the_rck | (no subject)

Today was two appointments and a lot of walking. I feel like I got very little done. I still haven’t finished the paperwork, and at least one thing that’s due this week is still only in bus pass condition.

For Ingress, I’m getting closer to the badges I need. I need one to make 12th level. Then, all I need for 13th is a single additional gold badge. I have the necessary points already.

As far as PT, I really wish that I could see this woman once every month or every three or six months. It would help with management and mitigation. These aren’t fixable problems. It’s just that me on my own means I don’t have a way to tell when things slowly change for the worse. It’s the boiling frog thing. It’s also hard to tell which gradual changes are just normal aging. I realized today that the hand issue is more about that bone not being anchored at the bottom than about joint pain. When I’m not careful, the bone tries to go away from whatever presses on that part of my hand. This doesn’t affect movements that only need the knuckle joints of the thumb. I’m pretty sure that surgery is going to be my only hope for improvement.

Yesterday I made myself cry by removing pillowcases for washing. I had to ask Cordelia to put the clean ones on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I would appreciate advice. The difficulty I'm running into is that the steps I take to help one joint tend to harm others. That is, the best splints for my thumbs mess up my elbows and shoulders. Dealing with a bad elbow or bad shoulder makes the (at the moment) less bad adjacent elbow or shoulder worse.

I'm kind of desperately hoping not to need to use a cane or a walker again because my hands and arms won't manage either (or crutches most likely) because I can't put weight through my hands. Our house can't be made wheelchair/scooter accessible without razing it and rebuilding entirely (all of the doors are too narrow).

the issue i ran into is that i'm overtight in certain muscles (like the ones stabilizing the bones/joints), and other complementary muscles are weak. so my advice is IF YOU CAN do some PT or stuff at home to 1) gradually release the tight muscles that are doing all the work; 2) strengthen the complementary muscles. this website has some useful guidelines on types of "bad posture" and ways to fix each one. that might be a place to start if you are unable to do PT or find a good PT.

i've also found orthotics and good chairs/seats are immensely helpful in my overall structural issues.