Updates on Mark' S Wheelchair, Van, & Surgeries

I have finally managed to get the tendon transfer surgery on my left arm scheduled for April 8th!

 

I will then have to have my arm casted for about 3.5 weeks, followed by another 3 to 4 weeks in a splint which will restrict movement as the muscles and tendons stretch out and I learn to use them better.  I will be undergoing a bicep to triceps transfer to give me active arm extension at the elbow, and a brachial-radialis to wrist (ECRB) to give me wrist extension and control.  Then, possibly sometime new the end of May I will be undergoing the surgery in Cleveland to have the implant placed.  Unfortunately, that will be followed by another three weeks in a cast, but the implant which functions some unlike an artificial nervous system to stimulate some of the paralyzed muscles in my forearm, will give me some use of my hand to pick up and hold things, etc. The folks at the Cleveland FES Center about so expressed interest in working with me on a slightly different implant for my right arm also.  So eventually, by the time I'm done maybe this coming fall, I will have undergone tendon transfers and forearm implant in both arms!  It will be both exciting, challenging, and trying!

 

My new wheelchair should finally be delivered sometime in about two weeks!  Talk about a ridiculously long wait!

 

Last week the state Department of vocational rehab finally also put out the request for bids on my van.  I learned to today that all the bids have to be in by March 30th.  So if everything goes well, and I am able to close the paperwork with a Pontiac dealer the next day, on the 31st I might finally have my new van!  Unfortunately I will have to wait another month to six weeks to get the hand controls installed. 

 

I'm hoping by mid April, I should be in my new wheelchair, by the end of April have some more function in my left arm and hopefully be able to start driving my van myself by mid-May.  I can't wait to get out of the house on my own so I don't have to depend on others to pick me up, which I can imagine is inconvenient, my apologies and appreciation to everyone who has done so!

 

So finally things are closer coming together!  Grin

 

Mark