Category: Thoughts on Life

Well the wet noodle experiment has succeeded in proving one thing at least. If you don’t tell your doctor and therapist that you stopped taking Baclofen, then you start taking 80 milligrams a day, side effects will happen. Every problem I’ve had since Monday is a Baclofen side effect. The wet noodle feeling isn’t because I’m taking too much, my muscles are still pretty tight. It’s drowsiness and weakness which are side effects.

The side effects will go away. It just takes a little time. And I’ve cut back to 50 to 60 milligrams, so that will help. And I’ve proven to myself the Baclofen works, I was definitely more flexible when doing stretches yesterday.

In other news, I have the brace for my right foot and the crutches and knee brace are on the way.

That’s what I feel like today, a sleepy wet noodle. I started taking Baclofen again last night, a drug that’s supposed to help me move better. I never noticed that Baclofen did anything that help me, in fact I think I did better without it. So I stopped taking it a month or two ago.

But I’ve started back to therapy (I’ve been going for a month now) and my therapist seems to think Baclofen helps. She talked to my doctor yesterday and my doctor said to take more of it. (I didn’t tell either one of them that I had stopped taking it.)

So I’m taking Baclofen again and I’m really noticing side effects that I didn’t notice before, probably since I haven’t taken any in a while. I’m definitely drowsy and my vision is a little blurred. That and I feel like a wet noodle. But Baclofen is a “muscle relaxant and an antispastic agent”, so it’s supposed to make me a wet noodle. But being a wet noodle actually makes it harder to move, not easier.

I’m going to keep taking it at least until therapy on Thursday. I really hope these side effects subside, I am not a happy guy. But at least I’m getting the brace for my right foot Thursday.

I’m sitting here thinking back on my day today. I went to outpateint therapy at Patricia Neal, went shopping for pet gates, and helped clean up the house some. And I just can’t help but think about how different last December 27 was…… but I’m saving my recap of 2004 for later. 🙂

I spent Christmas with my mom and family and got back yesterday afternoon. Lots of food, presents and playing with cats. My baby cousin/goddaughter Beth seemed to really like what Stephanie and I got for her. I’ll admit we played with Beth’s Christmas present a lot too.

The dogs were glad to see us when we got home. We were happy to see them too, even though a pair of my slippers got destoyed. We now have some pet gates to try to avoid further destruction.

Monday night we got a new addition, Gracie Lynn. We just call her Gracie. She was having some problems with Keegan, since Keegan is huge compared to her. But they seem to be getting along fine now. She is definately a people dog and likes to sleep on the couch. We like her a lot too. 🙂 Pictures of Gracie are in Stephanie’s gallery.

Went to a doctor appointment this morning. It started off odd, Stephanie talks more about that. And the doctor told me what I already knew, but I was hoping he would say something different. At least the lady was nicer to me on the way out than she was when I got there.

Well I started outpatient rehab therapy at Patricia Neal today. Just evaluation stuff today, the real work starts Thursday. The initial doctors order is only for 4 to 6 weeks, which is when I start taking classes and teaching again at UT. So therapy is going to be very focused on improving my walking and getting more use out of my right arm and hand. Last Tuesday I did an in-clinic driving evaluation and I working on getting a road test scheduled to see what I need to drive.

Today, I saw this article, “Paralyzed Woman Walks After Stem Cell Therapy“. Nice headline, I’ll believe it when I see some verification. At least the researchers that did this “cautioned that more research was needed and verification from international experts was required”.

In other news I’ve finally completed the work for the incompletes I got when I left UT because of the wreck.

I’ve been told I have a multi-stage accent. I grew up around Limestone, Tennesee home of Davy Crockett . Most of my family lives in the mountains and hills of northeast Tennessee, so whatever accent I have is 100% Tennessean.

My accent his been dulled a bit by speech therapy, first as a kid and then later in college. I’m also on my working on my third college degree and this long in higher ed has exposed me to lots of people and lots of ways of speaking. This has led my my multi-stage accent that changes depending om who I’m talking to. I don’t notice but other people seem to.

The Metropulse has an interesting article on the Knoxville accent. I think the conclusion is that accents are just strange things.

Update: Nov. 21 Metropulse has a follow-up to the original accents story.