Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosh89
Thank you for making me feel so welcome! My family have been beyond supportive so I'm very lucky in that sense. I suppose I am not as focused as I could be, but progress has been so slow it gets me so down. My right leg seems to be okay, but my left leg (although I stretch it with a foot brace) does not seem to stretch enough to walk on. It's at such an angle that when I stand up I have to lean forward. Even when I try to stand straight and feel the muscle pull, it never seems to give. I also have foot drop on my left foot so all in all it's very frustrating. I've heard of various devices that can help with foot drop but with the CRPS I'm truly not even sure if I could wear it. I'm going to try Epsom salts tonight as you suggested. Nice to meet you painman 
I'm doing 2 hours of physio a week with one hour at the hospital and the other with a private PT. At home I stretch my legs every night and try to walk with the crutches but don't normally last more than 5mins with the foot drop. What is a walker exactly? It sounds like I could use with one! I'm so happy you're back at work, what an inspiration!
Sounds like I need to ask my hospital PT for some HT and try to convince her that I'm ready for crutches (she doesn't think I am). She says the problems with stretching my legs are the real barrier. May I ask, how did your daughter get CRPS? |
This is the walker that I purchased (this is the one for short people and it does come in other colors):
http://www.amazon.com/Nova-Zoom-Roll...2779588&sr=8-2
It's important that you discuss using one of these with a physical therapist/doctor before you try it because you need to be confident you can use the brakes and not go rolling away with it. I love that it has a seat because in the beginning I had to sit ALL the time...but always had a seat with me. Using an old fashioned walker and crutches really drained my energy and caused me to have an abnormal gait (and the crutches caused so much pain everywhere else). This walker also has a canvas basket under the seat which came in handy trying to carry things (almost impossible with crutches). I prefer the canvas basket because the metal ones need to be removed before folding it up (which I need to do to put it in my car).
This walker also has a way to lock the wheels so I would do some of my standing exercises right in front of the sofa (that way if I needed to fall back or it it was right there). It's amazing what a difference the walker made for me. Progress was still slow but I think went much better once I had it. You can start out putting very little weight on your left ankle (that's where mine started btw) but you still make normal walking motions and then gradually as you can tolerate it you can add more and more weight as you walk. But the key (for me) was the normal gait and walking patterns.