Working out

I've been on a search for a workout regime that worked with my RSD.  I have to admit this has been rather difficult for me.  I was looking for something low impact that I could do at home, and that wouldn't hurt either my leg or my back (because of the SCS).

I'm happy to report  I had simply been looking in all the wrong places.  I didn't need something I could do at home, on account of my laziness.  What I needed was a friend to push me to go work out with her, and who I would do the same for.  Said friend and I have started swimming together.  It's been years since I've been in the pool for anything other than fun, so this required a little pushing.

We've only swam together twice so far (yesterday and the day before), but I already feel better about myself!  We're going swimming again tonight and I can't wait.  There might be something wrong with me.  I might be sick.  I can't ever remember being excited to exercise.  What is going on up in that head of mine?  I don't know, but I'll take it.

My husband suggested I come up with a goal to help keep myself on track and we decided a good goal was to swim 1,600 miles (the shortest distance across the Atlantic Ocean).  If you want to track my progress check out the link to my other blog above.

So how does swimming affect the RSD?  It certainly does have en effect.  If I kick too hard my leg is in a lot of pain afterward, but the great thing about swimming is that when I feel like I'm overdoing it I can stop kicking altogether and just pull with my arms.  After a few days my leg hurts no more than  I did before starting swimming.

Okay I'll stop now.  Like I said I'm way too excited about exercise.

On the other hand, I bought some new clothes this past weekend and wore high heels for the first time in.... oh... almost ever.  That is not so good for the ankle.  I'll have to keep heel wearing to a minimum.

I'm back from Boston!

What a trip!  We had a blast.  The husband was kind enough to drive most of the way to the hotel.  It really gave my ankle a rest, which was much needed.  The hotel we stayed in was unique.  It was basically a really old house.  It had a lot of character.

Thankfully the weather while we were there was near perfect.  The pollen was flying like crazy, it was a little over 70 degrees and sunny the first 2 days.  The day we left it rained, but not hard enough that it made our trip home difficult.  It was perfect driving weather.  We decided since it was so nice the second day we were there we would walk down to get lunch.  It wasn't far from our hotel and the area we were staying in was so beautiful.  Since my ankle was already acting up before we left, the walk didn't help.  We got back to the hotel after lunch and I took some Aleve.

That night we went to the beer festival.  Our cab driver on the way there was a trip.  He got lost, and I'm pretty sure he had some medical problem, on account of his constant fidgeting and pulling at his bum.  He got us there a bit late but that worked out fine for us.

We walked around the festival for a few hours, sampling beer and just generally having a good time.  We met some fun people and had some delicious beer so the night turned out to be just what we were hoping for.

Then we made our way back to the hotel.  The cab driver on our way back didn't have nearly as much... character... as the first cab driver, but I think that's alright.  He got us back to the hotel really quickly and was very friendly.  I took some more Aleve the minute we got back to the hotel.

I didn't get much sleep that night, partly because of the alcohol and partly because of the pain in my ankle, so the next morning I took more Aleve and we headed out for brunch with some of my friends.  Then we made our way back home, and once again the husband did most of the driving (how did I get so lucky?).

It truly was an excellent trip.  A few days later, my ankle still hurts but I wouldn't trade it for the trip for one second.  Some great memories were made that weekend.

On an interesting unrelated note, I recently found out someone else from my tiny town has RSD.  For the number of people in our town, this is quite the coincidence.  I have yet to meet her but I have to say I can't wait.  My husband met her a few weeks ago and from everything he tells me about her I can tell already I'm really going to like her.

Vacation!

I'm on vacation!  It feels so nice :)  The husband and I are heading out to Boston for a Beer Festival.  It should be a lot of fun.  I'm really excited.  There's going to be a lot of walking involved, and my ankle is already in a lot of pain because I did a lot of walking last week, but I think it'll be worth it.  I may have to have him drive most of the way there though.

Last weekend the husband was working a few streets over.  I decided to surprise him with a picnic lunch.  I packed up the picnic basket turned my simulator up and started walking.  A while later I discovered we did not properly communicate the location to each other.  I had no way to reach him so I walked back home.  The ankle has been bothering me ever since.  It's allergy season so I've been taking antihistamines lately so I've been trying to avoid the pain killers.  I'll have to make sure they're packed for the trip tomorrow.  I plan to do a lot of walking over the few days we're in Boston.

I've been fixed!

The stimulation from my SCS is kind of a weird sensation.  The only way I know how to describe it is that it's kind of like being electrocuted but it doesn't hurt.  It's hard to imagine missing that sensation but I have to admit I did.

I met with the rep from the company that made my stimulator yesterday.  She set up my new programmer so I'm back to having stimulation.  She also noticed a problem with the wand attached to my programmer.  She put in an order for a replacement and that arrived today.  I'm all fixed up!

The minute I was able to alter the sensations and strength I felt like a had a long lost friend back.  I missed you, old friend.  You're back just in time.  The weather has been playing games again, as it tends to do in the Spring around this area.  It was almost 90 degrees F a couple of days ago and I woke up to 32 degrees F this morning.  They're calling for rain over the nest couple of days.

The pain levels aren't yet back down to where they had been before, but it's getting there.  Just a few days more.  I'm excited to get acquainted with my newly adjusted programs.

Stockings are the devil

The husband and I were recently invited to attend a ceremony, for which we would be required to dress up a bit.  We agreed.  The day came and it was chilly outside.  It was maybe 40 degrees Fahrenheit (that's about 4-5 degrees Celsius for the foreign readers).  I had to wear a skirt, but I don't dress up very often so I didn't have any stockings to wear.

I called my mom, who has always had an abundance of stockings, to see if she could lend me a pair. She agreed and off we headed to pick them up.  I decided to try them on there, and it's a good thing I did.  I pulled the right leg of the stockings over my right ankle and all of a sudden the pain was so bad I could barely fight back tears.

What had happened here?  I'd worn stockings as recently as a few months ago without a problem?  I assumed it was because my mom is much more petite than I am and I asked my sister if I could borrow a pair of hers instead.  Same result.  I got the stocking jut over my ankle before the pain became so bad I had no choice but to immediately remove them.

I couldn't understand what was going on.

I decided I wasn't wearing stockings.  That seemed the only solution.  I opened the door to leave and discovered that was not a solution at all.  As soon as the cold air hit my leg I was in even more pain than I had been with those devilish stockings on.

I asked my mom if he had anything else I could wear on my legs.  She asked why and I explained the conundrum. It was either severe pain from wearing stockings or severe pain from not wearing stockings.  there was no winning solution.

That's when I got my answer.  My mom had purchased stockings that are meant to "grip" your legs tightly, constricting the blood vessels.  Well, there you have it!  I can barely wear socks because constricting the blood vessels in my leg causes intense pain.  We first discovered this the first time they casted my leg after I got CRPS.  I'd forgotten how much pain that cast caused, but it's vivid in my mind now.

I was eventually able to find a pair of regular stockings, which are still restrictive, but at least they aren't that bad.  The night turned out lovely and although my leg hurt, it could have been so much worse.

My stimulator is still broken.  It looks like Tuesday next week might be the first chance I have to get it fixed, but even then, the Rep hasn't called back to confirm :-(  I'm still crossing my fingers that Tuesday is the day.  The pain is driving me batty.  I can't sleep when my leg hurts this much.

Update to The Downfalls of Heat:
I tried laying off the heat for a while.  It didn't seem to make much of a difference.  Lately I've been using the heat a lot more, trying to ease some of the pain.

My stimulator is broken!

When I said a while back that I was lucky that I hadn't had any problems with my stimulator, I my have spoken too soon.

I went to turn on my stimulator the other day.  I've been doing this long enough now that I don't really pay much attention to the programmer.  I have the motions memorized.  I decided to turn on a program I hadn't used in a long time and got a "program corrupt" message.  Uh-oh.

Oh well.  I simply selected a different program and moved on.  Then...

A couple of days later I went through the same motions and when I looked down at the programmer's screen I noticed there was nothing.  It was black.  I had hoped it was because the batteries in the programmer weren't seated properly, or maybe it was a case of the wand not being inserted properly, so a few quick adjustments and we should be back in business, right?  WRONG!

That was okay, though.  I know my programs by heart now.  There are a select few that I use the majority of the time so I could just go ahead and switch programs by memory.

I did put in a call to the company that made my stimulator, though.  It was Good Friday and the office was closed but the very friendly Customer Service Rep I spoke with offered to put in an emergency ticket to get it straightened out this weekend.

I'm sure there are people out there who are in much more dire situations than myself, and since I could still switch my programs by memory I told him that was unnecessary.  He said he would put in a regular ticket and someone would call this weekend or on Monday.

Good, problem solved.  Last night I tried to change the stimulation so I could sleep (my daytime program is much higher than my nighttime program.  There's no sleeping while running the daytime program).  No matter what I did the program wouldn't change so I had to shut the stimulator off entirely.

Since it's the weekend, and I have a lot of downtime this weekend, I can't run my daytime program.  It's simply too much stimulation.  My simulator is now turned off and my leg HURTS.  I really had forgotten how painful the CRPS is until my stimulator stopped working.  My foot is so cold and in so much pain!

Now here's to hoping the technician will call Monday and be able to fix it then.  Otherwise, this upcoming week at the office is looking to be a long, painful week.  Someone get the painkillers and heating pads ready!

Hooray for good days!

It stormed here last night.  I was awakened a few times by the thunder and lightning, which made me very tired this morning.  I got up a little early, and was at work a little early.  When I got there I found out the power was out.  After a little while I was told to come home since the outage didn't have an end in sight.

I have to say, that's pretty darned good timing.  It's been a crazy few weeks here.  Last night, seemingly for no reason, the muscles that sit just on top of my SCS battery started twitching.  I tried laying down to get it to stop and it didn't.  I kept changing my position slightly in hopes I could relieve it.  No such luck.  So it twitched away all night.  It's still twitching.  I'm not sure what's going on, but it is pretty painful.  All that to say if the power was going to be out any day and they were going to send me home, today was the day.  I can't believe how lucky I am.

Speaking of work, like I said, it's been crazy.  We've been busting our butts, since this is one of our busier times of the year, and it's taking it's toll on my RSD.  Of course I'm sure the weather fluctuations aren't helping, either.  It was 73F here yesterday.  It's only March.  I enjoy the warmer weather, but I'm sure winter will be making a vicious comeback in the next few weeks and I'm not going to be a happy camper.

Remember back in February when I talked about the glass lid I dropped on my foot in December?  The bruise under my toenail is still there.  It doesn't hurt any more than the rest of my foot hurts (I don't feel any added pressure or anything), so I have no intention of having it checked out.  However, the husband doesn't like that plan.  He thinks I should have it checked out and drained if that's what needs to be done.  I know that any injuries on my affected foot will take a long time to heal so I figure I might as well wait it out.

The husband and I have really found a fun hobby in home brewing.  We've completed 2 beers (the second is actually bottled and just waiting for the right moment for me to drink it).  I discussed previously how much standing is required, but with each batch we're getting better about how much time I spend in the kitchen.  I'm really having fun with this.  I hope I can keep up with it as time passes.  However, we also tried our hand at wine and I have to say that the amount of standing required with wine making is so much more conducive to me partaking in this hobby, so maybe I will always have something like that I can do.