| It was broken for a couple of years but when I was walking on my treadmill it was .02 at first and increased to an average of 1.5. I rode my stationary bike for over 1800 miles, average of 100 per month. As my spasticity lessoned I picked up to 100 per sitting, of children's ABC blocks. I took Baclofen to loosen me up however and it tightened my hand back up. Even now in March 02, I cannot do the block excercises anymore. After late '97 I did little excercising. Before then I was doing 4 hours a day, I wish I had kept it up but injuries and a computer came into my life and I just unfortunately never regained my motivation to do it anymore. In May '96 I hurt my good knee and could not do much of anything for a long time. I know I should be now but the lack of proper equipment, a good enviornment and a lack of motivation to reach my potential is disheartening! Get to a gym or facility as often as you can! Stay motivated. The more you do the better. I keep thinking I will start an excercise routine again but find getting into a real routine, very, very hard. No, I am not doing the treadmill or bike thing as I should be. My Sciatica and hip joint pain joined along with cental pain symptoms are problems that unmotivate me too often. "Paralizing fear" as of Jan. 01. I can no longer walk in open spaces, wider than 5'. Even with my shoulder high walking staff. Last year's injuries have messed up my hip/knee joint pain even more and it triggers my spasticity and walking ability. I now find I get "paralizing fear" more often than I ever have in the past 7 years. Hiking sticks are better here. When walking outside on the rough gravel or unsteady farm land, I use my "beaver stick". It's a tree that beaver's had cut down previously, cool huh? It's a walking stick that my river raft guide Nephew gave me. I have always thought that walking/hiking sticks would be useful to many strokees. It provides sooooooo much better balance than my cane. With a better AFO/foot brace it has made a world of difference to my walking, until injuries and it has helped the stress on my hip. I walk with a cane or just holding hands when out and about. My Mother or Sister is always with me if my spasticity freezes me. It can to one specific spot if I'm startled or scared. I walk around stores holding on to a shopping cart. I do all the food shopping now as my Mom went blind in June 01. My Sister goes with me in case I need some kind of help but for the most part I do it all myself. She carries the groceries into the house for me as it would be rather hard to do on your own. I walk around the house without even a cane but I must be near walls or chairs and such, I freeze up in wide open spaces. Vision has much to do with my balance. Early on I was very thankful Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Kroger, Meijer and most major malls have wheelchairs or scooters to use while shopping, sometimes I'm just not up to walking that far. Now I seldom use anything, stores are so crowded and exasperating enough so my cane or shopping cart works better. I own a wheelchair but it is too heavy for my 84 year old Mom, now blind too, to lift into and out of the car, so it's seldom used. Unless of course Sister helps as she does now since Mom lost vision. Currently: My voice is at 95%, sometimes weak no air power. My eating is at 99%, I still have to be careful swallowing. My eyes are at 98% My leg/foot/hip balance is at 40% My arm/hand is about 5%, now. Brain/thinking 97% Emotions, maybe 70% now. Cental pain, Thalamic pain pain levels between 3-5 on scale of 10 10% of stroke survivors get post stroke pain and sensations but the affect is not widely known. Some other common affects of the stroke are restless leg syndrome, RLS or PLMD which causes jerking when in a restful state of consiousnous. III |
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