Living Life In A Wheelchair

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Discussion With A Physiotherapist
[ Wednesday February 15th 2017 at 7:50 pm ]

I've just completed a sobering 45 minute discussion with a close friend who is a physiotherapist. The past 4 months of using the swimming pool has not been going well. My body is needing 2 1/2 days to recover from each time I use the pool. This is well outside the parameters of reasonable physiotherapy. Symptoms of pain or stiffness should be Typically 1 hour or 2 hours at the very most is expected.

This is amounting to an almost non existent quality of life. I can't continue on this path. It is going to leave me living in poverty for the rest of my life and with no social contact in the community where I live. The only practical reason I've completed some of my goals this winter is because of how much snow we've had and that it isn't practical to use my wheelchair in fresh snow.

We've discussed treatment options going forward.

  • It is very reasonable to pursue a vascularsuplementation injection. This is lubrication for the knee joint. It would bring relief if it is frayed cartilage that is causing me all the pain. It is reasonable to expect it would. There is minimal risk in this procedure. A vascularsuplementation injection brings 4 to 6 months of relief. It is far from permanent. If it relieves my pain it would bolster my case for knee surgery.
  • If this brings relief it is a reasonable step to have my knees scoped in an attempt to understand what is going on and to see if my most recent MRI was a false negative or if I encountered the short comings of the imaging technology.

However there are risks to every surgery. With how the past 5 surgeries didn't bring the expected results I am not comfortable engaging in an operation until I have my life in a good state. If a scope surgery (or any other surgery) backfired and I experienced complications I honestly don't think I will be able to finish establishing the frame work for my pursuit of self employment. I am at my limits. I've had to take the decision that establishing the frame work for self employment and what it means for my life is the lesser evils of my life than a surgery because of a medical history where my body didn't bring the expected results in the series of 5 orthopedic surgeries I've had as an adult