Connect
PN & Confidence: Is there a connection?
I had an interesting phone conversation last evening with a fellow PN sufferer. His name's Frank. Frank and his wife, Elaine, are dancers. Frank has been diagnosed with the same PN that I've got: large-fiber, so no pain, but increasingly bad balance. Frank has had to quit performing; he's teaching instead. As two guys with PN do, we spent a chunk of time talking about the "usual": Have you found a doctor you like? What supplements do you take? Have you found a pair of shoes that help? Etc. Then Frank asked something that surprised me: "Has your PN affected your self-confidence?" My self-confidence? I asked him what he meant. He explained that a dancer's self-confidence, especially in performance, arises from good balance: the better a dancer's balance, the more self-confidence a dancer has. That got me wondering. Has my poor balance affected my self-confidence? Am I less sure of myself when I'm in public or with people, especially strangers. I used to be pretty self-confident, not cocky, just at ease. Am I less at ease now that I'm wobbly moving about –– the way I was earlier yesterday when a friend treated me to lunch at iHop and I had to wobble my way all the way to a back booth in a busy restaurant. I remember feeling not at ease but ILL at ease. This morning, I'm still wondering if my PN has impacted my self-confidence, and if so, to what degree. I'm wondering, too, if any of you have found that your PN has lessened your self-confidence. Under what circumstances? Have you developed techniques for counter-acting it? I'm thinking this might make for an interesting conversation.
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Neuropathy Support Group.
Connect
@ray666 Ray, I think that PN can impact confidence especially in cases where it effects balance. Personally, my balance is not what it was due to sensory motor PN. After a few bangs on the floor, I now use a cane, and my confidence has increased so each person needs to find what is needed to maintain confidence. Yet, I do play safe and well aware of my surroundings like stay away from crowded stores during busy hours. I feel the longer you can be active yet remain safe, it will help with confidence.
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
4 ReactionsGood morning, Joan (@joanland)
You raise a subject that's much on my mind: to what degree (if any) do progressive lenses hinder or help with my trying to maintain good balance. I'll be seeing a new eye doctor next Monday, and this is the very question I plan to ask. My former eye doctor, who recently retired, tried very hard to help me (double-vision, distance and close-up) by additing prism after prism to my lenses. They've all helped, but not as much as I would like. Thanks for bringing this up. Others may comment, too. I'm sure others have thought about a possible connection between progressive lenses and balance.
Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
2 Reactions" … the longer you can be active yet remain safe, it will help with confidence."
Can you see? I'm furiously nodding YES, YES, YES! For the longest time, my cane was nothing but a curious add-on, more of an affectation than an aid to prevent falls. No longer. I now tote my cane most everywhere I go, even 'round about my home. I do it for the very thing you say: To remain active –– and safe! –– for as long as possible.
Ray (@ray666)
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
1 ReactionHi, Barb (@bjk3)
Hardly aday goes by without a half dozen of such uh-oh moments ("Dare I do this ___fill in the blank___?"). One of yesterday's uh-oh moments was when I discovered that my neighbor's phone was out-of-whack. "Dare I go next door and tell Susan?" There's a rough, grassy berm between our two houses: tricky walking for a guy with PN. It was another moment of my asking myself: Do I have the confidence to do this? In the end, I did cross over to my neighbor's – going super-carefully, one super-cautious step at a time. Once I was back in my own house, I felt (I have to admit) damn good! Yet another uh-oh moment? Yes. But also another opportunity to refuel my self-confidence tank.
Sadly, my partner, Mell, died on 9/25. What I'd not said in a clear, full voice, neither to my friends nor to myself, was that her doctor had not been able to offer us much hope, such was the severity of her cancer. Nonetheless, Barb – and in all sincerity – I thank you for your prayers!
Ray (@ray666)
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
2 Reactions@ray666
As you are probably aware, prisms help with the double vision, and nothing more. The progressive part is to allow both reading and distance vision (with prism) within one pair of glasses. This worked fine for me as long as the prism correction was low, but now that my prism correction has increased and PN has increased, I find that one pair of glasses with progressives works only for territory where I'm very comfortable walking, e.g., driveway, inside a store. Unknown territory, forget about it! Even stepping up onto a curb when downtown and no handicapped parking is available - I find it very difficult to know if that curb is 4 inches tall or 6 inches tall. If I'm in a handicapped parking spot that has a curb cut on the passenger side of the car, but none on the driver's side, I, as the driver, will walk around the back of my car to avoid stepping up onto the curb. The only option is to mentally gauge the curb height as I exit the door, not as I approach the curb, and make my step up, not from what I'm seeing when at the curb, but from the mental measurement I made of it as I got out of the car or as I pulled into the parking spot. I have to tell myself that the curb is X inches tall, but NOT look at it, just step up the X inches I've told myself. My vision is not reliable. What's going to happen the time I forget to mentally tell myself the curb height and I don't step high enough? Or I'm talking with someone and don't go through these mental gymnastics? So I'll no longer be wearing progressives out of doors. They are fine at the computer or inside the house, but my vision no longer makes progressive lenses suitable for being the glasses I wear for yard work, driving, or walking anywhere that is not level.
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
2 ReactionsIt’s not just the neuropathy. Pardon me while I get graphic.
If you take gabapentin for neuropathy as I do, the side effects are literally SH**TY. Whenever I would try to lift 20+ lbs while taking a median sized dose, I would shoot out a sphincter plug of crap like I touched off a cannon fuse. God help anyone in the blast zone (I swear it only happened that one time).
Right now the worst is extreme thermoregulatory issues causing explosions from both ends. 10 minutes doing simple chores in the 90 degree sun, turns everything above my waist into an eccrine sweat party. Losing so much body fluids so quickly, turns my body inside out.
Confidence?
Sorry not me,
Mikey