exercise

Would Hydrotherapy Be an Option?

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We had the great fortune this year to rent a beach house for our summer vacation that included a handicap accessible pool. The pool was large enough for our entire family to be in it (seven of us) but small enough that by afternoon the water temperature was around bath-water range. While some people might consider that a disadvantage, for Lynn it was just what he needed. Cold water tends to make his spasticity worse. Plus, Lynn is like a cold-blooded animal—he takes on the temperature of his surroundings; therefore, naturally occurring warm water was perfect for him.
Each day, we took Lynn to the pool where he hung out with us for at least an hour. I would put his arms across a buggy-board or water noodle and use that as a floatation device. The float would be in front and I would hold on from behind. While I held him, he used the buoyancy of the water to help him exercise not only his legs but also his arms and torso. It was a complete body work-out which did not result in serious fatigue. It was fun and therapy at the same time. While he exercised, he was able to be part of the family activities and enjoy the time with his two-year old grandson (who would have grown gills if we had stayed there any longer, I’m sure.)
Now that we are home again, Lynn realizes even more the advantages of hydrotherapy. When he saw his chiropractor this week, she commented on how much more flexibility he had than usual. She attributed that to the passive resistance of exercising in the water. Helping him exercise in the water was also easier for me. Though I had to hold onto him and even hold him up at times, the water served as a support system for the weight of his body keeping me from being as fatigued and reducing the stress impact on my own muscles. With that realization, he has begun to explore the possibility of buying an exercise pool.
The prospect of buying and installing a pool has me filled with mixed emotions, however.
The pros

  • Helping Lynn to exercise in a pool would be easier on me that the muscle stress currently occurring as I help hold, lift and otherwise move his limbs. He has very little ability to move either of his legs and can only move independently one of his arms so the effort required by me is greater than the efforts he can make alone.
  • An indoor pool in one of our spare rooms would be much handier than traveling 45-60 minutes to use a handicap accessible, heated pool in a nearby city. It would also take a huge chunk of time out of my day. Not only would I have to be away from work for the period of time he was exercising but all the time required to go to and from the exercise location and time to get him dressed and undressed.
  • Once it was bought and paid for, we would not have monthly membership fees.
  • The exercise would certainly improve his health and well-being and most likely, my own. For me, it would also likely help my arthritis pain and muscle flexibility so it would help us both physically.

The cons

  • Exercising in a pool at home while less time than traveling to one, would add at least an hour to my schedule and maybe more when it already takes three hours to get him settled before I go to work each day now.
  • The cost of installation, house modifications, exercise and safety equipment, and a lift device to get him into and out of the pool without assistance would cost approximately $15,000-$20,000. Not bad for an indoor pool but a lot more money than what we have lying around.
  • I’m sure there would be some kind of maintenance requirements that would add work to my already full day.
  • What if we do all this, and he gets worse or I get to where I can’t put him into the pool? Then we would have spent a ton of money for something we cannot use.

Continue reading at: http://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/hydrotherapy-option/

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My Role as a Physical Therapist

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Personally, I have never been good at exercising.  I hate it.  I might feel much better if I stayed with it a while but I’m so out of shape that I feel awful doing it.  Not so, for Lynn.  He has always been good about doing some type of exercise almost every day. The major difference now is that I have to help him with it. Therefore, one of my many roles in caring for Lynn is to be his personal physical therapist.
For anyone, but especially people who have conditions that produce fatigue, keeping conditioned is essential to conserving energy.  If the muscles don’t work efficiently, it takes a lot more energy to do the simple tasks of everyday life.   Lack of stimulation to the muscle groups causes them to become de-conditioned which require more oxygen and other support from the body to make them work correctly.  When Lynn was in the hospital so much in 2010, he was told that for every day of inactivity (i.e., being confined to bed) he experienced, it would take approximately a week to regain what was lost due to deconditioning. He found that to be true to a large extent.  It has taken him years to build back up much of the strength he lost during those three hospitalizations and some of it has never returned to the same level.
There is not a whole lot you can do to prevent the progression of MS; however, if you keep fit you’re more likely to be able to maintain greater strength and endurance than if you are out of shape.  Lynn does not want to give up and let me do everything for him.  He wants some control over his condition so exercising is both a mental triumph as well as a physical one. Here’s some of what he does.
 
Read the complete blog here: http://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/my-role-as-physical-therapist/

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Necessity is the Mother of Invention

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I’ve discovered that buying things to make life easier for a caregiver gets expensive; however, with just a bit of creativity, you can have devices to help out that work almost as well for a lot less (other than the time it takes to make them). 

Lynn has been a carpenter, is very creative and has come up with a bunch of things to help him exercise.  I’ve been able to look at magazines and come up with ideas also.  For example:
Don’t like covers on your feet?  Lynn doesn’t either.  What did we do?  Took PVC pipe and glued straight pieces and curved joints so that it sits on the floor and rises above the bed height high enough to keep the covers off Lynn’s feet.  Pipes fit under the mattress to keep it stable, and extensions come off the top to drop the sheets over.

Lynn doesn’t like his toes to rub together. Currently, he’s wearing toe socks, but before he started wearing those, I cut up IV tubing from one of his hospital visits to insert between his toes.  Kept them spread just enough without being uncomfortable.

Lying flat on your back, make your back hurt?  Buy some foam bed pads, cut them up into 3′ x 4′ sections, and tape them on top of each other.  Then make a pillowcase to put them in, and you have a pad to put under both knees at the same time to keep the knees bent and pressure off your back.

Does your loved one fall sleep in their wheelchair and then complain that their neck hurts because the muscles stretch excessively?  Take a stretchy cloth headband and some twine.  Tie the headband to the head support on the wheelchair.  Put the headband around their forehead so that when their head falls forward when they fall asleep, it will be in a neutral position and not overstretch their neck muscles.

He has several carpenter friends.  Lynn designs the devices give them the specs, and supervises the construction.  Here’s some of what he has created:

A tabletop for his wheelchair:  He had them cut a piece of plywood that would sit on top of the wheelchair arms.  He had them cut out a curve around his belly and knocked out a section for the wheelchair controls.  It allows him to rest his arms on the tabletop and put plates or drinks there as well.

Exercise equipment for his quadriceps:  He took a flat board and had tracks added to it.  On the tracking, he had them fix a platform against which he could position his feet.  He had handles put on each side of the board at the top then bought bungee cords that went around the end of the platform from handle-to-handle. He pushes the platform with his feet; the bungee cords pull the platform back, so he exercises his quads.

Core strengthening: He took PVC piping a constructed two sections held together by a wooden pole inserted between them. The PVC comes around in front of him and is a little higher on the ends.  A piece of PVC is under the mattress to keep the pipes from moving.  He sits on the bed with the piping around him to balance.  If he starts to lose his balance, he has pipeline all-around to grab.  He also uses it to do push-ups and build arm strength.

Preparation for reeling in fish:  He created a pole on a base with a hinge.  Then he had a bungee cord connected from the tip of the pole to the wall, and he had a fishing reel attached to the pole.  He could practice reeling, and he could pull back on the bungee cord to strengthen his “pull” for reeling in the fish.

What now?  He’s trying to find a motor he can get customized so he can put a trough on either side of the motor that the motor will raise up and down periodically while he’s in bed. This would allow him to flex his leg muscles periodically and relieve the stiffness he gets at night so he (and I) would not have to get up so often.

Creative, huh?  He looked to patent some of the ideas but getting a patent is VERY expensive, so I guess he will be the only one to benefit from his ideas but if you are interested and want to make one of these yourself, send me an email, and I’ll try to get you more detail.

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