Maybe some gentle yoga style moves or even ti chi?? - you can find samples or types on you tube & Google videos - for beginners, seniors or arthritis would be the easiest to try.

I read somewhere that swimming is good for fluidity & movement -and if you can't bear weight on your legs or joints, but because the water buoys you up some of the weight bearing & muscle fitness benefits are not there. So you'd have to do more swimming to get equal benefits.

I don't know if your insurance would pay for PT but I do agree with Jo and Daniella that you do need exercise and massages.

I spent 4 years in PT for the RSD, Fibro, TOS, and other things and when I finally got the right therapist, they helped me a lot. They didn't make me do any lifting or tugging or treadmills. They did massages and stretched my fingers and hands and they did teach me some exercise to do at home. I am doing better these days. I have my setbacks but I do consider that it's been like a miracle that I found the right help in the right places.

Find you some exercises to do on line or as I said a PT. I will say I can't join gyms due to the machinery they have although I'd love to. Now I do some exercises at home and I am able to get out a lot more. You have got to get some movement going in your body by loosening things up.

I hope you find some good help soon. Party sounds like fun, I had a great Christmas even though I was sick and this weekend I have to drive 150 miles one way to a funeral for someone we spent Christmas with. I dread the trip and I cry for the loss of a good person.

Feel better soon.
Ada

Thanks Mike...Any translation would be appreciated!

Thanks for all your replies,, I do go swimming 3x weekly and massage 1-2x weekly. My muscles are atrophying despite using then and I think the only way it will stop is by breaking the cycle...I just wish we knew how to do that!!

Walking is awesome...you may need to wait for the ice to melt! But really, I think my daily walks with my dog have helped keep me sane.

Good luck...xoxo. Sandy

Oh, Sandy. I so miss walking. That was my stress outlet. I would walk it off. No walking now. I was just wondering today, how to replace that. I guess I've switched to more meditating on scripture, but there are some days when I just want to feel the physical release from getting some exercise. Soon I hope doc will let me do water exercise. For now he is against any unnecessary movement. He is hoping this will reduce the inflammation around the nerve and reverse the effects, but I kinda think we are past that now. Enjoy your walks for both of us. No more Smokey Mt Cades Cove walks for me, no trail hiking. I'm making new choices for escape.

pat e

I can only walk about 1/2 a block before my foot and leg give out . The only physical exercise I can still do is swim and that is slowly fading with my back muscles going and my left leg muscles too.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

Debbie

so sorry guys....RSD is an awful condition that affects each of us so differently. Ugh....

Please take care, Sandy

It was just pointed out to me that Mitochondrial dysfunction in muscle tissue of complex regional pain syndrome type I patients, Tan EC, Janssen AJ, Roestenberg P, van den Heuvel LP, Goris RJ, Rodenburg RJ, Eur J Pain 2011 Jan 22. [Epub ahead of print], is already in the online RSDSA library @ http://www.rsds.org/2/library/articl...0Pain_2011.pdf

The significance of the article is that it provides evidence that there is apparently more to muscle atrophy in CRPS than "neurogenic-vasoconstriction" (constriction of blood vessels due to the nerves that control the blood vessel's "tone"). Specifically, there is a metabolic disorder in play.

This disease just keeps on getting more interesting all the time, doesn't it?

Mike