Ever since the accident almost 11 years ago, I have suffered from severe muscle spasms. It is a symptom of breaking your neck and they look just like seizures other than it doesn’t affect your mental state. It’s like your whole body cramps up and shakes at once.
All these years I’ve been taking oral medication just to barely manage it as it would only stop them for three or four hours until my next 6 hour dose. They would wake me up in my sleep, they prevented me from going and having fun with my kids, and to be completely honest they caused a lot of embarrassment. They also prevented me from driving.
I finally reached out to my Physical Medicine doctor and told him I would like to consider a baclofen pump. It is a pump that is implanted into your abdomen with a catheter connected to it and it drips micrograms of a medication called Baclofen, directly onto the spinal cord.
Back in June of 2023 I finally got the surgery done and for the next couple weeks my spasms completely went away. Unfortunately they slowly started coming back and adjusting the dose with my doctor was not working. After several attempts to adjust the dose and having 0 positive results, I finally told him something ain’t right it’s not working. We decided to get some Imaging done and wouldn’t you know it, the catheter at dislodged from my spinal cord and it was sitting all the way down in my pelvis.
Unfortunately this meant I would have to go through surgery again to rectify the problem and on January 5th 2024 I did. I have to be really careful about how I bend and twist but I am happy to say that I almost completely quit having spasms. I can get out and do a way more and my body doesn’t freak out every time I hit a bump or lift an arm.
I am stoked, not only does it make life much more enjoyable it also means I may be able to start driving again. Believe it or not there are quite a few quadriplegics that do Drive. The spasms have just been getting in my way. That being said I have started the process to get my doctor to send a referral so that I can meet with the people in my state that help figure out what type of driving controls I need and whether or not I am mentally able and capable of driving. It is a bit of a process and take some time but I’ve started it at least. If I’m ever going to drive again now is the time.
Thank you for reading and I will keep you posted along this journey.
Don’t forget… If donkeydidit… You can too!
Uncle Donkeys Tales 