Tag: disability

Acupuncture Update 03/03/17

Howdy guys!

Something pretty amazing has happened…

I actually discharged myself from acupuncture! I don’t think I’ve ever reached a point where I’ve been ready to end some treatment purely of my own choosing (with anything relating to my cerebral palsy) before.

Man, it feels so good to be able to say that. I’m pretty convinced my acupuncturist is amazing to be honest. She warned me right at the start of this second block of appointments that I might not notice a dramatic change in my pain levels so quickly this time because it wasn’t as bad as it had been the first time I came to see her.

Some of you might remember that I’ve been having a second round acupuncture appointments for that thing that I not-so-lovingly call my Mystery Hip Pain. Acupuncture has been the only thing to ever make it go away, which doesn’t seem like an east feat to me (with my zero amount of medical training) given that no one knows why I have it in the first place.

A couple of appointments later when I told her I was worried that it wasn’t realy havng a impact of me at all, she changed her approach a bit and stuck even more needles into me, and lo and behold, the MHP was practically gone a couple of weeks later, and bothered me so little that I told her I felt like it was probably as good as I could get. And bless her, she kept my referral open for a month or so in case I changed mind. Well, that month has past now and I still don’t feel like I need to go back.

Yep, she must be magic.

 

 

Acupuncture update 19/1/17

I had another acupuncture appointment today. I remember being so excited when my referral letter came through the post because I knew how much the treatment had helped my mystery hip pain in the past.

At my first appointment, my acupuncturist did warm me that I might not notice such dramatic effects this time because my pain had been nowhere near as bad as before.

I have to say that she was right. I noticed a slight difference between my first session and my second, but hardly any at all between last week’s and today’s.

I mentioned this to her and she decided to try using more needles, but so far, I’m still not noticing a difference. Maybe I will in a few days…

 

 

My main pain issues January 2017

As you probably know by now, my cerebral palsy means that there is not a day in my life that is totally pain free. I don’t mind this. Most of the time it’s a constant level that is my ‘normal.’ When my pain is at this level, I find it manageable and it doesn’t stop me doing anything. It’s kind of like having the radio on in the background at the office. You know it’s there, but you kind of zone in and out depending how focused you are on your work.

The problem is that when a pain starts to bother me more than I would like, the things I do to combat it and make it manageable can sometimes cause other recurring aches and pains to spring up or intensify. Imagine you’re playing a game of Whack-a-Mole, only the moles are various pain issues and the machine itself is your body.

I’m kind of caught in one of these situations at the moment. The top of my back has been hurting again, so I’ve been laying on my front with a hot wheat bag on my back to stretch it out. It really helps, which is all well and good, but because it really helps I’ve been doing it a lot. This might sound like a good thing, and I suppose in a way it is. except that I’ve done in so much that I’ve over-stretched some of the muscles in my chest – again.

So now I have an aching back and an aching chest. Laying on my front  helps the back pain still, but aggravates the sore chest muscles – as does wearing a bra, but that’s a whole other thing.

I fall into this trap quite a lot. I think I’ve posted about it before even. The problem is that I have no idea how to get out of it now that I’m in it, or how to stop myself getting stuck in it. Do you know what I mean?

The challenge has been set

Well guys, there’s no denying that my updates on this blog have been very sporadic over the last two years or so. I met up with some friends last night. and we got chatting about the stuff I get up to online, when one friend, let’s call her L (hi if you’re reading this, by the way), commented on when I have and hadn’t been posting. Basically the whole conversation ended with me saying that I really do need to update more, and that I would do it every day for a week in an effort to kick-start my plan.

So, here we have it. I’m going to post every day on this blog for the next seven days, but not everything will be cerebral palsy-related. Some of you might think this is a great idea and some of you might get sick of me popping up in your various social media feeds, but I’m going to do it. You have been warned.

I have an acupuncture appointment later this week that I’ll be able to update you on, and at least one video that I need to get edited and put onto YouTube that I can share here too. If there’s anything you’d like me to write about then let me know.

See you tomorrow,

Nic x

 

 

November was indeed crazy!

Hey, remember how I wrote that blog post before November even started saying that it was going to be a crazy month, what with NaNoWriMo going and all my appointments and stuff? Well it turned out to be an even crazier month than I thought, what with NaNoWriMo going on, all my appointments, going to see one of my favouriate authors doing a talk, and my family re-homing a dog from some of our friends who couldn’t give her as much attention as they would have liked any more. Yup, you read that right Little Miss Turns-Into-A-Ball-of-Anxiety-Everytime-a-Dog-Even-Looks-At-Her now shares a home with a dog. And I love her. Well, I never.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? My first day of NaNo was awful, and it didn’t get any better. It took me about two days to get what I affectionately call ‘NaNo Neck’ this year. That is what I call it when my neck, back and shoulders all hate me for pending too much time hunched over my laptop, which happens every year sooner or later. My plot was virtually non-exsistant (and still is.) I had several days where I didn’t write anything, but I dragged myself over the finish line with a few hours to spare. Here’s a YouTube video I made about the whole thing, if you’re interested.

 

Needless to say the month was a tough one in terms of my cerebral palsy, what with all the extra pain and the cold (omg the cold) but I did have my botox and they’ve ordered me some new boots to go with my calipers, which I needed as my old ones were getting holes in. Oh, and everything went fine at the dentist, which is always nice. Apparently I don’t have to go for another nine months now instead of six months. Yippee!

So, let’s talk about the dog now. She’s a six year-old shi tuz called Tallulah and at first I was really, really nervous about getting her. I’ve never had a dog before, and don’t know a lot about them, and the ones that I have been around have generally been bouncy or yappy or too playful for me to handle, and then of course there is my whole ‘cats are clean dogs are dirty’ thing that my brain thinks for some reason.

There were a few teething problems so I kept things quiet about her online until we had them a bit more under control in case it turned out that we weren’t the right family for her and she wasn’t the right dog for us. Anyway, things have settled and we’re keeping her, although things still aren’t easy because the poor little thing is undergoing a phantom pregnancy (she’d just had her last season a month of two before we got her) and the poor thing is very sad and confused about why she doesn’t have puppies yet.

So, that was the hectic month that was Novemeber. Hopefully I’ll be back a little more regularly now. How are you guys?