Some of you may already know that back in August, I was implanted with the deep brain stimulator. On August 26, I was at the Vancouver General Hospital getting my brain drilled open. It was an interesting operation, as I had to be awake for the first half of the operation. It was quite interesting listening to my head being drilled, and listening to the two doctors discuss what they're finding.
The second half of the operation involved putting in the controller and the wire running down from my head. They put me under for that part.
On October 7, they turned to the stimulator on. The implant is on the left side of my hypothalamus, so it controls the tremors in my right side. The stimulator does a lot to control the large tremors, but it isn't able to do much for the small tremors. So, I am still finding out what it helps with and what it doesn't. Things involving fine motor control, like typing and working a mouse, still aren't very good. That said, it has done a lot to help me with my work in the shop and around the house. I am now even able to cut my own meet at supper. It isn't easy, but I'm doing it.
I guess this officially makes me a cyborg. Unfortunately, it does not help me pick up the mothership. :-) In November, they will fine tune it to little once everything gets settled down. I have a remote to turn it off when I'm sleeping, or not doing much. This helps conserve the battery as well as make sure the brain doesn't start working around the stimulator.
Rainer

Greetings, everyone.

My apologies that I haven't continued telling you about our holiday, but it has been so hot here that we have had little motivation to do anything. That, combined with my operation, has meant we've gotten little of anything done. The weather has suddenly cooled off significantly, however, so we are now struggling to catch up.

On August 26, I got my deep brain stimulator put in. It was a very interesting operation in which I was awake for half of it. I needed to provide the doctor with feedback as he tested the deep brain stimulator, sliding it into my brain. This was interesting, as I could hear the comments that he and an observer were making to each other. Apparently, the lesions from my MS actually do look white. They are readily visible against the gray of my brain matter. There were many other interesting comments; apparently, I have a beautiful skull. Once this was done, they put me under for the next step. They then made get cut high on my left chest, and put in the controller. They then fished the wire up my neck and across my skull underneath the scalp. I don't even know how long the whole operation took.

On October 7, I have an appointment to turn everything on and do the initial adjustments. I'm really looking forward to it. From the testing when they put the stimulator in, I have a feeling it will help a great deal. Perhaps they will eventually put in one to control my left side tremors as well.

Now that my skin has been healing up quite well for a while, I can restart the exercises that my physiotherapist gave me. I was worried at first, because some of them involve stretching and opening up the chest. That would not have gone well with my chest having been sliced open for the controller. I have been working on my balance, however. I have been out almost every day to whipper-snipper the weeds in the field behind our house. This is the common area septic field. The unevenness of the ground has been very good for my balance; I have to really work at keeping vertical. It has also been very good for my muscle strength in my legs. I'm probably better than I ever have been since I shattered my leg.

Thanks to Constantin for letting me know about the Solaris 11 Early Access program. I have been waiting since I installed Solaris 11 Express for an update to either Solaris 10 or Solaris 11. That was last December. Now, an update is (finally!) available. I am hoping to install it soon, and to find out whether the Sunray software will work. (It doesn't work at all under Solaris 11 Express.) I have been quite disappointed by Oracle's long delays on Solaris, but have not had a spare box to test whether SmartOS would support the Sunray software.

I am hoping to get another update or two to our travels in Europe this weekend, as Ele will be playing in a bridge tournament. That gives me time to update the blog, and e-mail a friend I finally heard from this past week.

Rainer

Wow, where did the time go? This year is just racing past.


It is nice to see that March is finally here, though. And no, that isn't a typo. Victoria has had the worst spring in 70 years. Cold, wet, rainy, and cloudy. It really has sucked.


We've been busy, though. The shop has a new floor that will make it easier to move things around. Paul helped to revamp my dust collection system. I've been doing a bunch of planing, both for the china cabinet and for some tool cabinets. Any nice day has seen us out in the garden. We finally have most of the irrigation system done, which will be good for when we go on holidays. And, our neighbors' friend did a bunch of trimming on the fir trees behind the house. That has really opened up the patio.


The trimming of the fir trees was a full day's work, though. Putting the branches into our neighbor's truck was a hard job. Ele and I were both dead by the end of it.


I have good news on the health front. It looks like I will be getting the deep brain stimulator to control the tremors on my right side. I finally had the meeting with the surgeon, and was approved on the spot. Ele and I were shocked. The surgeon was a little surprised as well, as he doesn't often recommend MS patients. It turns out that my ataxia, which the operation doesn't help, is minor enough that the operation will help my tremors significantly. So we should see a very big approved soon. I have an appointment at the end of June, and then we will schedule the operation for when I come back after our holidays in Europe. This is all coming just in time. My left hand tremors continue to get worse, and controlling the mouse on the computer is extremely difficult now. The operation will only help one side, but we are targeting my dominant right side.


In a little over a month, Ele and I will be in Europe. We are really looking forward to this holiday. I've never actually been to the continent. Ele's brother-in-law Jim has worked hard to plan this all for us. It sounds a little like he has become a self-appointed tour guide. I just hope he hasn't worked too hard at it. I'm sure Ele and I will enjoy whatever happens. I think I could be happy just sitting inside and drinking wine all day.


Rainer

Greetings all, and my apologies on the long silence. My eyes have been bothering me a bit too much at the computer, and my left hand has developed a twitch.

Luckily, I think I know the cause of the former. "Woodworking Magazine" has the entire collection done up into a 3 volume book set. Since this was by far the best woodworking magazine on the market in many ways, and it never consistently got to the shops I went to, I got the set. I've been reading them cover to cover, and so my eyes have been working over time. I'm half-way through the third volume. It is now getting rolled into "Popular Woodworking," with whom there has been a strong relationship since day 1.

I am now out of the wheelchair AGAIN, and have no desire to break any more bones. My physiotherapist says I'm really doing well. I do have fluid on the knee, though. Hopefully we can get that under control.

Ele spent a week in Penticton at a bridge tournament. Which is more insane, a week in Penticton or a week playing bridge? Tough call...

I'm ready to assemble the frame of my planes and scrapers cabinet. A friend with a jig for his router will hopefully do the dovetailing this week. (Once I can train my left arm to saw straight and clean, I want to learn to do dovetails by hand.) Then I can start cutting the mortises for the filing cabinet carcass. I'll leave the tenons for when I can do them all in one go to avoid errors between boards due to setup variations. (I can leave the mortiser set up for a few days.)

This week, we also have to design the dining room cabinets so that we can get the oak and allow it to acclimatize in the shop. At some point this summer I may get fir from McLean mill for the top of a new workbench. I had to leave my old one in Edmonton. It wasn't a great loss, with its MDF top...

Speaking of Edmonton, it was a year ago tomorrow, I think, that we left. Or was it today? Close enough, either way. It's been an interesting year, but other than missing friends we don't regret it at all. Missing friends is hard, though. :-(

The garden is doing well. I should really post some pictures; maybe next time. The bergamot is about to bloom, and the passion flower is close. The golden mound is blooming more than it ever did in Edmonton. Ele says the roses at the back are out. Now it no longer rains, we aren't cutting the lawn twice a week, which is nice.

Almost forgot; I'm in the middle of season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. VERY well done series. I never did get to see it when it was on TV. It is so well written on so many levels.

I'm planning on another rum night--I got two more supposed sipping rums, a Mount Gay 1703 and an El Dorado 21 year old. I also got another bottle of the Zaya, even though the first bottle is still half full. (See, I'm not the lush you think!) The Zaya was on a promo discount at the local store. The other two, I had to get shipped from the Oak Bay store.

And that's my brain, emptied again. Ele did her usual trick of making pasta (extra dishes) on a night where she's left to play bridge, so I suppose I should get to them before I forget them completely.

Rainer

The brace is off! The brace is off!

While I am not allowed to put any weight on my leg yet, the stupid knee immobilizer is off. I can now start trying to get flexibility back. It isn't easy--after two weeks, the muscles are very stiff and sore. But, I won't have to work on everything all at once. I do have two more screws in my leg, though.

And without my leg acting as a jousting lance in front of me, mobility/manouverability in the wheel chair is a LOT better. :-)

Rainer

Tuesday was the first day of a new physiotherapy regime. While I am still doing my regular exercises, I am now also doing some exercises in the swimming pool. The nice thing about doing exercises in the swimming pool is that I do not have to worry so much about my balance. If I fall, the water catches me. I can concentrate more on strengthening my muscles.

My physiotherapist is really good. Whenever she watches me doing the exercises she has demonstrated, she is able to see what impact my MS has on my ability to do the exercises properly. She has been able to adjust them to compensate for the issues. During the normal walking, for example, my balance is best when I use a floatation dumbbell just in my left hand. She was able to see that a floatation noodle was too difficult for me, yet having a dumbbell in my right hand kept throwing me off balance because of my tremors. My right-side tremors are part of what made the noodles so difficult. She has already given me four or five different exercises, and she will be adding more this coming Tuesday. She didn't want me to go for a second pool session too quickly, as she was worried about how tired out I would be. She felt one week in between, with my regular exercises, would give her a good guideline of how well I am doing (tired I get).

While I was tired for a few hours after the first session, it didn't last long. After supper, I felt all my energy back and was able to do other stuff around the house. So, after this coming Tuesday session, I will probably be doing this twice a week or so. There seemed to be a group of about five people doing different physiotherapy sessions in the pool. So while we are all concentrating on our own exercises, it isn't like I will be alone. I did briefly chat to two of them this week, and they seem nice. So it won't be a completely sterile, solitary exercise each week.

My physiotherapist, Julia, typifies our experience out here. We managed to beat the last two patients taken on by a very good new doctor, we found an excellent dentist and hygienist, and now I have an excellent physiotherapist who is able to take into account my MS. And, of course, I have a very good neurologist at the MS clinic. We really lucked out. We know other people who never did find a family doctor. In fact, other than the CRIS clinic at the Misericordia Hospital in Edmonton, I've never had a physiotherapist as good as Julia.

While it may be difficult for Ele right now, assuming I get a scooter I will be doing this for a while. I think. After one or two more sessions, I will be able to do it on my own. At that point, I just have to pay for access to the pool like anyone else. Since this exercises my whole body, I think keeping these exercises up will be very good for fighting my MS.

I'm sure that Ele feels it would be good for me to get out of the house and see other people as well.

By the way, my chiropractor from Edmonton came to visit today. He and his wife will be moving out to Pender Island. They are here for just a few days right now, and are visiting their daughter in Victoria. It was a really great seeing them again, and for them to make the trip out here. The four of us were able to chat for two or three hours before they had to leave again. We hope to see them again when they come out next time.

Rainer.

So, the doctor has given me a clean bill of health, so to speak. My leg bones are solidifying and filling in very well. I have my first physio appointment on Monday, but can start exercising the muscles right away. He also gave me a couple tips to help with my ankle and make sure it strengthens properly and gets more mobile. They will also help with some soreness I've been feeling. All in all, good news. Rainer

Hello, again.

For all you skeptics, here are a few of the pictures of my leg:

This is the actual break. Quite a mess, eh?
http://chaos.dragonhearth.com/media/20091121-001_Break.jpg
The Break

This is the repair job at the base:
http://chaos.dragonhearth.com/media/20091121-002_Repair_base.jpg
Base of repair

And higher up:
http://chaos.dragonhearth.com/media/20091121-003_Repair_top.jpg
Top of repair

So, I'm now a cyborg, I guess. All that's missing is a USB port.

Rainer

So now I sit here with various parts of hardware in my leg. I have to say that the hospital stay was quite mixed. I only had one nurse that was a bit of a mean one. My neighbor, however, had a couple right nasty pieces of work. It really is a shame, as 99% of the nurses were very nice and helpful. The odd bad one should not give a black mark against the whole crew, but they often can. I had great help and kind words from the many nurses working on me, and they should be proud of doing such great jobs under severe, long-standing staff shortages.

I had intended to write a couple blog entries last Thursday and Friday, but they got interrupted by an accident on Wednesday afternoon. Ele decided that, since she was working, I would do the grocery shopping. So after it had stopped raining, I booted on my scooter down to Westshore Mall. I did the banking, picked up her alcohol, and then went to the grocery store. This actually meant parking three times in the parking lot. It was looking for the third parking stall that did me in.