New Member
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Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 4
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New Member
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 4
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Hi there,
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The main supplements I take are Vit C, N-Acetyl Cysteine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, and Acetyl L-Carnitine.
My exercise protocols have morphed over the last few months. I transitioned from crutches to a cane in March and then weaned off the cane as soon as I could. I began by literally walking laps around my mom's yard because I couldn't get too far away from the house lest my legs go out. I also could not tolerate walking on pavement...so I started with 3 yard laps 4x/day. I added laps and eventually transitioned to walking on the street. I now am up to 4 laps that are 6/10 mile each on the street and just tonight bumped the last lap up to 7/10. Each time I add distance it is first only to my last lap of the day. Then the second to the last lap and so on until all four laps are at the new distance.
In addition to walking I taught myself to juggle. Yup--juggle. I read several studies where learning to juggle increases not only grey matter, but white matter (neuroconnections). If it isn't helping rewire my brain, it certainly helped me get my legs and ankles stronger. When I began (beginning of April) I could not stand in one place for more than a few moments. Now I do four rounds of 15 minutes each every day. That's a full hour of standing and shifting my weight from leg to leg.
I also use hypnosis downloads every day. There is an awesome website out there that has a session just for CRPS patients. I use the CRPS session, another one for Renauds Syndrome (which I now have in both feet) and another one for facial tics (CRPS has given me a mean right eye tic) and additional ones for pain management and muscle spasms. These have helped tremendously.
In addition I soak every night for 20 in epsom salts. I have cold CRPS and found this has been a tremendous help not only in stabilizing the temp in my left leg, but also fighting off muscle soreness from all the walking.
Informally, I found that yardwork (of all things) seems to produce the most improvement. It's an organic task that utilizes the whole body, stabilizer muscles, balance, etc. When I began in April I could only hobble to a raised bed and sit on a stool and try to pull one weed at a time with one hand while supporting myself with the other. I was so sick and weak I could only do this for a few minutes. Now I'm weedeating the whole yard weekly, and pruning, watering, planting, trimming, etc, every day. It may sound silly...but I think the yardwork has been the biggest help of all.
I have experimented with lots of other things, like tossing a ball up in the air to myself in the yard and trying to catch it. Some things have worked, others not so much. I have also found that my body tells me when I need to change something up even if it's been working for a while. That is the key for me: listen to my body.
I hope this helps...let me know if you have any other specific questions. I'm usually pretty private, but I know how hard it is to find information on successful ideas to try!
Last edited by Jomar; 07-18-2015 at 07:44 PM.
Reason: **per guidelines
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