1/30/12 My leg looks like a leg again

My son Jake has been posting up some videos of us out on the dirt bikes lately.  We got a GoPro helmet camera and this has become one of the ways we can document how things are going.  Unfortunately, we haven't done such a good job at editing them so what you have it a rambling on of us riding through the trails here in Nevada, so we will try to get that edited asap.

We went for a ride again over the weekend.  Sunday the 29th was up to a spot we call the garden of eden for some skinny trails, both single and slightly wider than single track.  I ended up doing literally thousands of whoops (bumpity bumps or moguls for the skiers) until my legs felt like they were going to fall off.  I've developed a new way to go over the whoops, kind of a hybrid method between how I was doing it (i.e. slogging through them sitting on my butt while holding on for dear life) and how they are supposed to be done (standing on the pegs in the athletic position letting the bike do the work underneath).  It's made the ride a lot quicker and more fun, and my legs seem to tolerate it well. 

Ah yes, the legs.  Those appendages below the butt that are supposed to give us the ability to ambulate perpendicular to the ground at a speed commensurate with the needs at the moment.  I remember when mine did that.  I've forgotten what it feels like to run or even jog, and I don't remember walking without having to put a great deal of effort into it.  No question my walking is better, but I'm not out of the woods yet. 

The big thing to report today is what my left leg looks like, namely a human leg that matches up with the right one.  The bumps on my ankles are the same, and I can see my veins and other features on the top of my foot.  Just before my first CCSVI, my left leg was swollen.  No features were visible on the top of the foot, and it looked a bit like my foot was inside a balloon.  I got the CCSVI and immediately noticed the features the next morning, but as I clotted up each time over the fillowing year, I had various degrees of swelling show up.  Then in August after I had my vein reconstruction, my leg looked like I got iinto a knife fight for awhile, then it was swollen up for a bit, the wounds wouldn't heal for awhile, and then I managed to get contact dermatitis from the neosporin.  The thing has even looked like a memory foam mattress from the edema.  Today, it looks like a leg.  Still have the scars from the sutures, but it looks like a leg. 

Hopefully soon it will work like a leg. 

ps. Since increasing my magnesium intake I have averaged two unassisted bowel movements a day.  What an immense relief this part of the puzzle is.