Posted by Roger Meyer on April 21, 2002 at 11:07:16:
With the weather finally permitting yesterday I rowed with my fellow rowers in a quad for the first time since my MAZE in August, 2001. We rowed the entire course (7 miles) in two segments with a coach barking from a launch alongside most of the way. As he barked at me, I finally yelled back that this was my first time on the water since last August, trying to suggest he have patience with me. He responded that he had taken a 16 year break and had come back...so I could tell how much sympathy he was capable of! I was glad I had not told him of my surgery and recovery though my crewmates were aware.
I feel really good that I could row the course. When I walked in the front door at home afterward, I told my wife that I had decided to return home to have my heart attack at home. She has to have a sense of humor to live with me. But I truly felt great.
To my knowledge, I am still not in NSR and remain in junctional rhytym. So for me it was a personal test to get back out on the water to test extended personal exertion. I have been playing racquetball since last November and had done some conditioning for rowing, but yesterday was the first time on the water since August.
My MAZE recovery had been delayed by an extended hospitalization (24 days) and six weeks at home on antibiotic infusions for a staph infection I developed while in the hospital so my recovery was not what I read on this site as the general norm.
This week I have learned I have another development in my recovery. For about five months now I have had what was diagnosed as "foot drop" where my right foot does not set down properly as I walk. When it persisted and worsened I was referred for an EMG and from it received a diagnosis of periperal neuropathy. I have an appointment with a neurologist in a few weeks to attempt to determine the cause for this condition. The physician administering the EMG had asked, among other things, whether I had been on a respirator or had been extremely sick recently. In addition to the staph infection, I also had a second urgent surgery during my hospitalization and was intubated for four days. Now I am strongly suspecting that this neuropathy is likely a development brought on by my recovery problems.
In any event, I was able to pass the test yesterday!
Roger
- Re: I did it....a personal satisfaction Carl Plaskett 12:22:22 4/21/2002 (0)