Think of starting yourself moving like trying to get a car going on a freezing cold day. Maybe it takes a little longer to start and a little longer for the heat to kick in. Once you blow through that cold air, the warm air starts to come in, similar to how it is when you start moving when you are hurting, it takes a while for you to start to move better, but you eventually do. Just work hard at it. Until you do, you will continually get worse. You HAVE to move. If you don't move, you will continually feel worse. Remember, there is nothing wrong with your leg, no matter what colors and swelling you have. That pain is not pain telling you to stop moving and that you are hurt. It is pain but not for anything, just bad signals. You HAVE to move around or it will hurt more and your muscles will further atrophy. In honor of JFK, we will look at one of his accomplishments as a Vet that served on PT 109. Yes, that is me at four years old riding this tribute ride to him and his brothers in arms. Let's think back to FDR who was one of our best presidents and was stricken with Polio. We can pull through this if he pulled through Polio. We are 10x better off than he was and he went on to be President! If we simply move as much as we can, we can gain more movement and less pain. If we do not move, things will just hurt more the next day. It hurts a bunch to get moving, but if we do not do that, we are just hurting ourselves further. We cannot feel hopeless in this! End rant.
Rant second wind!
It has to managed, and that is through trying to get the pain down as much as we can through physical and chemical medicine. The absolute most important thing is through physicality and moving. I was absolutely DYING yesterday. I was moving around my apartment to clean some and it killed. The more I did, the less it hurt. By the time I was done, I was feeling pretty darn good. You have to move around. I tell you, the first time I had diminished pain, I went and cleaned everything super duper hardcore. By the end I felt good. The next day I hurt like all get out and then moved around and it started to feel a little better. Remember, it is like the movie Groundhog Day, or like that 50 first dates movie when it comes to getting your pain down. It is either, move and hurt like all get out initially and then have diminished pain throughout the day, or have constant pain. I'll take a certain period of time of pain over constant pain. As with anything though, to get to this point you have to work towards it. You've got this! Life is too short to not make the most of your time through getting moving and feeling diminished pain.
We were visiting family in Western New York this weekend and on the way back we took the Lake Erie Seaway trail. We took a stop in Barcelona, New York and just took in the hundreds and hundreds of birds that were sensing an oncoming storm and were flying in formations to seek shelter. How many of you folks have just sat and taken in nature recently? What are some of your favorite moments partaking in this pastime? You should go outside today and take note of things such as the behavior of animals, the way the buildings around you look while the sun is shifting throughout the day and more. Take in the beauty of life!
Follow the Road, regardless of how bad it may seem!
Do everything your therapist says. With mine they have me do the alphabet side to side with my foot, foot pumps, and circles 20 times both directions. Then I lift the heel up to lifting the toes up and that gets easier and easier each day!Then I massage it with different materials/textures. Smooth, rough and everything in between and then massage it with lotion. In addition to the NOI "Recognise" App that I mentioned in an earlier post. All of this is with Neurontin as my medication. The mantra that has gotten me through everything was given to me by my therapist "The pain is not real, your foot is fine, the pain is just bad signals." From there on out I move it realizing it is just bad signals, there is nothing wrong with my foot, ankle and leg. What you do with that then is work through it and the pain, even though initially bad, actually subsides a bit and you gain functionality and the pain gets less and less and less. Don't read too much on the net because it is all negative. More folks go into remission than not. Just work at it! That is all you can do, and live life! There is a woman on my page that got it almost full body and with the right treatment she is fully functional again. Do NOT let the Debbie Downers on the net get you down! By the way, I am not a doctor, I am just telling you about the treatment I have received as someone with a foot, ankle and lower leg afflicted.
As I have mentioned earlier, the majority of CRPS cases go into remission at one point or another. Every day is still different in regards to pain and swelling, but I am really making huge progress. I have worked on the prescribed stretches, massaging and retraining my brain through an identification app through the NOI group. This app is available for hands and feet and what it entails is identifying either right and left hands, or in my case, right and left feet. The more you do it, your brain can retrain itself regarding the syndrome and trick the brain into putting things back together. Initially, the average CRPS person takes 4-5 seconds or more to identify the feet, and two weeks ago that is where I started. Now I am under 2 seconds! The average person takes about 1.5 seconds to come up with the correct solution. All of this put together has brought me towards putting more pressure upon my inflicted leg and foot!!!! A HUGE step (literally) towards remission, after last week's step of getting to wear my regular shoe!
Life keeps flowing like a waterfall! This one located in Ithaca, New York
I have really made some leaps and bounds this week. Little progress is always wonderful. I started Physical Therapy a few weeks ago and have stayed diligent with keeping up on the suggestions for stretches and exercises in addition to massaging the area. However wrinkly my foot is, I have to be happy about the fact that it is the smoothest it has ever been! Beyond the benefit of smooth skin, I have been able to put on a pair of running shoes instead of wearing the orthopedic boot. The shoes are cloth on top, so they enable me to put my foot that varies in the amount of swelling. I can make walking motions and put light pressure on it. I look forward to making more and more progress towards possible remission! I was also able to partially stand in the shower instead of having to sit on the shower chair. These little steps are really helping me get places. My spirits are up this week as I am also pretty close to getting the book done that I started when my injury happened. The moral of my story is to stay diligent. I have worked my hardest to do what I have been prescribed as far as therapy and the information from the doctors. Please, please, PLEASE listen to all directions. They are your best hope at living at your best. The majority of CRPS cases actually do end up in remission at some point, things are not hopeless. I am hoping to be headed towards the path for I am doing everything I can to reach that goal.
I posted this a little while ago:
It was supposed to be the summer of Dave, SUMMER OF DAVE!
I flip up my laptop this morning and the first song to come onto my Pandora is this
Steve Winwood's Higher Love
Second Winwood reference in this blog, oh well. Hearing this song brought a smile to my face. It is those little moments, taking in the beauty of moments that keep my spirits up and the incremental progress I make each day.
As soon as I was diagnosed with the condition, my podiatrist prescribed for me Neurontin and Vitamin C supplements. If you are dealing with this condition, it has been found that Vitamin C supplements can really make a huge difference in your condition. Next time food shopping happens, be sure to pick up some Vitamin C supplements and also purchase citrus/orange juice. Citrus season is not too far off and we'll have a fresh crop of oranges from Florida, so make sure you stock up on this. It can make a huge difference in your condition, this has been found within scientific studies as found in this NIH report. You have to figure, "hey, it can't hurt"
Be thankful for the things you have right now. At this moment
we have the ability to look out our window or take a ride and see some beautiful fall colors. This beauty only happens once a year. Our friend Chrisiy sent in a pretty fall photo here:
So pretty!
This time of year is special. It starts to get cooler, the beautiful colors come out, Thanksgiving is on the way! We have so much to look forward to coming up here. No time to worry because we cannot miss out on the beauty that each day brings us. Here is a photo gallery of a cool fall day trip my fiancee Brit and I took recently, checking out the legendary Kinzua Bridge in North Central Pennsylvania.
