MRI Results

The Bad News and the not so Bad

The MRI show up two things, first the bad news, there is a definite gap in spinal cord. They're not absolutely sure when it occurred, probably due to the swelling around the area of the injury - C7 - following the accident and surgery, putting pressure on the cord. If we hadn't already accepted the fact that Mark would not walk again we would have to accept it on that evidence.

The 'not so bad' as the Consultant put it - although to Mark and I this seems like the 'bad news'. He has a Sryinx. A Sryinx is a pocket of fluid within the spinal cord and is another possible cause of the gap in the cord. If it extends downwards, it's probably not a problem because there's not feeling or motor there anyway. If it extends upwards, it will start to affect what feeling and motor functions he currently has. What do they do about it???????? At the moment nothing. It's possible it will stay where it is and not create any problems. The first Mark will know of it moving upwards is he will start to loose sensation, become weaker in areas he currently has movement and it will get painful. At that point they could operate and insert a 'shunt' which would drain the fluid from the cord to his abdomen. It's a dangerous operation but a permanent fixture. It's a ticking bomb, could tick forever and never go off, could go off at any time. As you can imagine he's not happy about it, it's scary.

We have, however continued on with things and yesterday we went out for a quick dinner and movie. When I say quick, nothing is done quickly now, it took me an hour and a half in the morning trying to find out where disabled spaces are in the cinema and as most of the cinemas are automated when it comes to phone systems it wasn't an easy task. Can recommend the Odeon, they're the only cinema that actually answers the phone.

The Mutiny. Last week Mark practised transferring onto his shower chair and moving around their bathroom to see if he could manage toileting and showering. Seems he can and his Physio decided to speak to the nursing staff and build showering into Marks morning routine - if you've just worked out that he's been there 3 months now and not had showers you'd be right - anyway the nurse he spoke to gave a gasp of alarm and said they don't have time in the mornings for showering patients!!! Mark lost his rag then and reminded them that this was supposed to be his rehabilitation time and he wasn't getting rehabilitated because of the lack of staff. Which it does come down too. All the staff work really hard, there just isn't enough of them. The other day there were two nurses on duty for 15 patients - if there was a fire they would all be crispy crittered!! Anyway he complained to the Ward Sister who tried to defend the situation by saying she could get Bank Staff in when they really needed to and Mark said 'well why don't you then'. No answer. He's going to write to the next level up, it really is disgraceful. I left him with a can of Jack Daniels and Coke last night - his personal mutiny, there's not supposed to be any alcohol on the ward (he has checked that it won't cause a problem with the drugs he' taking in case you think I'm trying to kill him off).