Every day is a little better. That's not exactly true. Some days are a little worse, but they are the exception. I earned a number of achievements this week, but with every day being a little better, most weeks are like that.

Meeting with the surgeon

I had my first follow-up meeting with the surgeon who worked on my back. Before the meeting, they took X-rays, and she was happy with how things looked. I asked about current physical restrictions, and I'm allowed to do anything I want using my best judgement. I also asked questions about the surgery, and Cathy and I got to view old and new X-rays and CAT scans. They also took an MRI, but I don't think we saw it a the meeting. Actual X-rays of my spine before surgery and this week (with hardware) are shown below.

X-ray of my spine after my fall and before surgery. The L1 vertebra is the second from the top. This is a photo of the computer screen in the surgeon's office. I should try to get the actual files next time I am there.
X-rays of my spine from last week. Note the the titanium rod and screws. The L1 vertebra is in the middle with only one screw. Note that the spinous processes have been removed from the five vertebra (looking at the image, it may be only four) that were fused. I was told that the surgeon did something that will cause bone to grow and the vertebra to fuse over the next 12 to 16 months. I was also told to get off the ibuprofen first because that inhibits bone growth.

I got back on the climbing wall

With physical restrictions removed, I decided to try my hand at climbing yesterday. I was feeling a bit apprehensive, and I might have put it off, but the kids are flying down to Florida for Cathy's family reunion next week. I thought it would be be good to go as a whole family while we had the chance. Overall, it went well. I climbed all the way to the top for three routes. My brain wasn't ready to let go at the top and let the auto-belay lower me down, so I climbed down as well for those routes. I'm going to call it six routes of work. I wasn't as strong as I hoped. I climbed two 5.6s and a 5.7. Before the "Day Things Changed", I was climbing all 5.9s and half of the 5.10s. My legs were really weak, and one of the tricks with climbing is to get your weight over your legs and use them as much as possible.

At the end of our visit, I climbed partially up the wall, let go, and "practiced" having the auto-belay lowering me down. I wasn't really practicing in terms of technique; I was trying to retrain my brain that letting the auto-belay lower me is a okay thing. It was super exhausting climbing back down for the three routes I climbed.

Two mile walk this morning

I walked two miles this morning using trekking poles. It was on a paved path by a river by our house. It was also more hilly than pretty much anything I've done thus far. Two miles is also a record for distance.

While I was exhausted after the walk, I put off a nap until I had lunch, baked sourdough bread I've been working on since yesterday (Cathy moved it in and out of the oven for me, so I guess she gets the credit for the baking), and I set up a mojito wine which is one of our favorite recipes.

After an hour and a half nap (hey, I'm healing here), my feet were killing me. My feet always hurt, but this was 5 or 6 level pain and in new places (a little towards my ankles from the base of my big toes and in my ankles). This might be a result of the climbing yesterday. Cathy also asked me if I had taken my 2 pm painkillers. I'm pretty sure I didn't, but nap. This elicited comments about my refusal to use the weekly pill box she purchased because then we would know as the pills from the afternoon compartment would be gone.* I've been waiting to fill the box until I had a chance to take pictures and blog about. Pictures are below. While it still looks like a lot of pills to me, it's about half of what I was taking during in-patient rehab. So, now I have a giant pill box to make sure I don't mess up. I'm officially an old person.

Here's the empty pill box. This is what it looks like when I take all my medications.
Here's what it looks like when filled (minus morning and afternoon on Sunday). Given I didn't used to take anything on a daily basis, this seems like a lot to me. One of my friends tells me he takes over 50 pills a day. With that in mind, this doesn't look so bad.

*Actually, looking around the bedroom right now, I'm sure I didn't take them. My water bottle is on my desk by the computer where I left it this morning.