Hi all! Here's an update on what's been going on with me since my last post on June 8.
Don't laugh (or do, it is kind of funny!) but I created a charging station at home for my DBS system. It cracks me up that I literally have to be "charged up" at least once a week, if not more. This rechargeable battery came with a lot more components then my non-rechargeable remote.
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| Old remote and packaging |
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| New remote packaging |
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| Charging Station |
I checked my battery strength one week out from surgery (on June 14) and it was still at 100%.
To check the battery strength, I use two devices:
One of the devices is a Samsung smart phone (on the right in the above picture) and the other device is a remote (on the left) that I hold up to my battery.
The first time I recharged myself was on June 16. I was working and my fingers started to twitch. That was odd (because my hands/fingers are rarely the problem), but it reminded me that I should probably check the battery. Like now, the battery had only drained 15%, so that it was at 75% but I want it to be 100% (because I'm neurotic like that!), so before I went out to celebrate my brother's birthday, I recharged myself. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, but I think it'll get easier each time I do it.
To recharge, I drape this around my neck. The one side has a weight (it's blue), and the other side is the DBS system:
Like I said, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be the first time. It took a while for me to find the exact spot where the battery connects with the charger and once I found it, I was afraid of losing it. I actually did lose it several times, so I had to readjust and try again. Once I found it, I was nervous to stop holding the device as I thought it would slip again, but eventually things evened out and the recharge began. It took 45 minutes to recharge just 15%. BUT I think it will be faster next time because as I was recharging myself, I was also reading through the manual, and it said that the communicator battery should be charged to 100% and it was not. It was only at 84%. That was my fault because I had plugged the recharging station into an outlet that only works when the lights are on in the room, therefore it wasn't charging 24/7. In the picture below, "My Battery" is the battery that's implanted in me. The "Communicator Battery" is the battery that I'm holding up to my implanted battery in the pictures below. The "Handset Battery" is the battery that I carry in my purse (the one in the above picture).
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| The status of all the batteries :) |
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| Me, afraid to take my hand off the battery charging device. |
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| I finally took my hand off and it stayed in place! |
The pictures below are of the incision. I don't think they're too gross (I just show the bandages), but if you don't like things like that, this is your warning to skip over them (I'm talking to you, Kristen!).
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| Incision site on the day of surgery |
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| Incision site as of today. That "lump" is the actual battery :) |
Before I get into how today's post op appointment went, I have to tell you what happened on the way there. I left my house with 30 minutes until my appointment. My appointment was at 11:15am. When I left the house, it was pouring buckets of rain. It was raining so hard that it made me think we need to be very specific in our prayers to God. We need the rain, but maybe not all in one day. :) So, it was raining hard. There were no accidents on the highway, but traffic was horrific. I started to panic that I was going to be late. I prayed and said "Lord, the only way I'll be able to get there on time today is if you perform a miracle. Please perform a miracle and let me not be late!" I entered the parking garage at 11:10 (or around there). There was a handicap space available right away, but it was on the "wrong side" of the parking garage - meaning I would have to walk a lot further to get to the surgeon's office - so I took a chance and bypassed it. Then I got behind the slowest person in the parking garage -ha! I again saw a handicap parking spot but it looked like it was reserved for a different part of the building then I was going to, so I bypassed it. I was still behind the slowest person ever in the parking garage. He stopped in front of me, waiting for this person to pull out. When the person didn't pull out within a minute or two, the slowest guy in the parking garage went on and then I looked behind me and there was no one there, so I stopped for the same person. I couldn't tell if he had just gotten there or was leaving, but I waited a minute. He pulled out!! So, I pulled in. :) I got my walker out and looked at my phone. It was 11:14am. I went straight to the elevator and thought I'd be a couple of minutes late depending on how far I had to walk to the office. To my surprise, I got off the elevator and the office was right there in front of me (You might be wondering why I didn't know this before. That's because when my dad came with me for the pre-op appointment, we did park on the wrong side of the parking garage and went in different doors and elevators and had to walk a bit.)! I checked in with the front desk and when I sat down in the waiting room, I looked at the time and it was 11:16am. I had checked in by 11:15am!! God performed a miracle! All I could do was smile and say, "thank you". God listens to us no matter how small or trivial our requests are - thank you, Jesus!
Today's post op appointment went well. I saw my neurosurgeon's nurse, Sarah. She looked at the incision and said it looked great. I commented that those steri-strips are strong, and she agreed but said when it's time for them to come off, they will fall off. There's 10 of them. I can't remember from my last surgery how long it took them all to fall off, but it'll be two weeks this coming Wednesday since my surgery and these strips don't look like they will be falling off anytime soon. I still can't exercise/move my hands above my head for an extended period of time (I mean, I physically can, but I'm not supposed to!)/ lift anything above 10lbs/ do any excessive movements/ swim or get the site emerged in water for 6 weeks, but other than that all is good. As I was walking out, (this neurosurgeon practice has literally the longest hallway I've ever seen for a doctor's office!) I ran into (not literally) my surgeon, Dr. G. He asked how I was and when I said "good" he said he thought I must be, because Sarah didn't run to get him. :) It was good to see him. When I said "good" as to how I was, I was specifically talking about the recovery from surgery. As for my walking, it's not where I want it to be. It does usually take about 2 weeks for me to see any major improvement and it technically has not been two weeks, but I think if I'm still where I'm at today in two days, I may bump the electricity up some as I'm still having lots of problems walking. It was nice to hear though from someone at church who said I looked a lot steadier on my feet then I did before the surgery. In that respect, I am much better. I do feel steadier on my feet when I'm standing still. Walking is a whole different issue! :)
Another sweet friend reminded me that we just have to be who we are (disabilities and all), and we can't worry about what other people think of us. I've been told this over and over again and still need to hear it to believe it. I like to "hide" my disability as much as possible because I'm afraid people won't like me because of it. But, at times I have to use a walker. Other times I have to use a cane. Those things are hard to hide. I need to use what I need to use to get around safely and not be ashamed of that. I've grown A LOT since I was first diagnosed. Most of the time, I don't care what people may or may not think, but every once in a while, I get shy/embarrassed/worried what people think of me/how they view me. But then I remember that most people don't care - ha! They are worried about themselves far more then whether I can walk with a walker or not. :) God made us all unique and beautiful. Because we live in a sin-filled world we are also broken and battered. We have battle scars. But the brokenness and the battle scars make us stronger, wiser and in some respects even more beautiful than we can imagine. So, we carry on and we have compassion for those who, like us, are most likely broken and battered too, although maybe not in the same way we are.
Thank you for reading and always, always remember...."God's Got This!"
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