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  • My Weekly Journal – 10/29 Through 11/04

    Posted by michael-morale on November 4, 2018 at 12:54 pm
    Monday, October 29, Through Sunday, November 4 – Even though we’ve seen a little bit of inclement weather over the past few days, this week has been dry enough for me to get out of the house and run some errands without getting soaking wet. Now that summer has finally come to an end, temperatures are starting to settle into more of a fall like atmosphere. Instead of it being over 100°, our highs during the day are now in the upper 70s to low 80s, with occasional 50s and 60s. When I was younger, I never liked cold temperatures during winter, but, as I’ve gotten older, I’m finding that wintertime is becoming more enjoyable. My poor little air conditioning units run constantly during the summer, so hearing these turn off and not being used for a few days in a row is very nice.
     
    Last week, when I went to work out with Laura, she asked me to come in on Friday because they were getting dressed up for Halloween. This week, due to a conflict in my schedule, I went to work out on Tuesday instead of Thursday. When I got there, Laura and her physical therapy assistant Emily, transferred me from my wheelchair to the therapy table and began the exercises on my legs and my feet. Since it’d been a couple of weeks since we had exercised my legs and feet, this particular work out was very uncomfortable to go through. I found myself cringing in pain more than I ever had, especially when Laura and Emily started working on my feet and toes. While this has always been an uncomfortable exercise to go through, this week seemed to be a little worse. I know that these exercises on my feet and toes are what I need to go through, but it still doesn’t make it any more pleasurable. My left foot felt fine after work out, but my toes on my right foot, especially the fourth and fifth toe, seem to be somewhat tender all the way through Sunday. I’m not sure if Laura was pressing this side of my foot harder than she had in the past, but it felt like I had maybe pulled a muscle in these toes, and this tenderness persisted for a few days. Any time that you are trying to build muscle or if you are working on muscles, you tend to tear these muscles down so that they can rebuild. I’m not sure if this is what’s happening with my toes, especially given the amount of tenderness that I felt for a few days after working out, but I’m hoping that these workouts will become more bearable as time goes on. I apologized to Laura for whining so much, and she just looked at me and told me that she thought that this work out would be a little bit more intense since it had been a few weeks since we had worked on these muscles. After working on my feet and my toes, Laura and Emily focused on my knees and the muscles in my calves. With my feet flat on the therapy table, they pressed down on my knees which not only exercised my ankles and my feet, it also worked on the muscles in my calves. After this, Laura began working on improving the range of motion in my neck. This is a new exercise that we’re doing is because I want to be able to look further to my left and to my right, and by stretching these muscles and working these muscles, Laura hopes to give me more range of motion. While laying flat on my back, Laura stood behind me and started manipulating my neck with her fingers and her hands. She slowly twisted my neck from side to side checking to see what kind of range of motion I had to begin with. She then took measurements, with the help of Emily, so that we can have some baseline numbers to go by in a few weeks to check to see if my range of motion had improved. After massaging the muscles in my neck and taking all of her measurements, Laura and Emily transferred me back to my wheelchair. Once back in my chair, Laura took the measurements of my ankles and my knees so that she could record these numbers like she did the measurements that she took on my neck. Next week, I will report these baseline numbers in my journal so that we can track any improvement that occurs in the coming weeks.
     
    In this week’s video, I answer two very important questions that my subscribers sent to my email. The first question involved whether or not those of us that are on active treatment with Spinraza will be able to take the Avexis drug, AVXS-101, if and when it gets passed by the FDA to become a treatment similar to Spinraza. The second question asked why AVXS-101 was only going to be available for infants with Type I SMA. They wanted to know if AVXS-101 was going to be available for those of us with SMA Type II and Type III in the future. After answering these questions, I give an update with regards to my physical therapy with Laura, and I also detail my plans for the upcoming week. Click HERE to view my video.
     
    I hope that all of you had a fantastic week and I hope that you do something for yourself this upcoming week that will make you a better person. God bless you, and I’ll see you next Sunday.
    michael-morale replied 5 years, 4 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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