Phillip Sherwood

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Clearview Cancer Institute for a bone treatment because my bones are becoming very brittle and I’m now borderline with osteoporosis and more prone to breakage should I fall out of chair. I’m working from home today after having the medication yesterday. I’m feeling fatigued but hopefully it won’t develop into the full blown flu like symptoms that linger for days that may occur. I have to take Calcium and Vitamin D supplements forever now which also increases the risk for developing kidney stones. All that is happening and the things I’ve been having to deal with this past year are indicative of my paralysis and I just have to deal with it and put my best foot forward and move out smartly. This is just one of many challenges I’ve had to face since my accident and there’ll be many more to come along the road ahead. None of these “obstacles” will knock me off my horse and even if it does, I have the best family and friends in the world who are by my side to lift me back up, dust me off and put me back in the saddle and for that I am truly blessed. It’s very humbling to have gone to so many places and integrate with others who are suffering and dying to witness their spirits and strength as they fight their own fight. I’ve learned life is a very precious and valuable gift that many take for granted until it’s about to be taken away. Live your life like there may be no tomorrow, tell others about how you feel about them, don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today and most important… don’t get caught up in all the material trappings in this world and the meaningless petty things that really don’t matter. Enjoy and nurture your relationships with family and friends and remember, a stranger is someone you just haven’t made friends with yet. Reach out to them and introduce yourself. They may be having a bad day and it’s possible your interaction with them may lift them out of the gutter and you’d be surprised how good you’ll feel afterwards because you just made a new friend.

It was a chilly morning as the temperature outside when I woke up was 38 degrees. This was about 15-20 degrees below normal and is supposed to warm up shortly. I slept well last night and woke up refreshed ready to start a new week. One of our local race pros had a bad accident over the weekend I learned and fractured the same vertebrae in his back as myself and my friend Curtis however his did not break so he was very lucky to dodge the bullet and suffer the same fate as us. He was lifeflighted to Vanderbilt unconscious and not breathing. They put him on a ventilator and at some point declared his unconsciousness to be a coma. Eventually he woke up and the ventilator was removed. I’m curious to see if he decides to return to racing or to walk away.

I was lazy on Saturday and slept in until about 12 noon then woke up and had some breakfast but after I ate I was really tired so I laid down and slept until 6pm. I woke up, took a shower, watched a football game on TV then went back to bed and slept until 10am yesterday. I must have been very fatigued as it caught up to me but I fought it off from the horizontal position. I accidently hit some button on my laptop computer at home that caused it to lock up. On the reboot, it said my hard drive was unable to be accessed because it was locked. I spent hours researching this on-line and ended up having to format the hardrive and reinstall all the software all over again. This really sucked. I’ve been delving more into computers and networking and am thinking about taking some formal training. I’m also starting to play with and learn more about hardware and configurations and one thing it’s done so far is that I’m getting better at troubleshooting problems and going on-line to research possible solutions. They never taught this stuff in school when I was getting my degree in Computer Science. The good thing too is that I can apply this knowledge and these new skills to my job.

Since it was cool last night, I cleaned up my man cave (garage) and it looks better now and I can find or identify things easier. I need to wash the motorcycles and get more proactive in selling the café racer (Honda CBR1000). I put it on a battery charger to see if I can get the both of them running again so they can be test ridden and exercised. I’m still interested in modifying my Harley but haven’t found anyone in the local area capable and/or willing to take on the job. I had to load my barstools up into me van from the house by myself so I could return them to Bed Bath & Beyond and you would have laughed if you saw how I did it. I did some very imaginative problem solving and got everything in there but I wouldn’t want to do it again. When we get below freezing, I’ll have to bring the plants in from the back porch but I think I’ll have to get some help for that because the palm trees are really heavy.

That’s the gist of what’s happening. My pain is creeping back more each day. I have a hospital procedure scheduled for next Monday to start on a new medication specialized in targeting neurological vs. muscular pain that may probably require me to stay overnight. This month marks not only the anniversary of the combat operations that took place in Mogadishu but also marks the 3rd year since my injury. I will say the first two years were a breeze compared to this last year. I’m hoping the 4th year will be a good one.

Yesterday was my 47th birthday and honestly there were times during the span of my life when I doubted I’d ever make it this far. I would like to give a sincere thank you to all my friends and family who remembered me on my birthday yesterday and sent me such nice messages. I am truly humbled by the outpouring of kindness and thanks to those who came to the party. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life. May God bless you all. My mother came from Maryland to visit and organize the birthday BBQ we had at the house. My friend Teen DeRoode from Clementine’s at the Botanical Garden baked the most incredibly delicious mammoth of a seven layer fudge chocolate cake done gourmet style. Before I turned the chicken on the grill into bits of charcoal, she came out to rescue me and save the dinner. My co-worker Teddy Jernigan made a beautiful floral table centerpiece and brought several other beautiful plant and flower arrangements to accent and bring more life to the house. Mom had also made a DVD of me that consisted of over 300 photos throughout different stages and events during my life and set them to music. We played this in the 55″ LED TV and I think it turned out great. During Mom’s visit, we did a lot of things. I took her to lunch at Victoria’s Café, a full body massage, dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant then home to relax and have a glass of wine. Saturday was a very busy day too. We started with party prep then off to the salon to get Mom’s hair done. Sunday morning we went for Chinese Dim Sum and ate way too much.

I left my last post off with some serious pain and new medicine issues I was having trouble dealing with and although I’m not back 100%, I’m doing much better now. My pain doctor increased the dosage rate in my pain pump to get me through the next 24-hour because my new refill would not be ready until the next day. I went home later and felt some relief and was able to get some decent sleep. The next day (Tuesday) I went back and had the pump drained of all remaining medication then refilled with a new dose. It usually takes about 18-24 hours before the fresh medication hits the spinal fluid and it just so happened I was on the toilet when it hit me like a speeding freight train. All of a sudden, I broke out in a cold sweat and felt a nausea in the bottom of my throat that caused me to put my face into the trash can as quick as I could get it there. I felt as if I was having an overdose and prepared myself to call 911. I thought that if I could get back into my wheelchair and transfer onto my bed that I’d reassess my situation. I got to the bed and laid down and thought to myself I’d get a little rest then see how I felt when I got up. I woke six hours later hungry for something to eat. I transferred back into my wheelchair and went to the kitchen and noticed I was feeling better and without a single whiff of pain. It was remarkable. I hadn’t felt pain free since I jumped on my bike to head to the starting line right before my accident. It was such a surreal but strangely familiar feeling I knew once way back in time in another life. Two days later I had to get a cortisone injection in my elbow and wow was this a jolt to the funny bone. By this past weekend, my pan has returned (although not as strong) and I have an appointment to go to another medication designed for neuro pain vs. muscular so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will work.

My Jewelry

Since my pain pump was serviced last I’ve felt like the batch of anti-spasm and pain medication was off. I never really felt the relief from the spasms and pain as the other concoctions provided. Today I’ve been at the pain doctors office for 4-1/2 hours before they called my name to take my blood pressure and temperature. Tomorrow I am scheduled to have my pump refilled but last Friday the excruciating pain in my back and moreso where they cut me open to do the thorocotomy woke me up like always. However, this time was different and the pain didn’t subside. 

Transferring was made more challenging by peaking out the pain meter. Everytime I felt like my skin was being stripped from the bone. Imagine your worse sunburn ever then bathing in scolding water on top of that. By 2pm Friday I decided I wasn’t going to wait until Tuesday so I repeatedly called the pain doctors office until I was able to break through the electronic answering labyrinth and was able to finally speak to a human. I was told the nurse would call me back by the messenger on the other end but by 5pm I called back and the office had closed at 4:30pm. 

The weekend was almost unbearable at times but I have enough medication in reserves to put a herd of buffalo to sleep. The early mornings are the worse. My body will go into a type of stretching spasm as it locks out straight from my upper chest to my toes as my knee joints crack. The pain at this moment in my upper body is indescribably intense that this morning I let out a blood curdling scream reflexively. It’s now been five hours here and still no doctor or nurse yet. I’m freezing, tired, hungry and… Oh yeah… still in lots of pain. I finally left the doctor’s office and went home after my 5th and one half hour in the office. I have to get a MRI tomorrow at 6:30AM then go back in for a medication change. They gave me an adjustment to get through the night and a pain patch for my “tennis” elbow. It’ll take a few hours before the extra medication kicks in but it bums me to have to take an entire day of sick leave.

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.