Did You Work Out Today?

Matt here again.

I visited Christian yesterday for the first time in four or more days. It’s pretty inspiring how much progress he's made in such a short time. When I left his room last time his “tube count” (how many tubes were connected to him in one way or another) was still pretty high. Yesterday he looked, acted, spoke and even moved around in a much more natural way. Most of the tubes are gone.

The highlight of my visit was when the doctor came in and took the Trach out. For the first time, Christian could breathe through all the normal plumbing and was breathing room air instead of oxygen. Aside from a little early discomfort, nothing really changed for him. His said something like, “this is a 100% improvement over having the Trach in!” I asked him how is was compared to having the Intubation tube in. “The Trach was a 500% improvement over that.”

From talking with him a while longer it seemed that a series of things are connected to his breathing and general comfort. Easy breathing equals not much coughing. Not much coughing equals easier rest. Better rest equals long sleeping times. More sleep equals feeling “a million times better.” More strength and rest means he can eat solid foods, spend more time visiting with friends and work out harder.

By the way, did you work out today? What about yesterday? This is the part where you start to feel crappy about not working out more often. I’m sure Christian would give a lot to be able to visit the gym and simply get some exercise. Instead he is making most of us look lazy.

He described his workouts like this: “Imagine loading so much weight on your bench press bar that you know you will never be able to lift it. Instead you muster all your strength and push as hard as you can over and over, never lifting the bar, or moving the bar ever so slightly. It's sort of like that, all day long.”

He was talking about closing his hand around the push meter.

I also made a feeble attempt to encourage him with his rehab. I had a serious shoulder surgery (serious! Ha!) and I mentioned, “it took me almost a year to get back to even close to normal, so hang in there.”

An impish look came over Christian’s face and he said, “Well, it shouldn’t be any big deal. I just have to do that for every muscle in my body.”

If you haven’t seen him yet, you’d really be encouraged. OK. There. I said it. I’m really encouraged. I have been trying to manage my expectations and keep things in perspective, but seeing him talking normally, moving his legs (he can quickly lift them slightly off the bed and move all of the muscles in his lower body) and generally looking healthy is really wonderful. With all of the tubes gone, his color back and the swelling down, the helplessness and the survival struggle have been replaced by an active desire to work out, eat, joke around and make himself better.

Here’s a quick list of the progress metrics we discussed, as I know many of you read this blog looking for more details:

1) He does regular rehab - hard - something like three times a day. That involves getting him on a tilt table and “standing” him up to start putting weight on his legs. He struggles so hard to keep his blood pressure up he sometimes passes out. (Wouldn’t you sue your personal trainer for this type of behavior?) He weirdly seems to like this. The regimen also includes all kinds of muscle exercises and stretching.

2) He can move all the muscles in his lower body and everyone on the staff is surprised at how fast his lower body movement has come long. I guess this is consistent with his type of injury.

3) His upper body is moving a bit more slowly, although he can move all of his various muscles, even if only slightly, and can shrug his shoulders.

4) He is receiving all kinds of stimulation, message, and other types of therapy. He seems to like most of them, but admits they really tire him out.

5) He is eating regular foods again, and will continue to eat more as his stomach expands until they can take out the tube. I was wondering if this was really Christian as he complained that some fries didn’t taste right and then ate a bunch of fruit.

6) He can now be moved around in his chair with the limiting factor being - can you actually get the big Bas%#2! into his chair? I have yet to see Jessie pull this off, but am requesting a video. It’s all about leverage, little lady.

7) In 6-8 days he should be able to leave the hospital for short trips to a movie, to get some food, etc. That should be a welcome break from his busy schedule at the hospital. I am already thinking about places we can hang out that are near the trax or an easy drive.

Hopefully that gives a bit of insight into how far he has come physically.

He said something else that caught me by surprise. He asked Jessi to take a bunch of photos. He mentioned wanting to use them later when potentially speaking to businesses or individuals about overcoming injuries and personal hardships. I’d say mentally he’s on the right track. Those of us with bigger egos might be more concerned with protecting our privacy or our pride.

A final note on visiting: He is genuinely touched by everyone’s interest in coming to see him. However, he is now working out really hard, dead tired from working out so hard, sleeping, or concentrating on recovery. That leaves a short window on some days where he would love to see people, but even visiting still drains him pretty heavily. Jessi and the family will publish a visiting schedule pretty soon that leaves a few hours three times a week (or something) where people can come down. That way he can see everyone, but concentrate on his recovery full time.

Like I said, encouraging stuff.

Christian says to Rik, "bet you never thought you'd get to feed your new son-
in-law dinner :-)!"