Month: Aug 2016

17/08/2016

Hey folks how are we?

I’m not too bad thanks. I’m very sluggish lately. So needless to say I’ve not been very productive on the exercise front. Don’t get me wrong I have been doing them but I haven’t been working as hard as I would like to have been.  I feel pretty pissed about it right now.

I can’t get too angry about it as I only have myself to blame! 

Laters 💋

Arm & Leg exercise 12/08/2016 & 13/08/2016

Hey folks,

Apologies that this post wasn’t uploaded last night. We went out in the afternoon and then had Deb bro @ sis-in-law Graham & Michelle round. 

So I forgot to post this. But here it is my arm and leg exercise from yesterday 

I’m really tired today. So I’ve just been chilling on the sofa and focusing on my hand today. Individual finger work, some arm rubbing to encourage the circulation and hand to head work. I was also trying to improve my position when I’m sitting and also when my right leg is elevated so that again my leg is as straight as possible from my hip downwards. 

So nothing exciting to write home about today. It’s small moves today. As I’m tired today there isn’t any point pushing myself really hard otherwise I would just start throwing tantrums. Which would be wasted energy.

Right I’m going to carry on watching the Olympic trampolining. The sport I used to teach.

Laters 💋

Tues 09/08/16

Hey folks 

How has your day been?

Mine was pretty productive. I done some arm exercise which took a lot out of me, but it is improving which is great. It’s just that as I do the exercise I can feel the difference in my shoulder. The best way to discribe it is to think of it this way…….

Imagine you try to push open a door, but it won’t budge, the hinges are rusted. So you use all of the strength and energy and the door starts to open, but you have to keep pushing hard until it’s fully open……that was how it felt trying to raise my at the start of my physio with James. With his help in a short space of time it now feels like a very heavy door. Still takes a lot of energy but I am able to repeat again & again until my shoulder hates me like it does right now. 

As promised here are some videos, I didn’t get to do videos of my arm and leg exercises as I couldn’t find a decent place to stand my iPad. As you will see from the video of the FES machine.

FES set up 

Pincer grip

This morning I was reading through Twitter seeing what was going on in the world and there was a post that came up from @CIMTuk (cimt.co.uk) who are all about arm & hand rehabilitation (Contraint Induced Movement Therapy).  I was watching the small children who have their “good” arm in a cast and just using the affected arm regain the ability to draw, write, eat, drink & build again. I was overwhelmed with their determination. 

So I am now doing to be just as determined as those little guys and get my affected arm to do more of the work. I know I know James is probably reading this and thinking “really I’ve been telling you from day dot you need to use the right hand more”. I know you have James, in our session together I was as you were there to push me. Once I was home and doing tasks I thought I was doing a good job but after watching those little guys I realalised that I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough. I think I was kidding myself of the effort I was putting in. So over the next few weeks until our next physio session I’m going to push my limits so that Sept is kick arse time. 

That was started tonight. We went out for dinner and I’m a left handed eater now. Holding the fork in my right hand I was stabbing the chicken, cutting a piece with my left hand then resting the knife against the plate and then using my left to encourage my right hand to turn and put the chicken in my mouth. I felt so pleased with myself plus we were in a public place and I didn’t care I was eating my dinner my way.

Right folks I’m off to plan my day tomorrow.

Laters 💋

Physio baby yeah!!

Hey folks how has your day been? 

Did you get all your tasks done today? 

Was your day action packed? If yes to all the above well done you.

Or like me did you day get off to a slow start where I dragged myself out of bed (well half of me ha ha), sat having breakfast and 1.sneezing constantly and eyes streaming (some kind of hay fever) which all started last night. 2.fighting with my brain to get on and get organised for my day as I had physio at 13:00 and had to go on a bus tour to get there, which takes 1hr and a change. 

Well after a good hour of squabbling with the lazy me. Which even involved a debate about going back to bed for a nap. Anyway I got my arse in gear and took my bus tour.

Soooooooo physio time!

First of all James got me to explain what happened in my spectacular fall two weeks ago. Then he checked my arm and hand and was glad that I hadn’t done any damage. So that was great, but James did say that although we have been focusing on my hand we needed to look at my leg as I shouldn’t be tripping as easily as that as I am quite steady on my feet usually with my stick.

So then I laid on my back and  James got me to move my leg, foot and ankle in different ways. Then a few more while lying on my left side. So once he has jotted down notes we sat and chatted and in simple terms (and also because I can’t remember the terminology he used) the push muscles in my leg are better than the pull muscles. 

Next we looked at my walking without a stick so James could get a better understanding of my body posture while walking. James then filmed me so that I could see and so we could watch it in slow motion to see what the muscles and joint were doing. James sent to of them to me so I can see and remind myself. I’ll put them up on here tomorrow a long with a video the exercises as my stick men diagrams aren’t the best. Along with the f.e.s machine video.

So after a video review James went to his car and got a f.e.s machine and then attached it to my leg and a heel switch too. This machine will stimulate the nerves in my leg to work like a normal foot. So that there is a bigger clearance between my foot and the ground. I could feel the difference. What James was happy with the set up he then showed me how to put it on myself, the area of the leg/bone I was looking for. So let’s see what tomorrow brings as I try to fit this myself! 

The session was finished with a leg exercise. So back to lying down and then I had to slide my foot up the bench to my bum without my heel leaving the bench. That’s a lot harder than it looks. But no pain no gain.

I have 3 weeks until my next physio appointment as James is going to hang out with the Disney crew in Florida. So now I am going to push myself. I’m going to get back to exercise everyday whether it’s here at home or at the gym or just outside (with a added dose of Pokemon Go). 

LETS DO THIS!!

Laters 💋

I’m back in the room.

Hey there folks. I’m back and I will be blogging everyday. 

I fell into a dark place. I’m sure there some of you out there who understand what I mean or have supported someone through that dark place.  It all started with me thinking that I firing on all 4cylinders and planning to talk to my doc to lower my dosage of happy pills. 

Then my personality changed. 

I was snapping, getting angry over little things, crying like a baby & I mean hysterically crying.  Turns out that I hadn’t been taking my tablets. For at least 5 days!! Which made me feel bad. So now I have my tablets on the side so in the morning as I make my breakfast I have my tablets at the same time. (Thanks Sarah (headway) for the idea. 

Also Deb has had a bit of a tough time over a several weeks so has been off work. With only getting statutory sick pay Deb was worried about paying all the bills and I couldn’t give the financial support like I would’ve been able to do before my aneurysm. So that knocked my confidence. Feeling useless.

I missed a PT session with Gym James as I had an assessment in the morning all todo with my ESA payments. I got there for my appointment at 9:30am and wasn’t seen until 12:30pm!!! One unhappy bunny!! 

I then missed a physio appointment with Physio James. We had made it earlier as James was going away. So I was annoyed with myself as I forgot to alter it in on my diary on my phone. James was fine and said he knew it was out of character for me and we arranged for the following Monday. 

Apart from physio I don’t have anything else to go to at the mo. I’m still waiting for my review at danesbury after upper limb group which finished back in June!! It really pisses me off because unless I get in contact with them I don’t get my physio. I haven’t had any nhs physio since April/May time. WTF!!  I feel like I’ve been forgotten. Or they aren’t really too bothered about me! So then I fall into the what is the point of all this. Fuck it all!!

Then the final thing was after going for a walk with Deb along the river on the Tuesday 26th in the evening and after getting the train back to Hoddesdon I decided that it would be better for me to walk up the ramp instead of climbing the steps……….FAIL BIG FAIL!! I tripped, on nothing just uneven ground, crashing to the ground like a sack of shit. Grazing my shin on my left leg and because I don’t have the strength or control in my right shoulder my right hand crashed knuckle side down and taking some quite big chunks out of them!! So once back on my feet again we went to the pub as we don’t really have any first aid stuff at home. When we got in there a little girl called Terri came over and helped clean my wounds and even bandaged my fingers up. So thank you so much for your help that night Terri. 

So my fingers and hand are back to almost normal and not swollen anymore and I am back at physio tomorrow.  

Sometimes on days that I have physio I think I will vloggs so that you can get a better visual idea of what goes on.  Instead of my stick drawings. 

So that’s all the rubbish bits but there has been some fun times too. That’s the next entry in the blog.

Now back Rio 2016. Is it wrong to try and stay awake to watch the ladies volleyball??? Hmmmmm maybe I’ll record it instead?? We will see.

Laters 💋