I posted this last month on another, non-playingcard-related) forum I frequent, and thought that some here might find it interesting as well.
=====[ BACKGROUND ]=====
For those who are not familiar with my story in recent years, I experienced a massive stroke a little more than five years ago (August 4, 2008). Its most obvious and dramatic [wiki]Sequela[/wiki] is that it has made me a "Left-side [wiki]hemiplegic[/wiki]" (I have almost no control over the muscles in the left half of my body). The muscles themselves are evidently fine (although atrophied somewhat, after five years of non-use). It is the nerve paths leading from my brain TO those muscles which have been compromised by the stroke, so my brain sends the commands for the muscles to move, but the signal never gets to the muscle.
We have been told that the brain can eventually find different pathways to get the signals to those muscles (this "finding a new path" process is called "neuroplasticity"). but that there is no way to predict how long it will take the brain to find each of these new paths, and, given the extent of the brain trauma caused by my stroke, not to expect it to happen.
Here are some of the affects of my Hemiplegia (also called "Hemiparesis"):
=====[ MY LEFT HAND ]=====
The fingers in my left hand have been closed in a fist of sorts since the stroke, and I cannot open it (although I can - slowly, and with great concentration - open the Pinky and Ring fingers almost all the way, and can sort of wiggle the (tightly-curled) thumb a bit.
=====[ MY LEFT ARM ]=====
The left arm has been tightly clenched to my left side ever since the stroke, with the elbow bent in a 90-degree angle.
=====[ MY LEFT FOOT ]=====
The left foot suffers from pronounced [wiki]drop foot[/wiki], and its toes have a pronounced tendency to curl under.
=====[ MY LEFT LEG ]=====
the left leg is non-load-bearing (I cannot safely put any weight on it), and I cannot reliably direct it to where I want it to be, even when I am seated (which is pretty much always, as I have been confined to a wheelchair as a result of my hemiplegia/hemiparesis ever since the stroke.
The only times when I am NOT in my wheelchair are during my brief "transfers" (HospitalSpeak for moving a patient from one piece of furniture - bed/chair/gurney/operatingtable/etc - to another), and when I am asleep in bed.
=====[ THE DREAM ]=====
I was in my bed this past Monday (October 14, 2013) at around dawn, when I had a dream.
In it, Susan (my wife) and I were living somewhere other than our current home here in Salem, Oregon. I'm not sure, but I think we were back in Southern California.
In the dream, I woke up one morning, got ready for work (I have been on Disability ever since the stroke), walked to a bus stop, boarded a bus, disembarked, and walked to my job (no place I recognized from real life). During my lunch break, I went for a stroll around the building's large parking lot.
It was during that stroll that I suddenly realized: I was walking!! I had been, ever since I had left home that morning! Where was my wheelchair? Slowly, I realized that I was dreaming. Damn!
I - carefully, experimentally - took a few more steps, even going so far as to step up onto a curb and back down into the parking lot a few times. I could tell that my left leg was weaker than my right, but its muscles WERE responding to commands from my brain!
I made my way back to my job, and - somehow - back to my (dream) home, and to my (dream) bed, where I fell back asleep.
=====[ I AWAKEN ]=====
Dreaming in my (dream) bed, I started gently & experimentally moving my left foot and my left leg. It took concentration and effort, and the moves were not all that dramatic, but they happened! Gradually, I woke up - in my REAL bed, in Salem, Oregon! As I woke up, I started wondering: could I REALLY walk, like I had in the dream? I consciously tried some of the same gentle and experimental moves with my left leg as the ones I had done in my "dream bed" - AND THEY WORKED!! THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD BEEN ABLE TO MAKE EVEN THESE SMALL, SIMPLE MOVES SINCE MY STROKE!!!
I slowly sat up on the edge of my bed, in preparation for my transfer back into my wheelchair, like I have done every morning for a while. But I could tell that my control over my left leg/foot was better than it had been since the stroke. As I sat there, trying to work up the courage to make the transfer, I purposefully rocked to the left and right, by pushing down against the floor with my right foot, then my left (it worked!), over and over again. This was DEFINITELY using the [wiki]hamstring[/wiki] in my left leg, something I had been unable to do since the stroke!
What about my [wiki]Quads][/wiki]? I stopped the rocking, and tried to make a slow and gentle kicking motion with my left leg.
I could not get it straight out in front of me (parallel to the floor), but got it most of the way there (better than 45 degrees) before I had to lower it again. And I DID consciously lower it - it didn't just drop!
Once the left foot was back on the floor, I tried to lift it straight up while leaving the knee in a 90-degree angle. This was something that my old OT (Occupational Therapist) had stressed was very important, when he worked with me two years or so ago. I had not been able to do it at all back then, but Monday morning, sitting on the edge of my bed, I COULD!!
I only lifted the foot an inch or two off of the floor, but it LIFTED!!
I decided to brave trying to stand, using my "transfer pole" (an aluminum floor-to-celing, tension-mounted pole we had installed within arm's reach of my side of the bed).
I have been making that transfer every morning for more than a year now, but I wondered if it would be any easier now that the nerves to my left leg and foot were apparently waking up.
Since I had not been able to consciously press my left foot down on the floor during those earlier transfers, that foot had a tendancy to swing up off of the floor during a transfer, forcing me to quickly pull myself upright using my right arm, before gravity pulled me back down onto the bed. Would that still have a tendancy to happen, now that I could press down with my left leg a little?
Still seated on the edge of the bed, I planted both feet as firmly as I could, grabbed one of the "loops" on the transfer pole with my right hand, and pulled. I came to an upright position, and BOTH FEET REMAINED PLANTED ON THE FLOOR!!
While still holding on to the pole with my right hand, I then pivoted on my right leg until I was facing the pole, my back to my wheelchair. The next step would be to lower myself into the wheelchair by straightening my right arm and allowing my knees to bend, while holding on to the pole, thus making a "controlled descent" into the chair. This was another move during which the left foot had a tendancy to come off the ground, which could make for a very UN-controlled descent into the chair (or onto the floor, if my butt was not aimed correctly).
I decided that before trying the descent, I would test the left leg a little more,so I leaned the left side of my head against the pole for balance and slowly and carefully let go of the pole, hoping that both legs would keep me upright.
Leaving my right hand within easy grabbing distance of the pole's "loop" (in case I started to fall), I concentrated on using both legs to remain standing straight up, and - it worked! After a few daredevil moments of this, I grabbed onto the loop again with my right hand and made a VERY controlled descent into my wheelchair, buckled myself in, and headed to our office/computer room, where Susan was waiting to put my CircAids (compression garments) on me, like she does EVERY morning. En route there, I decided how I would tell her about this exciting new development.
=====[ THE DEMO ]=====
As I entered into the office, this was the conversation:
=====[ WHERE IT HAS GONE SO FAR ]=====
Later that morning, we moved my LifeCycle (a powered leg exercise machine, similar to the pedals on an exercise bike) to a spot in the office where I can park my wheelchair in front of it. I do so and, with Susan's help, get my left foot into the strap which will keep it on its pedal
I place my right foot onto its pedal, turn the machin on, and - WE'RE OFF!
With the machine's powered assistance, I pedal for several minutes before I stop it and turn it off.
This was FAR more movement than my left leg and fot had done in the previous five years, total! I could even "feel the burn" (a little) in my Quads from their "workout"!
I have done this every day since, even working out a way to get my left foot into its pedal strap on the LifeCycle without Susan's assistance!
I have also done a few minutes of slow & gentle arm and shoulder exercises every day.
As a result of all of this, my arm/shoulder and leg/hip muscles are getting a tiny bit stronger every day, and the new nerve pathways to them seem to be strengthening as well!
I am very excited by all of this, and firmly believe that if I keep at this, it will, in time, lead to my:
- Standing up without the use of the Transfer pole.
- Remaining standing for longer and longer periods of time without holding on to something.
- Walking with a Walker or Hemi-walker.
- Walking with a "quad cane".
- Walking with a regular cane.
and, eventually... - Walking without a cane!
I am also hoping that the benefits of what I am now doing will extend to my left hand and foot. My left ankle muscle is already "waking up" a bit, and I am able to raise and lower my foot a fraction of an inch using only the ankle muscle to do it! And, as that continues to strengthen, I hope that the toe muscles will start to wake up as well! (you use your toe muscles to do many things: not only to walk, but to point your toes to get your foot into a sock, shoe, or into a pant leg! The ankle muscles help with all of these things as well.
The LifeCycle is also meant to be placed on a table and used to exercise arms as well, and I hope to be using it for just that, once my arm and shoulder strngthen to a point where I am comfortable doing so.
I am hoping that exercising my left arm this way will lead to the neural pathways to the hand and fingers "waking up", and the tendons and ligaments in those fingers relaxing (they have been largely "siezed up" to various degrees since the stroke).
This could eventually result in my using that hand to do things like:
- holding small, light objects (envelopes, pieces of paper, etcetera).
- steadying objects while my right hand works on them (holding an envelope while I open it with my right hand, holding a piece of meat in place with a fork while my right hand cuts it with a knife, holding a sheet of paper steady on a flat surface while I write on it using a pen/pencil with my right hand, etcetera).
And, eventually... - Playing my mandolin and violin!
That last one is something my OT and doctors have told me is not likely to ever happen (The fine motor skills needed for something like that are not likely to be in my fingers ever again, they told me), so it would be incredibly sweet to play even a simple tune for them some day.
While I'm dreaming, I hope that all of this "waking up" will somehow extend to the muscles which control my singing ability (another thing greatly compromised since the stroke).
=====[ IN CONCLUSION ]=====
So, all of THAT is my exciting (to me, anyway) news.
Sorry I blathered on at such length and in such detail about it, when I could have simply said something like "The muscles and nerves in the left half of my body are starting to wake up!" instead.
-RSL[/QUOTE]
just check out some of his posts and you'll understand pretty quickly... 