A word to the wise

Don't do what I did.

I have four canes; two are already pretty and two are old, wooden ones.  I decided to decorate the canes, to make them more appropriate to the Little Pond.

I found some Chinese dragons stickers and some tiny butterfly stickers.

The Chinese dragons are large and snake around my heavy cane, the one I use for walking around the city blocks.  Good support and rather cool.

The teeny, tiny butterflies took forever to apply to my lighter cane.  Looked pretty to me, so I lacquered the cane, to set the little buggers forever.

Unfortunately, I have since seen photos of my granddaughter playing with the butterfly cane.  They are too tiny.  If anything, they make the wood look diseased.

Now I am painstakingly picking off the dozens and dozens of butterflies.  AND the lacquer made them UN-stick.  It's a mess, and will probably take weeks to undo.  In the meantime, I will try wrapping the cane in green grosgrain ribbon.  Green is a good color for me.

I used pretty Christmassy ribbon to make candy canes over the holiday.  That also taught me that big is better and bright is right.

Tiny doesn't cut it.  And don't lacquer the results.

pb
Little Pond

Stretching is bad

...and good.  I had the exercises down pretty well.  The PT told me I was doing them wrong, but the wrongness was that I had added an extra step.  That step was one of the new exercises.


I wound up doing an extra step to ease the pain of some of the stretches.  So that was good.  What wasn't so good was the other new exercise.


Simple pelvic tilts send me climbing the walls for relief. So now I just revert back to the earlier stretches afterwards until the spasms abate.  Then I try again.


Looks like it's going to be a longer road to recovery than I thought.


Meantime all the bills are pouring in from the sprain and all its earlier missed diagnosis-related visits.


And--along with everyone else in the area--our heating bills jumped a full 1/3 higher!  Guess we all will just be eating less this New Year.  No need for resolutions.


pb
Little Pond

Permission to stretch

...has been granted.  Let me tell you, stretching is definitely better.  The PT watched me carefully as I practiced the two simple exercises.  I will do them  2-3 times a day with reps of 5 each for now.


I continue the heat therapy, but has stopped the morning dose of Naproxen.  Still shaky by night-time, so I dose for the evening.


Things are much better now that I can feel stretching, and know I am helping, not harming.


Putting off my doggy walks until at least Sunday.  By then I should be in good shape.


Husband RJ is completely taken up in ferrying my MIL to visit my FIL at the hospital.  Plans are now being made to tranfer to nursing facility.  MIL is definitely not in any shape to care for him.  A few hours' visit and she needs home, food and rest.


I am still unable to visit, until they move him where I don't have to worry about catching something that could kill ME.


pb
Little Pond

Thank heavens for heat patches!

They are plentifully available.  I buy the ones that go across the back, double-wide, and  split them in two.  The sprain is just in my lower left lumbar area.


Really puts the scotch on driving, floor and carpet washing, and even dog walking.  For now.


It's nice not to feel that sickening, tearing feeling; I must be getting better.


I remember my dad wearing a brace for what seemed like years.  Guess I have it easy.  Physical Therapy, consisting of ultrasound and manual massage, again tomorrow.


In the meantime, I'm trying to keep the house clean and food at ready.  FIL is still in hospital, but somewhat better.  I'm hoping to entice my MIL to eat again.  She looks so drawn and depressed.


And I can't be much help, except to leave out lunches while I do the midday nap thing.


What a mess.  God help everybody.


pb
Little Pond

Funny how it's playing out.

Until this back injury, I have been unaware of any real feeling from the chest down.  There is distress when I need to empty my bladder, but not like anything I used to feel before MS.  There is a very minor discomfort when I should empty my bowels: unfortunately, not enough to prevent an accident away from home.


In fact, one could even prick me with a pin or knife or any sharp object, and I won't feel much more than pressure.  So I'm not really surprised that I injured a muscle without realizing it.


So, okay, I've sprained my lower left back.  The most amazing thing is the amount of pain: enough to send me to the doctor with fears of a kidney stone, abscess or even a tumor.


I am told that a tumor would not necessary hurt at all.  In fact, we are worrying about my Dad right now.  He has blood in the urine and no bladder symptoms.  They are looking into any possibilities of renal cancer.  In fact my Grampa died of cancer in his urinary tract, although I had always thought it was bladder cancer.


The doctor prescribed 500mg of Naproxen twice a day, and heat for any further pain.  I have some of those nifty patches for heat, and am testing them against my skin.  I half expect to show a nasty rash from the adhesive, but I am willing to test it first, since they really do help.  Also, the patch can be stuck to a tight-fitting undershirt if need be.  It's all good.


Finally, I visit the physical therapist this afternoon at 4:15.  Oddly enough, that should be an excellent time. Husband RJ will be home to field any calls from MammaDog, who might need sitting services.  More importantly, by the late afternoon I am practically in tears from fighting the pain all day.  And the shakes are unmistakable and uncontrollable by then.  Perhaps the PT can help with these.


I'll keep you all posted.


pb
Little Pond

Another diagnosis

I finally went for an xray, to determine if there was a kidney stone.


There wasn't.  The doctor referred me back to my usual family physician, presumably because he has my MS history and knows more.


Now the diagnosis is a sprained lower left back.  With the heat therapy and prescription Naprosin, I am finally getting some relief from the pain.  The expensive antibiotic did clear up the leukocytes and blood in the urine, so I think I will save it for later.  UTI's are a constant threat for me.


For now, it's pain killers, heat stick-ons (which work very well, thank you very much), and physical therapy will begin three times a week, starting Wednesday.  It's at the end of the day, when I am shakiest, so it should be interesting to observe.  Let's hope it's not painful to accomplish.


pb
Little Pond

Uh Oh

Pain felt better from ibuprofen, not from healing.  Now I can't put on socks or tie my shoes.  Guess I'll go in for an X-ray Monday.  I was supposed to go Thursday, but call me Cleo.  I'm the queen of denial.


pb
Little Pond