Stretching? Ain’t nobody got time for that.

It’s funny how on a day-to-day basis a simple act doesn’t seem to make any difference then all of a sudden you look back and it could have made all the difference in the world.

That’s one of those lessons I may have learned the hard way.  In about two weeks it’ll be the one year anniversary of my right leg amputation.  Not necessarily the celebratory occasion you’d think.  However a good time for a bit of reflection.

When you’re a new spinal cord patient one of the activities that your healthcare providers try to emphasize is daily stretching of your non-functioning extremities.  For the most part that means your legs.  There are many benefits of increased flexibility, such as:

1. Increase circulation
2. Manage muscle spasms
3. Prevent pressure ulcers
4. Aid in transfers and other physical activities
5. Develop range of motion

The problem is that as a newly injured patient you inherently have good flexibility so in your mind you start thinking “What do I need to do this for.  I’m good.”  So what happens is life happens.  We give other things priority; the stretching routine gets kicked to the curb and we conveniently forget about it.

Between my daily routine and my involvement in adaptive sports I had a solid argument in my mind that I was doing enough to keep my flexibility where it needed to be.  Initially I did follow their advice by sleeping on my stomach which not only helps stretch out the muscles that have been constricted in the sitting position all day long but also relieves the pressure on other areas from sitting all day long.  This worked for about the first ten years but eventually the contractions in my legs got to the point where my legs wouldn’t stay straight enough to lay flat.  Now I was no longer able to sleep in the prone position but forced to sleep in the supine position.  Not only did this not provide any pressure relief from the daily sitting position, the contractures exacerbated the problem by producing high pressure points in exactly the same locations that I was sitting on all day.  It doesn’t take a doctor to figure out how that was going to work out for me.

As time went on the contractions got worse and pressure sores developed.  For those unfamiliar with these, they start forming under the skin between the tissue and bone so by the time they surface it’s too late.  All of the viable tissue in that area is already dead and the chances of it healing up without surgery are about as good as winning the lottery.  So for about 15 years I was in a vicious cycle of sores, surgery, recovery, unsuccessful preventative care, repeat.

After the sixth cycle of this I decided to have a tendon release done on my hips to help reduce the contractions and try to provide some pressure relief and break the cycle because:

“Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You don’t have to tell me seven times that maybe you need to try something else. Had the surgery. All went well and it appeared that I may get the relief I was looking for. It was a glorious week. As you age with a spinal cord injury your bones thin out and become brittle due to lack of use. Couple that with my new found flexibility and the result is a broken femur. Had another surgery to put in a full length rod in my leg to help strengthen the leg. After a little rest and recovery I broke it again. While everyone was trying to decide how to fix this and prevent it from happening again, without the support the femur to provide some weight support for my leg all of the pressure from the weight of the leg was now being supported by my foot. Within two weeks virtually the entire underside of my foot was breaking down and got infected to the point where I needed to have the lower leg amputated to save, well, my life basically.

I realized quickly that most of how I managed to do things went out the window and I needed to revise my approach to most physical activities. Who would have thought that a leg that hadn’t been used in 25+ years could make that much of a difference. Go figure. So we do what we always do as spinal cord patients. We make it work. Survive and advance is our only option. A year into it and adjustments have been made and things are getting better. Never as good as I want but that’ll keep me pushing.

So to make a long story longer, what’s the point of my diatribe you ask? I guess I’m telling you not to overlook trying to maintain some type of consistent preventative regiment that may help prevent more serious issues own the line. I can’t tell you it’s going to solve all your issues or that it would have made a definitive difference in my situation. Maybe after 27 years that’s how it was going to go but I guess we’ll never know now. Our margin of error is much smaller than your average able-bodied person so take advantage of every opportunity you have to sustain yourself but be prepared to with the setbacks regardless. You’ll be surprised what you can handle when you have to..,

…because that’s how we roll.