Image is everything!

Hey Folks,

It is your friendly neighborhood cripple – OK I exaggerate, I am not that friendly :-).  Not a lot has been going on.  I had my MRI imaging of both the shoulder and lumbar spine on Sept 2 and now have a much clearer picture of the road ahead.

I have a torn Labrum (SLAP tear) on the shoulder that will most likely require surgery.  I also may have a condition called Buford complex where a portion of the Labrum is not formed at birth and instead replaced with a thickened glenohumeral ligament.  I visit the surgeon on the 25th to discuss and plan the next steps.

On the lumbar side of things, it was not horrible news.  While there is problems with Lumbar discs 2, 3, & 4, they are just bulged and not totally herniated. And while the bulging was quite severe (especially on L4), bulged discs respond quite well to decompression therapy.  In fact, I am now able to walk short distances, stand for periods of time, do some sitting, and when laying down am generally pain free, after only 5 spinal decompression treatments. I will continue the treatment for several months more and expect to make a full recovery.  Do to the location of most of the bulging (away from the spinal column), I would not be a candidate for surgery.

So construction has commenced once again with a stricter regime for my involvement.  I will only do what I can do without encountering any significant pain, will pace myself by not working full days, and will hire labourers when any heavy lifting and equipment operation is required.

This started last Friday with Mr. J (my nephew Jonathan) coming by for the day to knock off some storm proofing tasks.  I assisted lightly and supervised.  He re-drapped the north wall with new longer plastic to protect the bank from erosion and also started the task of covering a backfill pile by the road (ran out of plastic at that point).  We also did some repairs to a sump pump, finished securing south tarp, and then Jonathan started disassembling all of the scaffold planks on the interior of the foundation to be used on a scaffold to be build on the outside of the foundation.

We were both back today and finished building the scaffold around the outside perimeter of the east, south and west foundation walls.  From this scaffold, I will be able to finish applying the torch on membrane to the top of the foundation wall (need to knock down any high points and patch any holes first), and then complete the insulation and dimple protection board installation.  Once these are done, and I finish installing the instruments for the foundation science lab, back filling can continue.

I am going to try to have about 30ft of the south wall ready to back fill by next Friday (Mr. J’s day off).  So we will see how it goes.

Thanks for visiting and wish me well.

“Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give in. Don’t ever stop trying. Don’t ever sell out. And if you find yourself succumbing to one of the above for a brief moment, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, whisper a prayer, and start where you left off. But never, ever, ever give up.” —Richelle E. Goodrich  Author

“Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find the right road.” —Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961) Swedish Political Leader, Secretary General Of The United Nations

“I’ve always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you’ve got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles on route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish.” —Chuck Norris (born 1940) Actor, Martial Artist

“Strength of a character isn’t always about how much you can handle before you break. It’s also about how much you can handle after you’ve been broken.” —Robert Tew Author