to make sure he wasn't brused. He said he caught himself some and ended up sitting on his foot rest. As he was trying to move his butt from his chair over to the table the nut grabbed his legs and lifted them up before he had he was over the table knocking him to the floor. You would think an xray tech would be taught how to do transfers .. I heard the Dr's say you better go fill out an accident report...she is lucky he wasn't hurt. I am at my wits ends with idiots in the medical field. I have dealt with them for 20 years as a caregiver for seniors.
Ok it has been 6 weeks tomorrow since my son's SCI.
During this time we have seen him go from being paralized from below the chest down to his toes to now being paralized from his hips down to his toes. I keep telling myself its only been a short time since his injury and he has a long way to go. Tonight I was working his legs out. bending them up and down as he glared at me from his chair. I was inturpting his computer time..lol I start at the tips of his toes and bend each joint over and over in a work out. then move to his ankles and rotate them then to his knees bending them over and over. Then I went back to his toes. Again interupting his computer time I told him "Move your toes" He got angry because I made him look at his toes and not the computer screen. I said again "Move Them" He had a couple spasms and said mom its just spasms... then I said listen you can work at this or not. It's up to you how well you get or not. He took off his head phones and agian I said Move your feet. He got an angry look on his face and back and forth his toes went. Not the rigid spasm stuff but back and forth. His eyes lit up. After we spent all day in the ER,...I didn't want to work him to hard tonight but we did the other foot. Again we got some spasms... rigid you can feel it up his legs then we asked him to try again and then we got some wiggle back and forth on command. It didn't last to long about five or so times... then the spasms took over. Voluntary or not it was good to see him get excited and want to work harder. Our nightly routine is about to start.. this is the time of night Mom gets very very tired. Shower and Laugh Time... His bowl program he has found so much humor in... We are still new to all this and we have our moments when we both bite each others heads off...and then laugh.
But when I hit the pillow its hard even if its only for a couple of hours at a shot in-between position changes and cathing.
So I pose the question how can you tell the difference between a spasm and voluntary movement?....
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ER Idiots and Movement
- By angelbrd67
- Posted March 23, 2009 at 10:15 pm · 4 replies
- In New paralysis/rehabilitation
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4 replies
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- By MARTY_T_67
- Posted March 24, 2009 at 9:27 am
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i would think a spasm is a very quick jerking like motion...voluntary would be slower like its more controlled. if he thinks about wiggling his toes and it happens at that moment, its almost gotta be voluntary.
remember ur only 6 weeks out...he's got a long ways to go. like they say usually 2 yrs. till you reach your plateau. deffinately keep up with your routineand him keep trying to move things voluntarily.NO 2 INJURIES ARE ALIKE so knowone knows his outcome, NOT EVEN DR.S...i was told by 5 of them the same thing, a 5% chance of arm or hand movement but WILL be in a chair for the rest of my life. boy did my mom scream at them..lol :))...she said "bullshit...he will walk in here and shake your hand to prove you wrong." needless to say i did go back 3months later,had 2 of them see me taking steps and shook their hand. at my 4month discharge from the rehab hospital,i walked out using a walker. i am a quad and have to be careful walking...
keep working on the voluntary moving...that really helps getting that brain signal working. thats what they pushed on me for 4 months...good luck and send an update if he gets more movements...we all love to read that!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Marty
- By Globalwoundcare
- Posted March 24, 2009 at 10:47 am
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It is impressive to hear how you work with your son. I once fractured my back flipping over a 4-wheeler. I heard the bones crack. The first thing I did was wiggle my toes to make sure I could. I ended up having three vertabra broken. It hurt for a while, but I was lucky and eventually healed. You asked about voluntary versus spasms. It is not always easy, but I think the best definition might be, if the movement is done and can be repeated. Spasms may come in cycles or come and go, but they are not repeatable by conscious thought. Voluntary movement will be. Some times voluntary movements are difficult to repeat, because you are unsure how you did them. I don't specialize in back injuries and I can just tell you from personal experience, nerves heal slowly. The threrapy you are doing with your son-is priceless. He may have trouble right now, because he is having difficutly coming to terms with his disability, and he may be very angry. I know I was angry with God for a long time. Pray for patience. Pray for tolerance. But don't stop what you are doing with his physicial therapy. My explaination of voluntary v.s. spasms may not be the best, but it should be a good guideline.
- By jennypooh
- Posted March 25, 2009 at 1:06 pm
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My bf has a lot of spasms, but they seem to help him do voluntary movement if that makes any sense? His feet would spasm and then I would say "try and do it by yourself"...and he could. The dr told him that after a spasm, there could be some energy left that would allow him to move it himself, but would eventually fade. However, my boyfriend can now move all of his toes, both ankles and both legs when ever he wants too. At first, each movement only happened after a spasm and for a short period of time. But he kept trying and trying and now he can do it on his own. Keep trying!!! You never know what can happen!
- By angelbrd67
- Posted March 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm
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Thanks for the replys and I think everyone's made some sense. I to notice he can do so much more after the spasms than he can before them. no matter how it happens we just keep praising him for trying.
Last night I got hurt badly trying to be his Pole. We got him on the commode and for the life of us we just couldn't get him in a good position to transfer off. I told him to grab on to me and swing his body the four inches over to get back into his chair as the transfer board in our little bathroom just couldn't get in a good position with out slipping so He did and got into his chair fairly easy with out banging his butt on anything but when I went to stand up straight I couldn't. The swelling is down today but I still can't walk well or stand straight. I have been a caregiver for over 20 years and have never had such a thing happen. Stupid move on my part to add to the list of what NOT to do's when transfering.
Also on a good note at PT yesterday they felt his thigh muscle start to reflex when they asked him to flex them. I think we got him into a good place. Then we are off to Shrinners on Friday.
Thank You All for your responses It helps alot to have imput from others who have been down this path before.
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