Positivity only fellow friends!

Just read your comments Ray!! Good for you! You made my day!

Debbie, I remember reading one of your comments thinking you were the only one close to my situation. I was so excited for my knee replacements. As soon as I had my right knee done, my balance was gone and I was in extreme pain, then came the neuropathy. I suffered for five months until I had neck surgery. I have been slowly coming back, but still use a walker. Debbie, I was an avid knitter & remember you having to give it up. It’s taken me about two years to be able to knit decently, but not quickly. I’ve always hoped you could take up your knitting again because I know I was lost without it. I’m so glad to hear you’re doing well.

Well, I can’t say I really ever knitted, I wasn’t blessed with my Mom’s many talents! I sure hope you get better use of your hands. I just do whatever I can and remain thankful for that, but I sure miss doing some things (except gardening, I don’t miss weeding!)

Hi Ray- great to see your name, hope NJEd chimes in.
Hi Connect friends, I went down to the PT that puts rocker plates in my neuropathy leg shoes (soleus muscle is poorly innervated, poor push-off during walking, rocker plate gives a mechanical assist for step-through).
I get a computerized gait study when there, every two years, the PT was astonished that I had 30% improvement in the push-off strength and elongation in the pressure line graph (tracks pressure during step-through from heel hitting to ball of foot push-off).
I’m following KIM (love that), walking every day, doing the PT home program 3x weekly, doing the exercise bike (thanks to John Bishop for that idea).
The health issues with growing older keep coming- “ not as single soldiers, but in battalions” - I wrote that down when you posted it and keep it on my desk, makes me laugh.
I went to my 53rd high school reunion (COVID delayed the 50th). The poster board showing classmates who have passed was startling. The memory of that has made me remind myself how wonderful it is to be alive and able to find enjoyment in life, even if it’s just seeing out my kitchen window that the robins are returning now!!

Hello, Mike (@mikead63),

Your reply has made my day! I hope I didn't come across as a guy who's got this PN business all figured out. I can only wish! Every day has been a learning experience. Were your doctors ever able to tell you what may have been the cause of your PN? Mine haven't been. For some time, their inability to name a culprit irritated me. It took me a while to accept that "incurable," 99 times out of 100, means just that. I wish you success in finding things that help you.

And again, thank you bunches for your reply to my post! Your words truly made my day.

Best wishes,
Ray (@ray666)

I'm like you Ray, every day for me has also been a learning experience. Living in Minnesota I thought I could get seen at the Mayo Clinic. I finally received a response that was a "form" letter saying basically no time and/or no interest is seeing me. I'm beginning to understand their reasoning once I discovered more and more individuals like us finding out there is, at this time, nothing they can do to help me. I guess I don't blame them now but at the time, it was pretty discouraging. At this point I'm just doing a lot of research on how best to cope. It used to be ending the evening with a nice glass of Johnny Walker Black with a sprinkle of water and one or two ice cubes but now, I guess, I can't even do that! So, to end this on a happy note, I have my pup in my lap, the fireplace going (this is Minnesota!) and snuggling with my wife while watching a movie! Life is good Ray! Take care!!
Mike

Hello, centre! (@centre)

It's great to hear from you! You mention "rocker plates." Mmm? I need to learn about rocker plates. And "computerized gait study." Double Mmm? That's something else I need to learn about––and talk to my therapist about. I know my gait needs lots of work. It already needed lots of work a year ago, just from my PN, but then a full year of hospital + rehab (thanks to sepsis) has only made my gait worse. I'll spend a little time today researching rocker plates and computerized gait studies. Thanks for mentioning these!

I can't take sole credit for KIM. At the risk of citing the book again (I must have cited the book here in my Connect posts four or five dozen times!), KIM is short for Twyla Tharp's book, Keep It Moving. I keep a copy close at hand. One of my most-quoted chapters is Tharp's Stronger For the Mending, about rising up and over physical setbacks.

Love those robins!

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)

@mikead63
How are you doing with your positivity, Mike
Take care,
Jake

Hi, Mike

I took me a while before I realized that my doctors' seemingly blasé attitude wasn't because they didn't care about my condition but instead because they'd nothing promising to tell me, and that was as frustrating to them as it was to me. I, too, continue to look up stuff, sit in on the occasional webinar, but basically I'm done playing the PN grad student. My focus is now 90% on keeping my bod in motion … which is perfect segue to:

@centre paraphrased Claudius in Hamlet, saying so appropriately, "When aches come, they come not in single aches but in battalions." This morning, I'm thinking (and chuckling) "How true, how true!" I have a call in to my orthopedic doc, asking to see him. Along with my PN balance issues and my post-sepsis shortness of breath, as of yesterday I'm having a tough time putting my full body weight on my left leg. Is that the newest battalion to be threatening my castle keep: a hip replacement? 🙂 It never does end, does it? (Until it does … but that's another topic.)

There was a time, too, Mike, when I would end my day with a tumbler of Johnny Walker Black. No longer, though. Much to my chagrin, I had to set down my JWB. I now end my days with a non-alky beer (oh, sigh). We do watch a little TV, though.

Lately, we've been binging on British murder mysteries. I used to wonder why we'd become so fond of them, but then the other day I read that these fictional murder mysteries serve as a relaxing break from the monstrous stuff facing us in our daytime lives. At least, in a fictional murder mystery, things get solved. You begin with a body, you follow the detectives through endlessly complicating complications, and, in the end (an hour later, maybe an hour-and-a-half), some grizzled culprit is handcuffed and perp-walked off to jail. After a long, hard day of slogging through reality, what could be more satisfying? 🙂

Life IS good, Mike! Take care!
Ray

Hi, @ray666,
I got a huge chuckle over your description of the British murder mysteries ~ "perp-walked off to jail" ~ 😂🤣 I've not gotten into them even though there seems to be a plethora of options and I do watch PBS (no cable). My daughter really likes them, too ~ and as it happens she and her husband are on holiday in London (and then in Scotland for a few days -- plenty of crime stories originate there, too). I may need to enlarge my capacity to adapt to yet more criminal behavior - Ha!
Are you seeing a pt these days? I'm definitely noticing a decline in mobility since my pt stopped taking Medicare payments in January. Time to call for a new referral. I really hope your left hip/leg can respond to some kind of alternative to hip surgery. I'm no medical advisor but from my experience these surgeries may tend to complicate peripheral neuropathy.
Nonetheless, here's to a Terrific Tuesday!
Barb