44 Months of “Recovery”

 Written August 13, 2026

For more than 3 years, I lived with the hope of "getting better".  Not naive enough to believe I would be able to do all the things I did before the accident, but hope of a reasonably "normal" live for a 75 year old man with arthritis and a bit of spinal stenosis. 

Something puzzleing happened over the past few months. I got worse! More pain. A lot more pain when walking. 

As mentioned in my previous post, my PCP and Ortho both kind of offered little hope of getting better. I did manage to meet with the Neurologist and Physical Therapist. The Neurologist offered little help and suggested that I continue my approach of using massage to achieve "myofascial release" of scar tissue tugging on the femoral nerve. She did increase my dose of Gabapentin to three pills per day, up from two.  The PT suggested some new excercises and continuation of my past/present exercise regimen but with the use of weights.

I concluded that while exercise and continued stenghtening of my right leg was important, the excess pain from using the cane all of the time and climbing stairs at home was not helping. I was avoiding the pain by limiting my movement. IF I was to improve, then exercise and massage would be key, but using all the tools necessary for reasonable pain free mobility was rational focusing on controlled exercise, without creating too much inflammation.

So, we installed a Harman 300 stair lift and I bought two wheel chairs.

My first wheel chair was a lower cost NOVA Aluminum chair with non removable wheels-35 pounds. A nice chair but heavy and the "tires" were hard urethane "slicks" with no traction. With a seat width of 18" and an overall width of 25.5" it was useful but not ideal.

My goal was to end up with an alloy aluminum "professional grade" chair below 30 pounds, with removable wheels and a 17" seat width, hopefully less than 25" overall width. For a while I considered a "fixed" design but in order to exit thru the garage in between both vehicles, I settled on a "folding" design. New in the range of $2300, I was lucky to find my Motion Compisites (Built in USA-NY) Helio A6 that met my specs for much less. (See pic above)

Now I use the chair most times but also the cane sometimes as the cane is required when taking out the dog for her "business" multiple times per day. I also use the cane while moving about on the second floor. 

The stair lift is fantastic. The fear a falling down stairs because a momentary loss of leg function is gone!

I am at peace with my situation. I attended a wedding a reception in the DC area using the chair and cane at the wedding, reception and hotel without problems. I sat in the chair for hours. Pain was manageable and I was comfortable. I am quite able to use the wheelchair for moving long distances indoors and out over 3-4" curbs/thresholds and reasonable inclines. Loading and unloading into and out of my pickup is not difficult. (I can make the Helio A6 light as necessary by removeing wheels.  If this is my life, and God's Will for me, I am at peace.

I do think the strategy is working to produce some improvement. The myofacsial release is helping. The strengthening of the right leg is helping. I am using my Assault Bike to stress my right quadracepts. I push for two minutes with my right leg only trying to stay above 25 RPM. 

The PT's "theory" and my own research indicates he is correct. My pain is in part due to my right leg being weak. Literature indicates that pain breeds a rational reaction to limit the muscle's use, leading to atrophy and more pain. This could in part explain why I have not improved and even regressed. So I am exercising and "pushing thru" the pain.

I am sure that I will be handicapped for life, but do have hope than pain will be less severe over time.