Game Changers
January 22, 2025
For just a moment, allow me to put aside my raging political angst (the list of angst-inducing news items on this, day two, of the new administration, is long and frightful) and my concern for the LA fires (another took hold this afternoon and is spreading rapidly thanks to another round of hurricane force winds) and share two most amazing developments from the past couple of days.
Development #1:
Prednisone. I was prednisone-ignorant. My limited research suggests there are definitely concerns with the use of corticosteroids, but when my PCP offered a 5-day burst of steroids to treat some stubborn inflammation, I was hesitant, but also desperate. I decided to try it. Today, I concluded my 5-day course and hooboy! I feel like a prednisone queen, the poster senior citizen of steroid users, a member of the cast of Cocoon (remember that movie where a whole bunch of seniors discover the fountain of youth and enjoy a new lease on life?). I just cannot believe that last Friday night — five days ago — I was suffering through my fifth solid month of misery, pain and immobility, and by Saturday morning, just hours after my first 50mg of prednisone, I was damn near free of that same misery, pain and immobility. Today, Wednesday, my walk around the Arb with Janet was epic. I mean: no limits. In my workout this morning, I was cycling through stretching exercises without a care in the world. My stuck shoulder? Full mobility. My knees? I can twist, bear weight, kneel, drop into a sublime Child’s Pose. If I’m honest… it’s like 95%, maybe not quite 100%. But still. Game changer.
I can’t seem to get my mind off a book I read (we all read) when I was a kid … remember Flowers for Algernon? The story of a developmentally disabled man who, through an operation, increases his IQ, enjoys the riches of life, falls in love.. and then.. the mouse upon whom the experiment was first carried out dies, signaling that Charlie’s newfound joy will not last. Yeah.. that’s my fear, too.
For now, I’ll enjoy. We’ll see what this prednisone experiment holds.
Development #2
Cordless, rechargeable, wall mounted vacuum cleaner. It’s no secret, I’m a bit fussy when it comes to a clean and tidy house. Matters a lot to me. Order keeps me sane, cleanliness makes me happy. Some years ago, Jim replaced our regular old canister vacuum cleaner with one of these water-filter contraptions, reported to do the best job on floors. I don’t dispute that. Thing is, it’s a bear to use. Requires a relatively complicated assembly each time you use it b/c you have to remove the tank, fill it with clean water, then reassemble it. Frankly, it’s tricky, and awkward. If I did it every day, maybe. But as infrequently as I vacuum (because: Miguel), the learning curve’s remained steep. It has long been a major disincentive to hauling out the vacuum for jobs big and small.
I broke a glass the other day, which shattered into shards of all sizes and spread far and wide. It was spectacular. Cleaning this up was a nightmare. Took probably an hour with lots of hands and knees, a few cuts, and then just nervousness that I was leaving some behind. I couldn’t bear getting out the water vacuum, so used a little portable unit we got a couple years ago, which is a step up from a dust buster, designed to be a quicker picker upper for small jobs, but is a hassle when the task is shattered glass. This was a sign to me that I needed a better vacuuming solution.
It’s my birthday this week, so I announced to Jim that an easily accessible, easy to use vacuum cleaner was at the top of my gift list. And here it is, accessibly mounted in the laundry room, just steps from future glass catastrophes. I shouldn’t be this happy, but I am.
T Minus Two and a Half Days…
July 27, 2015
…. to hiking. And then more hiking. And then more hiking.
If my gimpy hip cooperates.
Giving it my all, trying to beat this inflamed arthritic flare thing into submission. Hoping that after six months of rehab work–following that series of unfortunate semi-athletic maneuvers last January–I’ll actually be able to log some trail miles on these upcoming trips we’ve got planned. Or not. I hear Yosemite and Norway and Switzerland are nice this time of year, whether hiking or kicking back and letting others do the hiking.
Here are a few shots taken a couple days ago by Scott the Kaiser PT. He actually had a good reason for taking them which had nothing to do with my blog. It’s all about proper alignment when you’re training muscles back to health; the pictures were his idea so I could check my position later and make sure I was doing things right.
You know.
This is a sort of swivel thing I do against a wall, or lying on the floor, or standing awkwardly at a bar. Goal is to engage the joint without stressing it. Keep things moving. Joints like circulation and light use.
I was demonstrating the various re-strengthening exercises and stretches I do. My strategy has been to gently manipulate the hip every which-way. I had a good one, I thought, for adductors and abductors, but he preferred these. He says doing these this way stabilizes the hips and focuses more productively on the target muscles. Fair enough.
For the adds:
For the abs:
Looks a little instrument-of-torture-ish doesn’t it?
All for the cause.
I’ve got a million more exercises I do; I spend an inordinate amount of time on this. But only have these three photos to share. If you wanna see my list, just ask.
The big, giant, overall objective here in the world of osteoarthritis is to eliminate, as best you can, the inflammation that results from the irritation caused by age-related bone degeneration (and spurs and other random bone bits). This arthritic condition is likely present in many people of a certain age (especially with a genetic predisposition). Even mild bone degeneration (like I have) can lead to a low and chronic level of inflammation. We can probably live okay with that. But if you traumatize this poor vulnerable joint through some kind of over use (who would do that?) it gets more inflamed. The more inflamed, the less able is blood to flow. Whatever micro tears resulted from your weekend athletic forays, cannot heal because the joint got too inflamed and blood can’t get in and out. Everything just bunches up and stiffens for lack of blood supply. Lack of mobility due to inflammation and lack of blood flow are just terrible conditions for our soft tissue.
And if you don’t respect the pain (even if it’s kind of minor), if you don’t ease up, soften up, open up and address it, it just gets worse; it flares to a horrible, tender, unhappy mess. Feels like your muscle’s coming right off the bone. Inactivity and immobility exacerbate the problem. Then there are infinite ways in which our bodies compensate for the pain and discomfort–like a compromised gait, or poor posture, for example–causing even more stress to the joint and all the related muscles, ligaments, tendons, bands and bones, and it becomes a ridiculous domino effect. It is SO HARD to unravel all the damage caused by these compensatory responses to the original trauma .. it’s just insane. And frustrating.
Moral of the story: deal immediately with little pains and inflammation. Take it easy. Let stuff heal. Get body work, drink lots of water. Open that sucker up and let the blood flow. Maybe take some ibuprofen.
At least this is what I think is going on and what the solution is. It’s been a long six months of wrong turns.
This is what I’ve been doing to slow this down and turn it around and get back to my usual (apparently), relatively minor level of handlable arthritis… these are the things that seem to be working:
Physical therapy, strengthening, stretching (this Scott fellow and Hideshi)
Deep tissue body work (the incomparable Kellie)
Rolling and writhing (foam rollers, roller sticks, lacrosse balls)
Heat and/or ice (would somebody decide which it is, please?)
Mega doses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Ibuprofen and only for a few weeks at a time)
Rest (or at least significantly reduced activity)
I’ve done all this stuff, too, but the jury’s out on whether any of these work:
Cortisone shot (seemed good for a few days, then what happened?!)
Heat and/or ice (again… figure this out and let me know)
Chryotherapy (sublime, extraordinary, exhilarating… but really?)
TENS machine (a satisfying jolt of pulsing electricity, right to the point of pain and fatigue)
Kinesio tape (a la Hideshi)
High doses of Turmeric (in the pill form)
An anti-inflammatory diet (omega 3s, certain fruits and vegetables, but not others)
Anti-inflammatory creams (honestly, everyone’s got their favorite)
Gin and golden raisins (best of show in the crazy remedies category)
There are some things I haven’t tried (yet):
Acupuncture (curious, for sure)
Chiropractic (some like this)
Maybe more diet and supplement stuff (Adele?)
Glucosamine and chondroitin (Jim’s favorite)
Hip replacement (Kaiser’s recommendation)
What am I missing?
Sooooooo… leave in a couple days for high country hiking and climbing. Right. We’ll see. Then a few weeks of same in Norway and the Alps.
Wish us luck.
Life of Wry 