saw physical therapist

[morgan617]

went to physical therapist yesterday. she said i have the most profound muscle weakness she has ever seen in anyone. she said she doesn't know how i am able to walk. i told her i don't, i fall to where i am going...har har. she did not think that was funny. so now i have two therapists to see. her for passive conditioning and one for chronic pain. she said she thinks my pain tolerance is so high, i actually have no idea how much pain i should be in. she thinks i have a cracked knee cap and don't even know it. i told her i whine a lot, but she said my entire back was in a spasm and i didn't even feel it. i was shocked. i went for my hips and knees. she said there is no way at this point i will ever be okay, she just wants me a little better. so this should some kind of fun. wish me luck. oh she made me tell my doctor i was falling down all the time. she said she was writing it to him so she was giving me a chance to come clean ha. so i did this am, but with his crappy nurse, so she probably won't even bother to tell him. ha ha. and they won't work on my knee till i get an xray. that was a crash into the wall and having your knee stop you episode. so signing off is morgan, the worlds weeniest person. ta ta

[Michelle Sawicki]

Morgan,

I do hope the physical therapy helps you out a bit. It's great that you still have your sense of humor. Hang in there, and let us know how things go.

Michelle

[DawnA]

You do not sound like a weenie to me. I am glad you are going to physical therapy. I am a firm believer in PT's. A good PT evaluation can tell a Dr a lot. I hope they can help. Look out they will recommend a walking aid if you do not already use one.

Do you have an explanation for your muscle weakness.? That concerns me.

I hope your knee is OK.

Dawn A

[DancingLight]

morgan!!!

you are not a weenie! not even a little bit of one. but i hear you on the whining thing...i am very whhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyy some days too!

you are hysterical though...i know, if you don't laugh about it you will cry...but you sure do keep things funny even when they are miserable. i do that in therapy...start laughing and telling jokes when things get too deep!

anyway, i am doing PT now too and it is manual therapy....so sounds like some of what you might be doing.

make sure you tell them if you feel worse rather than better after your sessions so that they can adjust stuff! b/c that is what i have had to do. they don't always realize how sensitive our bodies are compared to "normal people". aahhhh, to be a medical marvel, i just love it!

don't you just love hearing you are the worst case of something she has seen? that really cheers you up doesn't it?

like with my pt...i have only been going for 2 months and i kept getting worse instead of better until we readjusted. i would get so sick and he would say, "i'm feeling kind of depressed about this, or i'm feeling discouraged." or, man, you are so sensitive and responsive unlike anyone i have ever seen. he wasn't trying to be insenstive, i know that...but i'm thinking....YOU"RE depressed...no, wait, i am the one who feels like crappola!

anyway, off on a tangent, but i thought maybe the story would cheer you and bring you a smile. you are so courageous morgan...i really mean that. keep us posted (and i am not trying to scare you about pt, i am very much hoping mine will help in a non-pharmacologic way, it just is taking some fiddling with the protocol...and you sound like you don't always tell them what is going on! i.e. with the falling! eeek!)

okay, gotta go! clonidine is kicking in.

emily

[calypso]

Morgan,

I am glad to hear you will be starting PT. I also suffer from muscle weakness due to POTS, and even before POTS, I was never a strong person -- despite the fact that I do massage for a living and was pretty active.

I really believe that exercise is one of the only reliable methods to improve our health. Hope you are able to reap the benefits, but don't overdo it!

Amy

[Ernie]

Hi Morgan,

You are notting close to a winnie. I admire your strenght and courage to manage all the health issues you have. You are also very generous of yourself in helping others.

I have to go to PT also because of the injuries I sustain in my faintings. Most of the time it is my knees and my lower back which are taking the impact.

Ernie

[opus88]

About 15 years ago, I had horrible muscle weakness and fatigue, with my limbs feeling like they were incredibly heavy and it took major effort to move at all. After strong doses of GTF Chromium for a short time and then a maintenance dose for many months, I regained my strength. But the exercise intolerance that I still have 10 years later has created a horrible deconditioning, leaving me weaker than a normal person of my age and size. (I used to work out 5-6 days a week and was very strong!)

About 3 years ago, the nasty weakness and fatigue came back but it must have been for a different reason - it did feel different than before (didn't have the heaviness) and the GTF Chromium didn't work for this. But after a couple of months on the metabolic typing program's professional-grade, whole food-based program, particularly heavy on the B vitamins, I began to regain the strength to function normally (like walking, doing dishes, etc.) without trouble. I still have no true strength to do non-typical things, but I am walking easily unassisted and can do simple household chores and even move computers and monitors around at my office. (Climbing up and down the ladder since Hurricane Ivan took our stairs has been a real challenge - my thigh muscles are so sore!)

I also learned that if I eat foods that are high in potassium, the weakness returns. It appears that my body either produces or holds onto too much potassium in relation to other minerals. Perhaps you could do a search on potassium-rich foods and eliminate them for a month to see how you do.

Just trying to throw some ideas out there. I hope something will be of help to you or at least give you a new direction for your research.

[morgan617]

thanks everyone for your support and advice. i was only supposed to do 3 reps, but what a weenie!!! i did ten! well i have paid for that one. i did it again anyway.... ha. i choose not to be a weenie any longer. a month ago i was walking a whole mile, now i can barely get to the fridge. intolerable i say. she told me she knew i was going to overdo and she would know and she would be very upset with me. so then instead of a whine i will have to be petulant... she is actually very very good and said we are going to be doing a lot of "tweaking" that sounds like more excitement than i can handle but seriously, i am hoping at least not to end up with some sort of walking device at the rate i'm going. and you are right emily. is it something special that we are the worst they've seen or do you roll over and bawl. i guess i choose to feel validated, because at least she did not say, boy are you crazy or what!!! always look on the bright side of the something or other , can't remember the words. i think i'm manic today, so will sign off. thanks a lot for all the support. and no more political rant from me on other posts! ah i hate when i do that.. but i love all you guys and gals. morgan

[morgan617]

sorry opus, i meant to say my potassium is always too low...weird but true. morgan

[Guest GayleP]

Morgan,

You are not a "weenie". Quite the opposite, especially if you have problems that you are not even aware of like with your knee. I also admire your sense of humor.

Hope the PT helps and that if you use that particular PT that she can try to laugh with you and lighten up a little.

GayleP

[DawnA]

Hey Weenie...your PT is going to yell at you!!!You have got a great attitude. Keep it up!

Love, dawn

[morgan617]

should i change my call letters????? weenie girl

[MightyMouse]

No, you are not a weenie! Or a wuss. However, you were NONCOMPLIANT with your PT's instructions. I think that makes you a noodge That's my professional opinion as a behavior analyst

Edited September 30, 2004 by MightyMouse

[morgan617]

what the heck is a noodge?! i think it sounds like something i should be proud of! lol. actually i have toned it down because it's a lot harder than i thought, so i am being a good girl, (petulant look i shall wear on friday) i got my knees xrayed today. you won't believe this, unless of course you've had your knees x rayed. i can't bend it or straighten it too much or squat on it. so how do they xray knees. why you bend them, straighten them all the way out and get on all fours like a dog, which of course makes you bear weight right on the kneecap which is killing you.... i asked her if this was candid camera or what? she started laughing and told me to be sure and watch tv... it wouldn't be so bad except i had really hairy legs... this is getting to be more fun than a few hours of tachycardia at 3 am... will get results tomorrow. so all you mean mommies out there, weenie girl is now being compliant

[MightyMouse]

Yes, you can be proud, I suppose I'm not sure if it's yiddish slang or just a local thing, but we use that term here for someone who is stubborn and willfull and purposely disregards common sense--such as willfully disregarding the directions of an expert in body dynamics

I'm a noodge all the time! Hence, my spouse does things like hijack me and take me to a doctors appointment that I've not been told about because I insisted I didn't have any allergies--that was 10 years ago-- and many allergy meds later, I'm glad I went, even if I had refused for a decade before. Or my insistence on eating what I wanted after surgery despite being told "no milk products"-- I was craving a big bowl of raisin bran. Of course, just after eating said raisin bran, I came face to face with another kind of bowl--big and porcelain

Your friend in noodgeness, Nina

[Merrill]

Nudzh = Yiddish (use the "u" in "put," not "nut") -- as a noun, it means one who pesters, nags, annoys ("He means well, but what a nudzh!") and as a verb, "I'll take out the trash later; just stop nudzhing me about it!")

This according to Leo Rosten's book "The Joys of Yiddish."

[MightyMouse]

I thought is was yiddish...

funny though, most of the folks use that word when talking about being stubborn (annoyingly so, yes?), such as when referring to their child who just did something to push your buttons. Must be some non-yiddish adaptation in useage that's evolved. I've actually heard the term used mostly by teachers I work with when referring to a students with problem behaviors that are just to get teacher attention or to avoid work.

thanks for the derivation info though! Learned something new

[DancingLight]

merrill!

love that you posted the definition! just think of all of the things we can learn on this site!

i use that word ALL of the time along with many other yiddish words...i am keeping my grandmother's memory a blessing! i would like to learn more though!

nina! you are keeping your humor through this that is for sure!

morgan...ouch! what is it with medical procedures and pain! good grief. i will watch for you on tv! he-he. sorry, couldn't resist. let us know what the results show. i hate going through a zillion tests esp. if all i will hear is...well, we didn't find anything!

emily

[blackwolf]

Ok, I've stayed out of this one way to long! Haven't typed for awhile.But for being "whiny" this is probalbly one of the crazist conversations of read. Whinny you are not, as to total back spasm and not feeling it, not a suprise to me. Been doing that for the last 7 days(ooouuuccchhh!!). PT is great stuff, can you do it in a pool, I did, it was great. And yes, this "mommy" says "now be good and do what the nice lady(man) tells you to".

As to falling down and going boom, I personally use a cane. Good for walking, scaring small animals(walking dog in the middle of the nite) and threatening nasty kids(mostly my own, just kidding).

Merril, thanks to you, here in South Dakota, yiddish is few and far between.

Blackwolf

[morgan617]

gosh, who'd have thought i'd get a lesson in Yiddish. that's great and since i am annoying it's perfect. as for normal xrays, i told the hubby this am when they call and say it's absolutely normal, i'm gonna cut it off with a butter knife. he just put his head in his hand and said okay so you will be minus a leg when i get home right? oh he knows my traitorous body so well.... that is my bad bad body hiding behind all the basically normal test results. i am seeing gene tomorrow. so i see a guy and a girl. i am SOOOOO special. if he's cute it will be a bonus i guess, but gene is a somewhat old fashioned name, so i don't suppose he will look like a firefighter. but my pcp still looks good after 20 years so it all evens out. and i will be good, even with only one leg. it's probably my brain that needs an amputation, but as it is only the size of a peanut, it wouldn't be worth the weight loss i'd like to acheive. morgan the wonder weenie

[leah1321]

I had the same experience as you. I went to the PT for knee problems and I was very weak. I was dragging my leg behind me and could not do anything without crutches. My PT could not believe how weak I was and how much pain I endured. Also, I have a broken wrist right now but did not think I did because even with the swelling, I did not have much pain. Sure, there is pain, but I figured it would be unbearable. Also, i have constant, unrelenting spasms in my neck, face, shoulders, and other places, but I have no choice but to deal. I take medication and I exercise and that helps, but I am in constant pain. We deserve to whine sometimes!

By the way, the PT helped me a lot. That and neurontin. Keep up with the exercises even when they are hard! It'll take a while, but do it. I am so happy I did the PT.

Leah