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My Weekly Journal – 11/05 Through 11/11
Monday, November 5, Through Sunday, November 11 – This has been one of those exceptionally busy weeks, where even if I had 36 hours in a day, I wouldn’t have enough time to get everything done. Since I’m going back to the hospital this coming Monday, November 12, I’ve been hibernating and trying to stay away from everyone. I do this because if I go to the hospital with even a common cold or a sore throat, they may not do my procedure, so staying away from everyone assures me that I have the best opportunity to go to the hospital in as good a shape as possible. The only time that I ventured out of the house this entire week was when I went to workout on Wednesday with Laura.I wanted to try to dedicate the last four days of the week so I could be by myself as much as possible, so I scheduled my workout for Wednesday of this week. When I got to Green Oaks Physical Therapy, Laura immediately transferred me out of my wheelchair to the therapy table and we began my exercises on my hamstrings, quadriceps, calf muscles, ankles and my feet and toes. Since doing these exercises consistently for the past three weeks, my hip has felt better than it has in a long time. Two weeks ago when I did my workout with Laura, my toes were pretty sensitive on my right foot for a few days afterwards. When I went in on Wednesday, Laura focused more of her attention on flexing my feet more than she did my toes, which was a big relief to me. After completing all my exercises regarding my legs and my feet, Laura began a new exercise on the muscles in my neck. Laura’s working on the muscles in my neck so that we can improve the range of motion as I looked to my left and to my right sides. Laura will place the palms of her hands behind my head with her fingers extended until they reached the middle part of my neck. She will then begin manipulating these muscles with her fingers so that she can loosen the muscles to help as she rotates my neck to the left into the right. In physical therapy, therapists measure the number of degrees of rotation you can turn your head to the left and to the right, and the number of degrees that you can bend your neck from side to side. Currently, I have 12° of rotation and 25° of side bending when looking to my right, and 28° of rotation and 25° of side bending when looking to my left. Click HERE to view some of the pictures that we took as Laura was working on the muscles in my neck. After manipulating these muscles with her fingers to try to get them to relax, Laura will then rotate my head to one side and then gently hold pressure on my head, keeping it rotated as far as possible. She will then rotate my head to the other side and gently hold pressure, keeping it rotated as far as possible. We’re hoping that these exercises will allow me to increase my range of motion while looking to my left and to my right and it will also give me the ability to bend my head further from side to side. After finishing the exercises on the muscles in my neck, Laura then transferred me back to my wheelchair and we began the resistance band training on the muscles in my neck. These exercises are progressing each week. A few weeks ago, Laura was having to manually push my head forward with the palm of her hand because the muscles that control my head from falling forward were not as strong as the muscles that I had keeping my head from going backwards and from side to side. Now, instead of using the palm of her hand to push my head forward, Laura is now using the resistance band for this exercise as well. We’re going to continue working on my legs and my neck for another month or so, then we will go back and work on the core muscles for a few months.In this week’s video, I’m going to discuss my 3rd maintenance dose injection of Spinraza, scheduled for Monday, November 12, 2018. I’m going to be giving details as to how I prepare for the procedure, and also discuss the typical routine that I go through with each injection. After this, I’m going to show a brief one minute video that I created from the pictures that we took when I went in for my workout this past week. Laura is working on the muscles in my neck to not only improve the range of motion with regards to rotation in my neck, she’s also working on improving the amount that I can bend my head from side to side. I also review my results from my previous reevaluation that was done on September 30. The numbers that I give in this video regarding the rotation and side bending motions in my neck should improve over the course of time, as we loosen these muscles to allow me better rotation. 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 it will make you a better person. Please say a prayer that my upcoming Spinraza injection goes well. God bless you and I’ll see you next Sunday. -
2 Replies
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Hope it all goes well tomorrow!
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You know, it’s kinda funny. When I started my Spinraza treatments back in September 2017, I thought that when I got this far into my injections, it would just be another day in my life, but I still get excited and I still get the butterflies in my stomach when I go in for each and every injection. I look at it like taking the car in for an oil change every 2000 miles. Every four months, my body gets the protein that it needs so that I can improve not only my longevity of life, but the quality of life as well.
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