It’s been a challenging two years, to say the least. The first year of recovery was grueling physically, but I hit major milestones more often than I have in the past year. This second year’s slower progress has been its own kind of painful—less about the body and more about the emotional and mental toll. It has tested my endurance, my mental toughness, and my faith.
I’ve been told that if I stay consistent with my daily process, there’s a strong chance of a full recovery. I’m betting the house on it. Every day, I give it everything I have, and by nightfall I’m completely spent. If there’s even the slightest hope for a full recovery, I want to meet that turning point knowing I did everything in my power to usher it in.
This is my formal progress report—something I keep for my own journal, but also share with medical professionals who are new to my case. Because I’m dealing with a neurological injury, my previous reports are dense with detail. If you’d like to know more about what happened, I’ve included links below.
Progress Report – August 7, 2025
After a long plateau, I’m finally noticing meaningful shifts again in my recovery—some subtle, some significant. Here’s where things currently stand.
📅 Year One (May 2023 – April 2024)
I went from being completely bedbound—unable to roll over, sit up, or adjust myself—to sitting on the edge of the bed, standing with a walker, and eventually taking short, shuffling steps with a standard walker.
Blog Post: https://www.themysticalmadness.com/2024/08/back-again.html
Blog Post: https://www.themysticalmadness.com/2024/08/what-happened.html
📅 Year Two (May 2024 – Now)
Since year two began, I’ve transitioned to using a Rollator for about 95% of my physical therapy. On high-pain days, I still switch back to the standard walker, but that’s happening less and less.
🔄 Current Functional Changes
✋ Hands & Fingers
- I can now stretch out all of my fingers on both hands except for my left pinky, which has remained semi-contracted due to nerve dysfunction. I wore a splint to manage it for a while. The pinky still resists full extension, but I can now manually stretch it out and hold it straight for a bit. The nerve sensitivity running down my arm has also improved, and I no longer need the splint.
- Writing: I’ve started handwriting again daily. It takes time, but my writing is legible now—much clearer than it was last year.
🍽️ Eating & Utensils
- I’m still eating with adaptive utensils and plateware, mostly using the spoon. The biggest challenge is keeping my hand locked in position—I often have to stop and readjust my grip mid-meal. Still, I’m managing it steadily.
🦶 Feet & Toes
- I’ve regained independent movement in my toes. Previously, I could only move my foot and toes as one unit—now I can isolate toe movement on both sides.
- The muscles in the soles of my feet, which used to feel tight and balled up, have relaxed somewhat. I’m now able to place my feet flat and create a full step pattern, especially when moving slowly.
- Barefoot mobility: Still no change. I’m unable to stand or walk barefoot and need structured shoes to provide enough support for upright movement.
🦵 Ankles, Hips, and Steps
- Ankle strength continues to improve. Less wobble, but still not steady enough to walk unassisted.
- I can take 5–10 assisted steps with a nurse or therapist nearby. It’s shaky, but I can do it.
- The hip pain I had from overusing my feet to push a manual wheelchair (since my hands couldn’t) has mostly resolved now.
🧠 Neurological Sensory Update
👂 Hearing
- Back in May 2023, I lost about 70% of my hearing. I could hear muffled sound and feel that people were speaking, but I couldn’t decipher words—just vague noise.
- An ENT confirmed it wasn’t an ear issue, but rather neurological hearing loss, with a problem in clarity, not volume.
- As of now, I’d say I’m back to 65–70% hearing, depending on the environment.
- In quiet one-on-one conversations, especially if I can see someone’s lips, I can usually hold a conversation without anyone realizing I have a hearing impairment.
- In crowded or noisy spaces, everything blends together—it becomes static-like and overstimulating, making it hard to separate voices or sounds.
- I used to be completely unable to tolerate music. Now I can listen to songs I already know by focusing on the rhythm and singing along to maintain cognitive-musical pathways. I still can’t listen to new or unfamiliar music without getting disoriented.
- The biggest improvement since last year: I can now locate the source of sound. Before, if someone spoke on my left, I’d often hear it only on the right or have to scan the room to find where it came from. That spatial distortion has resolved.
👅 Taste
- My sense of taste is still unpredictable. Some days, food tastes normal. Some days, everything is flavorless, like I’m eating just for fuel.
- Occasionally, things taste wrong or strange, and I default to snacking instead.
- Early on, coming out of delirium, everything tasted unusually intense and amazing—especially mashed potatoes. For about two months, I ate them every day because they tasted like the best food on Earth. Then one day they just… didn’t. Now they taste normal. The hypersensory response is gone, replaced with either regular taste or none at all.
📈 Focus Areas Going Forward:
- Flexibility & Endurance
- Continued work on finger and toe isolation
- Building barefoot tolerance (if possible)
- Strengthening cognitive-auditory processing
- Managing sensory overwhelm and grounding during overstimulation
The work continues. Some things have resolved. Others are just now beginning to shift. But the direction is forward.
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