Monday, December 29, 2008

This Leg

What am I going to do about my left leg (and foot)? I keep injuring it over and over with my silly tripping. Not sure what I can do about it . I was in serious pain today and the stiffness is worse. The Advil didn't work at all. I decided to try some aspirin which has helped a bit.
Should I call the doctor ?
Now the entire knob on the new washer has fallen off. I have to call a service person in the morning because naturally when it happened they were already closed. Nobody in this town works past 4:30 during the week it seems. Can't get use to that.

I really need a sleeping pill tonight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your good wishes. I am on the mend.

Sorry to read about your leg troubles. And of course, you know I have some suggestions!!

Cramping - get going on the Glucosamine Chondroitin - 1500 mg a day - EVERY single day. By the 3rd day, you will not have a single cramp. Trust me.

If you still need something in addition to that, which you shouldn't, low dose baclofen (half recommended dose) or Aleve will do it.

Tripping - Usually this is in regard to foot drop (lazy leg, muscle atrophy, balance issues). At any rate, it all starts with the foot. Wrap your foot in a short ACE bandage and use surgical tape to hold it closed (no clips) unless you have one of those self sticking kind. Don't wrap so much that your shoe doesn't fit on right. Just wrap the foot on the affected side. Do that for two hours a day, increasing an hour every day so that by the end of the week, you are wrapped mostly all day (or whatever passes for Daytime in your life - mine it is 11-7AM).

How does this work? Well, it is a case of compensation. Your foot will compensate the balance and weight issues from your leg with the added support of the ACE bandage. Mind over matter? Maybe. But I've been doing this for over 20 years and it works for me.

Work - Sometimes, in business life, we MSer's just have to bite the bullet and push ourselves beyond our normal limits, just to get out and make a living. IF your company will not give you accommodations to keep on working as you do now.... start out with "frequent breaks" built into your schedule. That is say 15 min breaks every 2 hours, for example.

After you get that established and use it well for a while, go up the scale for another accommodation that you will definitely use and can be of benefit. I know you wanted to work from home (?) but you might have to take an around the ADA world tour to get there first. So maybe taking work home one afternoon a week or two afternoons a month is a good place to start and build up from there.

With these companies it is all about compromise as long as it is not on their end of the spectrum. So if we MSer's can compromise without losing much, we end up getting what we want and need in the long run and the company is only the wiser after the fact.

I am going back to work on Monday (new job, new state, no MS declaration to employer) and in the lowly job that I am in, I will not need accommodations. But it will be interesting to watch from an MSer's eyes how this hospital would be or not receptive if I HAD to ever ask for ADA's.

I'm thinking of you...I hope you feel better soon. Try the ACE bandage and the Glucosamine Chondroitin....it works!

Taxingwoman said...

Anne I'm going to try those suggestions and go out and buy the stuff tomorrow. Thanks.
Glad you are better.