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Increasingly Difficult to Accept Peripheral Neuropathy

Neuropathy | Last Active: Aug 10 12:43pm | Replies (233)

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Profile picture for efgh1020 @efgh1020

No cheerleading from here. Just what has so far helped me--
I have felt similarly for different reasons. I had a relatively good run into my old age, eating and exercising healthily. Then, wham! Stenosis, sciatica, failed PT, spinal fusion surgery, unrelated infection, re-hospitalization, dropped left ankle, numbness, pain, neuropathy, defensive surgeon, more pain, then searching for and finally finding an inquisitive neurologist, and an optimistic, knowledgeable physical therapist. Meantime, and crucially, my husband was able to switch to caregiving, assuring me we were still in this together, and I was not a burden. This was key to my beginning to regain a sense of worth.
Staying in the day and staying out of the dark movie my mind can produce about my future also has been key, along with therapy and prescribed medication for depression. Joining the local senior center and continuing a Zoom meeting with a former support group has also helped me keep my head up and more accepting of the "new normal."
In my mid-80's, I am learning to walk again, first with a rolling walker, and lately trying out forearm crutches. I'll still need my power chair, but I have greater leg strength through PT and exercising, and PT will concentrate more now on my endurance. My pain has lessened over the years, which is never guaranteed, but for which I am grateful.
My husband and I are also making plans to get ahead of any future health crises by selling our beloved home and moving to a nearby independent living community. These are big changes, but we are able to ask for and get help from our family, to navigate it mentally and emotionally, and to have this option financially.
So, while this is a long post, it's the condensed version of my time since neuropathy arrived in my life. While it is different from your story, the value we can find here is that we are understood, and not alone.

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Replies to "No cheerleading from here. Just what has so far helped me-- I have felt similarly for..."

Good morning, efgh1020 (@efgh1020)

Yours is one of the most eloquent posts I have read in a long, long time. I hope you'll not mind my sharing it with my partner who, this morning especially, needs a lift. Only yesterday, she was told by her doctor that she's to begin what promises to be a lengthy journey of tests, not to identify the cause of what's ailing her but rather to eliminate the many things that aren't the cause. She's nervous, as am I. I want her to read your words. You say so many things that hit the bull's eye. "Staying in the day and staying out of the dark movie my mind … " are precisely the sort of words she needs to hear right now.

I wish to a glorious weekend!
Ray (@ray666)

Prayers