Phillip Sherwood

Late Friday afternoon, I stopped by the post office to mail a package. I was in my manual stander wheelchair and had finished what I had to do and got back into the mini-van. I reached backward to grab the aft tie down but it was just a little out of my reach so I rolled back just a bit just a tad to extend my reach when my brakes gave out and I flipped upside down on my head with my feet pointing upward as I was buckled into the chair. This was not a good situation to be in. I first got my keys out of my front pouch in the chair and started the vehicle to get the AC going. After I got myself unbuckled and untangled, I then made repeated attempts to lift myself up and my butt onto the back seat but I kept coming about ½” short. Man, if I only had ab muscles! I reasoned that if I kept going I’d deplete all my strength so I opened the door and flagged down a little guy going into the post office who admitted before commencing that he’s not very strong and he proved that to me real quick although now I was only coming up about ¼” short. I then flagged down another small guy but this one was a bit more stout. With the two of them lifting up on the sides of my pants, I was able to grab hold of the aft seat belt/hand mounts and pull myself up the rest of the ½”.

I then went to the gym but after my stretch, I felt a searing tear in my right shoulder as I crossed my reach to set the chair brakes. Thinking that it may have just been a peculiar position I was in, I did it again but using my left arm this time for the left brake and no problem. I then proceeded to pull up on the rings to lift & extend my chair to stand and chat and BAM! I felt it again. I stopped what I was going to do, turned around, got my keys, went home then on to bed to rest. I was pretty worn out because I didn’t wake up Saturday morning until 11:30am. I was sore Saturday and much less on Sunday but now I don’t feel any pain from that site at all.

This weekend I had the pleasure to see 28 recipients of the military’s highest decorated me all wearing the Medal of Honor. I didn’t realize only 87 remain alive. The 28 were the largest gathering ever in Huntsville. I was quite impressive and what they had to say was equally humbling. I finally had the laundry room painted yesterday usin Benjamin Moore Eggshell Fresh Butter 290 and it was a lot of work for me and I wasn’t the one who even did the painting! I was fortunate that after everything was done and I hooked the home automation system back up that it all worked on the first try! How lucky is that? I then updated the firmware in all the items in the house I could to help stabilize my Home Automation and Home Theatre systems. For some reason I’m really tired today. My next project on the list is the backyard landscaping. This will be a very big project expected to take about two weeks and will hopefully be done before Mom gets here for my birthday. I will be glad when that’s done. The landscaping company hired by the builder did a terrible job and the grass is all uneven. It’s nearly impossible for me to get out onto the lawn to pull weeds without either getting stuck or exerting nearly all my energy to not get stuck. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve called Trugreen® to come out and treat the yard but the effectiveness of their weed application eradication is terrible.

I woke up the morning of August 8th and my feet were very discolored and it concerned me what may be happening because I have no idea about why this was. On the top of both feet and on both insteps were red bloches that looked horrible. I went to see the doctor who then referred me to a vascular surgeon who did tests on arterial flow. This was good but it has been the blockage that’s been troubling me. My feet looked like they had blood poisoning or something. I was told this will be a common occurance and to just manage it. If they look like they are worsening, I need to go back in. Needless to say, I was not comforted with this information but the situation is what it is.

The following day I went to the Women’s & Children’s Hospital for my sonogram (Bone Scan) and the results revealed that I still have Osteopenia so getting off the Fosamax pill I have to take every week is not going to happen. I’m looking at the possibility of changing to using Reclast which is an IV I would only have to do once a year. This is primarily for post-menapausal women so I’ll be in good company. I should hear something back from my new family doctor soon. She is very responsive and my favorite of them all.

I woke up Friday morning with my elbow in excruciating pain. I slept on the same side, must have spent too much time in that position. I got my monthly B-12 shot also so I have all kinds of energy now! My Vascular Surgeon sent a letter of recommendation/request to the VA in Augusta for them to provide me with a set of pneumatic trousers I can wear while I’m laying down to help with the swelling. If the VA denies this then we’ll pursue the acquisition through my regular insurance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama. They were the ones who purchased my stim bike so I hope they’re still feeling benevolent should I have to go down that road.

I bought a bunch of indoor tropical plants Friday night at Home Depot so thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of them while they still look healthy before I kill them. hahaha

I spent about four hours Thursday night totally rewiring my home automation system and made a nice and clean looking wire harness to route all the wiring in the most efficient manner I could think of. It was a lot of work but it looks much better than it did before. The painter was supposed to come today (Sunday) to paint the laundry room so it will be interesting how we navigate this part of the wall. He never showed up or called so this kob is on hold.

Tuesday this week I have the electrician coming to do some more stuff then on Aug 30th the back yard will begin to undergo its transformation from a weed farm to a botanical garden. The front yard is still looking nice despite the fact one of the trees the developer planted died last week in the extreme heat.

Orkin exterminators came this Friday to spray for critters inside and out. Jack & Bob were funny because they didn’t know what to think of his spray mechanism since he looked like something out of the movie Ghostbusters. One of my front wheelchair caster wheel bearing seized up so I need to tear it down today and fix that so my chair stops veering to the right. I have a lot of other tasks to do from now throughout the week.

I had a lot of fun on the water Saturday boating mith my long time friends the Mobleys. I also did some tubing myself. It was not as difficult getting in and out of the boat or on and off the tube as we were dreading but looking back it’s a good thing I didn’t fall off the tube into the water. While being dragged on the tube by the boat, the tops of my feet dragged in the water behind me and this hyper sensitation caused my legs to go into a continual spasm. Between the legs in a constant spasm and holding my head up to see as I lay on the tube on my belly, it didn’t take long for me to get exhausted. Later that evening after coming home and taking my shower, I sat down on the sofa to watch a NASCAR race on TV and fell asleep mithin minutes. I must have been more exhausted then I thought. I had a lot of fun.

I’m feeling better now with more energy and able to get through a full workout finally. Friday night’s gym workout was really good. I’ve been elevating my legs as high as I can get them from 3-7am so I’m getting some pretty good drainage but they still fill back up by the end of the day. This Friday afternoon I have an appointment to get my hair done so I’m looking forward to seeing my harem again as always. The girls there are all sweet on me which means they’ve got great taste This week it’s forecasted to be in the 100’s. When it gets that hot, I have to wear gloves because within ten minutes of being out in the sun, the rims on my wheelchair get so hot they blister my hands. I’m supposed to start on the landscaping project this week and finish up on the security camera installation. I went to drive my pick-up Saturday night but the batteries were dead. I need to get them on a charger but the batteries are too tall to reach from my chair so it’s going to take some real finagling. I need to get the lift in the bed installed so it can pick the chair up after I transfer and put it into the back. I had to take Bob to the vet on Saturday to have a bad case of ear mites treated and while I was in there, a couple was having a C-Section done on their German Shepherd. I talked to them for a while and they said they’d sell me one of the purebred AKC registered puppies when it reaches eight weeks at a much lower than market value. I’m thinking of getting a female this time but I’m hoping I’m not getting myself in over my head trying to get through the first year puppy stage. That’s the gist of things for now. Last night I had a really good workout on my stim-bike. It seems as if my legs start to poop out after about 17 minutes but I went a full half hour. This time last year I was easily doing an hour. Gotta run to the gym and get a good work out in.

I will have to admit that the past four months have been my toughest struggle since coming home from the accident. It seems like when it rains, it dumps everything all at once. I’ve been bombarded with health, emotional and physical pain, and just things not going smoothly but I know I mustn’t give up in my struggle to overcome these perpetual endless obstacles put before me that just sap my innermost strength. Each negative variable compounds on one another creating a synergistic effect that challenges my success of even the simplest automatic task of my being. I’m not sure if my situation is easier to deal with by myself or within the company of a companion. The frustration that comes from not knowing what is physically happening on the inside so I can know how to remedy what ails me creates a feeling of helplessness and loss of control of my own being is an experience I’ve never faced before in my life. The feeling of vulnerability now contrasts that of my feeling of being bulletproof back in my 20’s as a young warrior. Instead of fellow soldiers to take arms in a mutual battle for survival is now replaced with a team of medical and psychological doctors interlinked by common databases and machines that produce test results. My enemies are now microscopic and invisible to the naked eye making their lethality to cause irreparable harm more potent than any combat system found on the modern day battlefield. I was a soldier in uniform fighting for my country and the beliefs that make us the proud world leaders that we are and although my uniform is hung in the closet now, I have still a soldier’s strength to fight just as tenaciously on this vicious new arena. This week is the first week in four months I’ve had the physical strength to make it through a day at work with a full workout in the gym afterwards. It may be a coincidence because Teddy at work brought me cinnamon rolls from a left over meeting this morning but I’ll take a victory any way I can get it to help me chip away at this feeling of well-being deficit I’m in.

Yesterday I was diagnosed as having hypothyroidism from my blood tests which fully accounts for the extreme swelling in my legs, fatigue and weight gain. The doctor prescribed me T4 medication for 90-days and said I should start feeling better shortly. I’ve been spending most of the nights since coming home with my legs propped up as high as I can physically get them to help with the drainage. I had my first appointment with a new physical therapist that specializes in Lymphatic Drainage Therapy (LDT) the other day so I have an all out assault in reducing this swelling. LDT assists in many things such as: involuntary muscle spasms, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, stagnant fluid in the skin, to name just a few. My spasms have already begun to reduce and are more manageable proportionate to the reduction of the swelling. I’m resting quite a bit and starting like I’m going to pull out of this slump. Also I have resolution with the doctor whose nurse was so disrespectful to me. The doctor made her apologize to me for her disregard to my health & welfare. Jack and Bob are happy to be back together and are wrestling a lot now. The water fountain/statue in front of the house is working great and the landscaping will begin in mid to late August.

I’m here at Ocean City, MD really enjoying the beach with my family. This is the beach I would come to while growing up as a child and not much has changed in the last 40 years. Last night strolling down the board walk was quite the experience in the diversity of people there. I met and talked with many because I couldn’t resist hearing their stories of where they were from and how they came to being there. Today I went down to where the ocean breaks on the beach with the aid of a special beach wheelchair with big balloon tires. I enjoyed the soothing sounds of the waves crashing on the shore line in the massage salon but with a nice cool ocean breeze blowing carrying the smell of salt water in the air. I finally got some color on these chicken white legs of mine. I’ve been getting some good and much needed rest with ample opportunity to raise my legs and let the constant swelling subside a bit. The swelling seems to be worsening as the rate at which they refill is increasing. The right leg is now more swollen than the left which is opposite of what the situation was a year ago. I’m experimenting with updating my website via my iPhone but the edit tool to do so is too cumbersome so I will stick with using my facebook page for the quick updates. It’s time to grab some dinner and seafood is on the top of my menu.

Today was spent visiting our nations’ capitol and some of the surrounding museums while the temperature rose to near record highs of 102 degrees for this area. The metal rims on my wheelchair got so hot that they blistered my left fingers. I always learn something new when I play tourist in the own backyard I grew up in. The biggest difference now is that when I go downtown, it is rare to hear English spoken as a persons’ primary language. The ethnic diversity of this area is nice when it comes to wanting to branch out and taste different types of foods. After a quick tour of the capitol building, my mother, two nephews and a friend of my nephew and I went to see the new Indian museum to be followed by the Air & Space museum. Everything was not only wheelchair accessible but also wheelchair friendly.

While using one of the restrooms reserved for a family to do a self-catheterization, I was horrified to see I was filling the bag with thick blood clots and obviously bloody urine. The frequency and severity of this has been increasing over the past two months but I felt before going any further I pop into the ER near where my mother lives and get checked out. Fate would have it that when it was time to provide a urine specimen to the doctor, all was clear as a bell. The blood and urine tests came back negative for an infection of any kind so the doctor believed it is a complication from the high dosage of blood thinners I’m taking but recommended to me I make an appointment with my urologist when I get home.

I brought my cat Jack with me and he is having a ball exploring all the new surroundings in my mother’s hose that dwarfs mine in comparison. Tomorrow we’re heading to the beach in Ocean City, MD where I always went as a child growing up here in Maryland. Jack gets to go too. The other day we all went to the Kennedy Center to see the play Mary Poppins and truthfully I was very impressed. I can’t say I really enjoyed the fact that it was a musical but the theatrical stage effects were very impressive. Yesterday we went to the Cunningham Falls State Park and its strange experience to be in a public place that was so regimented and strictly controlled. I’ve also been enjoying the reaping of the benefits of my home automation system from here and am glad to note it’s working as advertised.

I am completely run down and fatigued. Either I’m not eating the right things or my small intestine is not absorbing the nutrients like they should leaving me depleted of vital vitamins responsible for strength and energy. My iron is low thus putting me at the anemic level and my testosterone level is very near zero or no longer being produced. On top of all that I’m dealing with a potential UTI, incontenance and the difficulty of controlling my bowels. When I have the energy, I spend it cleaning up my messes but things could always be worse. That’s the readers digest version however I’m in good spirits and am as positive as I can be. I’m really looking forward to my upcoming vacation with my family and am so thankful I have so many friends who care about me and check in to help keep me continuing to march forward.

During the past several weeks, I’ve been seeing a complete new team of health care professionals due to the lack of patient advocacy with the local Veterans Administration (VA) medical system here in Huntsville, AL. I am now receiving civilian medical services in the form of Coumadin checks, a new family practice physician and a new vascular physician. During my initial visits over past several weeks with these new care providers, I’ve focused on my extreme fatigue and continued swelling in both legs. After a battery of blood tests, it was discovered that my testosterone, vitamins B & D3 levels were depleted far below the minimum threshold levels.

I’ve been away these past six weeks distracted by life issues, poor health and engulfed in the development of my Smart Home. I went through a period of anger primarily stemming from the lack of patient welfare with the local VA health care system. I became totally frustrated with the VA because I was getting sicker and sicker and not only was the medical staff inaccessible, when I was able to get in and see a doctor, I could not get the results from any of the lab tests I took. One afternoon I did an audit of my insurance claims from the last 18 months and found the VA had been charging my civilian insurance even for those things service related. I then decided it was time to cut my ties with the local VA and search out a new team of specialists and care providers. It has been a difficult process because the majority of health care providers are not accepting new patients however my physiatrist Dr. Beck was very persistent and determined in finding me the best doctors who would make considerations.

Things began to spiral down around a month ago where my bowels became loose and I lost any and all intestinal control. Within a couple of days, my bladder became neurogenic causing me to also not be able to control my urine collection output. By now my washer & dryer was in a 24-hr surge mode as I had to clean up one mess after another. Totally exhausted by this point, I began urinating blood to the point that it looked like it was bleeding out so I went to the local ER. After some short tests, it was discovered that I had a Urinary Tract Infection (my first) so the doctor gave me a prescription for Lovequin antibiotics and a foley catheter. The following day I was on board an airplane heading to Arizona for work. For the next couple of weeks I was operating off of 10% battery power at my peak. The antibiotis threw my blood thinning way off the charts and I’ve never felt this level of continual fatigue before in my life. I spent the following Memorial Day weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon) in bed 20 of 24 hours per day. My UTI cleared up and one of my blood tests came back saying I was anemic but there’s still many more test results pending. I am starting to feel better and with more energy but I’m about 75% at best. My blood thinning has almost stabilized. My girlfriend Denise has been so helpful in being here to help me get through this black cloud.

My next report will come shortly with an update on my home automation systems. It’s come a long way and has become a hobby to occupy my time.