Stuart's Road To Recovery: One metre man

Today was another earlish start for Stuart, Tris and I met him and Dave in the carpark to try some car transfers into the Mitsubishi Lancer. This was not so easy, the passenger seat is quite low and Stuart's lanky limbs had trouble fitting in. After many attempts he finally managed to do the transfer in a way that Dave was happy with. Have to be very careful with to not put to much pressure on ones shoulders and protect your skin(bottom and back) as you slide across. Especially as you may be doing this a few times a day for many years to come. We also had a lesson on folding to chair so that we can put it in the car. Bit tricky to get this one in the boot of Tristan's car, had to go behind the drivers seat.

We then wandered back inside and ran into Tony Turner who was in town for a meeting. He had a spare hour and thought he would call in on Stuart, so he came to physio with us. Stuart once again spent sometime on the plinth working on his legs in the sling, even getting onto his right hip to work the left leg, trying to work his butt as well. He then got onto the cycle and managed to peddle /push 1 meter himself before the auto part kicked in. 1 metre by Stuart 600 by machine. He loves the feeling of spinning his legs, getting the circulation and muscles pumping. Tris continued with the fine tuning of THE wheelchair, this time working on the footplate. Alex was laughing, never before had someone worked on their chair so much.

Tris, Stuart and I then shared the leftover curries from Tuesday night, it was very nice even the second time around.
We then headed off in a taxi to the dentist in Mosman. Nick did some root canal work with some pretty funky equipment, put in a dressing and fitted a "fuji" temporary crown/cap. Stuart goes back next week to continue treatment. He was a bit concerned that the root of Stuart's tooth had shrunk a bit , did not go as far up into his gum as the other front tooth. Something called phagoctes, which are the white blood cells that protect the body by ingesting (phagocytosing) harmful foreign particles, bacteria and dead or dying cells have been active in the root after injury. Hopefully there will be no long term damage to the remains of the tooth. Stuart was most impressed as when we rolled in as Nick had "Elbow" playing, they are going to swap some music next visit.
Back to RNS in the taxi, had an enjoyable hour before tea chatting and generally being silly with Graham and the girls. Stuart also did some work on his chair, adjusting the backrest. So glad he is putting the toolkit that I brought back from Wagga Wagga to good use.

Stuart has had another good day with the self catheterization and is going to go 6 hours from midnight to 6am, he is hoping to get a bit more sleep. He is also allowed to increase his oral intake tomorrow to 150mls every hour, dropping back to 100mls at midday. So that he does not put to much pressure on his bladder overnight while he still has no real sensation and is learning the tricks of the trade.
Tonight after he got back into bed he did some stretches, working the most on his hamstrings and hip flexors. I am thinking that tight hamstrings may be hereditary as the rest of the Humans need to stretch regularly as well. Stuart is also starting to get a few spasms in his legs, especially the right one. As we understand this is quite common and hopefully they may settle in time.Will keep our fingers crossed.