Gino. 1 Month On.

Needled!

Today we celebrate 4 weeks of healing. 

Gino has had a painful week. 

Pain is a good thing in this instance. Without pain Gino would never know how much movement he can do without harming the fracture.

Gino has had  to teach me how to dry needle to help relax the tense low back muscles that are spasming in reaction to the fractured spinal bone.

Since he was not able to needle his back by himself, I had to do some quick learning. Since I've started dry needling his back last Tuesday he's been much more comfortable and more importantly in a much better mood ;-)

Check out my handy work in the photo above!

Hey Man I'm Alive!

I'm taking each day and night at a time. Yeah I'm down, but I know I'll get by - Bon Jovi in "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night".

Walking then deep water running..

  He can kick!

Is that all the range you've got?

Only broke his back and head, the arms still work..thankfully

Gino's down but he's definitely working to get back up. We started hydrotherapy this week.

We figured healing takes more than just the physical body. It needs the powerful mind to get on board. And getting out and working towards his ideal outcome is what is allowing us to thrive.

So Gino's working daily with the trigger ball and resistance band. And alternate days taking a slow walk with Dean, our son, to school and hydrotherapy. 

When asked, "What have you learnt in these past 3 weeks?", Gino says, "There are good days and there are bad days when it comes to rehab. Some days I feel like a million dollars and other days I have to tell myself to be patient and pace myself."

Also see http://weloverunning.blogspot.sg/2009/04/aqua-based-rehabilitation-deep-water.html and http://physiosolutions.blogspot.sg/2009/11/aqua-based-rehabilitation-after-knee.html.  

What happens in 2 weeks

This is the Xray image of Gino's spine 2 weeks after the accident. Now we monitor the fracture at the first lumbar spine bone (the squashed looking one right in the middle) every few weeks to ensure that it remains stable. His Xray films show that the fracture has not worsened.

The most critical period of bone healing is in the first 2 weeks. Inflammation and revascularization occurs in this time. Inflammation accompanies every injury. It is the way the body brings all the good stuff to the injured site to help with repair.

We should be in the callus formation stage at this point. This will continue for the next 4 to 10 weeks in the healing process before the bone remodelling phase begins.

There must now be a good balance of rest and weight bearing for good bone healing to occur. Gino's waiting impatiently to get hydrotherapy started. It's a no go from the neurosurgeon for now. Let's see how the Xray looks in end May.

A Milestone

Happy May Day everyone! We are grateful for all the little things everyday :)
Today Gino went for his first walk out of the house since the accident. That's a milestone!

1 week on..

It's been a week since the accident and Gino is home and on the mend. We have been Kinesio taping since day 1 of the accident.

This is how the his Kinesio taping looks like on day 7. It has evolved over the days dependent on where Gino feels pain and where we think that it would be useful to improve fluid flow. All this to help the body with the healing process.

I am grateful that we knew how best to help the body right after an accident. He received treatment on his neck as soon as we were certain that there were no fractures in the neck and thoracic spine.

I worked on the neck bones as well as Kinesio taped all the muscles that were hurting. The muscles around Gino's neck had worked really hard to protect him during and after the impact.

Whiplash injuries are well known to worsen days after the actual accident. As Gino had received physio treatment from the evening of his accident, his neck pain disappeared on day 4 which made him able to lift his head off the pillow without any discomfort.

Now for the hardest part of this healing process for Gino...resting for the next 7 weeks!

This is what happened to Gino

I am writing this post so that all cyclists become aware that the chain latch of a truck's tailgate may pose a hazard when it is left unlatched.

Photo courtesy of Gino Ng

Gino managed to take the above photo after the accident on Saturday 20 April 2013. The truck driver would not have stopped if not for a motorcyclist who went after the truck to inform the driver that he had taken a cyclist down. Sadly the truck driver maintained that it was not his fault.

Gino had almost come to a stop waiting for this truck to turn. When it turned the chain latch swung and hooked onto Gino's bike's handlebars which sent Gino flying.

As a result, he has a depressed fracture in his left skull which is impacting his brain. Fortunately, despite this, there is no brain bleed or swelling. There is a mild chance of epilepsy (fits) but fixing the skull fracture does not reduce the chances of epilepsy. We decided with the neurosurgeon not to operate.

Gino also sustained a fracture of his lumbar spine from the fall as he landed on the road in a hyperflexed position. It fractured three quarters of the way through from the front not disturbing the spinal cord. No surgery for this fracture too. He has been fitted with a brace that does not allow bending forward at the level of fracture. He needs to wear the brace for 6 weeks.

He is currently recuperating at home, keeping walking, sitting and standing to a minimum for at least a couple of weeks.

It would be best in terms of healing if he returns to work only after 2 to 3 months due to the nature of a physiotherapist's job. 

The photo below is how the chain latch should have been done up when a truck is moving. Cyclists please be vigilant.

Photo courtesy of Jason Kirshman.webs.com

Cushioned Running Shoes May Alter Adolescent Running Performance

I came across this link that outlined a poster presentation abstract that was presented recently at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). With the new trend towards barefoot/ minimalist running shoes, the researchers were trying to evaluate whether foot strike would change in adolescent runners (since they do not have a permanently established gait) when they changed running shoes or running speed.

They studied a small group of 12 experienced adolescent runners (from local track teams) and found that different running shoes "dramatically" altered their biomechanics and may thus diminish performance.

The 12 adolescent competitive runners ran on a treadmill in large heel (or cushioned) trainers, track flats and barefoot at four different speeds. The researchers used a motion capture system to track stride length, heel height during the posterior swing phase and foot/ ground contact.

While wearing the cushioned heel trainers, the young runners landed on their heels  69.8% of the time at all speeds. With track flats, heel striking occurred less than 35% of the time while running barefoot, less than 30% of the time. The researchers found that shoes with cushioned heels tend to promote a heel strike running pattern whereas barefoot running and running in track flats resulted in a forefoot/ mid foot strike pattern.

The study seems to show that simply by changing the adolescent's footwear, their foot strike would change.

Well, something for all parents and coaches of young runners to think about. Please also have a look at this http://weloverunning.blogspot.sg/2012/09/best-shoes-for-your-kids.html.

Reference.

http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=b203f9bd-8c6e-440c-a157-5a35f3d5de74&cKey=c13cd40f-1ac1-412e-b0e8-8470f3d9cf07&mKey=%7b342D5FB6-3E41-46BB-82B4-861286ECFB41%7d


*Picture of 2013 National Schools Track and Field Championships by richseow on Flickr.com