Sunday Stroke Survival: Dry Needling- The New Hope

It seems I can't quit talking about dry needling. It has been my greatest blessing so far this year. It has almost consumed my blog since December 2014 and I first heard about it for post stroke spasticity.  Yes, it is still considered "voodoo therapy" as my old occupational therapist calls it. There are no concrete studies to categorically prove that this works for post stroke spasticity  patients. Studies are currently being done. BUT for me it's working. That's saying a lot!

Before the dry needling, my spasticity was BAD and almost constant even with 400cc of Botox (350 units in just my arm alone). When the Botox wore off before the next series of injections, I was in horrendous pain. Try bending your wrist with finger clenched into a fist, and then cock it inward until you fingers touch your inside forearm. Now bring the whole forearm up to your chest and hold it in that position. Bet you can't do it for long.

My spastic, post stroke arm

That's how bad my muscle spasms were. Not for minutes. Not for hours. Not for days, but think weeks. To move it more than a couple of inches away from my body was near impossible not to mention painful. Imagine how much fun it was putting on a simple shirt. It brought tears to my eyes and blood from my lip to keep from screaming each and every time. Even with the Botox my wrist would only straighten to mid line (straight) with my therapist using force and my elbow bent. I've never been thankful for my Clonus, but the clonus is now back in my wrist and I'm glad to tolerate it.

This picture (below) represents my progress to date. With the therapist still doing all the work because my wrist and hand are still spastic and they are paralyzed (no voluntary movement). Keep in mind this is with the fingers stretched out to the first joint and the elbow is straight. I also have dry needling twice a week.

Blue-1st session. Red-4th session. Green-5th session

I'd call this progress! This new treatment modality is firing up motor response neurons that haven't fired in two years since the spasticity set in almost nonstop. He (the therapist) isn't really pulling hard to hold it in this position either. He is also able the do the other range of motion exercises too. The best part is I'm NOT in pain any more.

In March, my dry needling therapist started working on my inverted foot. On his measurement before the needle sticks in the trigger points, the foot was inverted 32 degrees. to give you an idea of what that looks like I pulled this image from biology-forums.com.

Credit

After ONE session and about a dozen trigger points hit, the angle of inversion was 10 degrees! Better yet, As I felt my foot drifting back into the inverted pattern, I MOVED it back straight! My foot is not paralyzed. Granted I was only able to do it twice, but it's a start. Last session was five times, so there is improvement. The muscle is strengthening and the neurons are rewiring. I continue to do the exercise program Amy suggested.There is hope that one day I will walk pseudo-normally without my AFO again. I say pseudo-normally because I do have a hip and knee replacements on my FUBAR (If you do not know this acronym look here) er, um, non-functioning leg.

Me doing the Snoopy dance!

After every session of dry needling, I'm sore and exhausted, but exhilarated at the same time. New pathways are being awakened in my brain. I'm seeing results rather than the passive (on my part) stretching for therapy. I mean for the most part it's passive on my part during these session, but I'm focusing real hard on making the limb movement while he's doing it.

These days I've added the quantifying word "when" I get this or that part back. That a big boost. It's wonderful not having your muscles saying "Go this way!" "No I want to go that way" like a couple of kids fighting over which way to go...because that's really what spasticity is. Now when my spasticity is gone, I can start recovering.

A couple helpful tips if you are considering this treatment...

• You will need a referral or prescription from your doctor if the person doing the treatment is not one.
• Call every doctor, chiropractor, pain management, rehab place in your town to find out who is certified to do this procedure. If there is more than one, shop each one and go to the one you like the best.
• Is there a therapist who is training or awaiting their certification? Offer to be their practice dummy. I know that the National Institute of Health (NIH )offered some studies but they may be complete now.
• Wear loose clothing. Easy on and easy off. You may have to change into a gown.
• Take a shower before the needling. Common sense. Even before your first appointment. Don't be surprised if the therapist wants to start needling right away.
• Designate bags of frozen peas or some such vegetable to use as cold compresses for the first 6 hours after a treatment. You are stretching muscles you haven't used in a while and the needling spots may bruise and/or swell.
• Drink plenty of fluids after your treatment. I eat before a treatment to dissipate the nausea I'm prone to.
• Medicare and some insurance companies may pay for this treatment is listed as a modality or treatment therapy. Talk to the business office. Nine times out of ten they will know how to word it for coverage.

Nothing is impossible with determination.

Wednesday Writerly Way~ Networking for Sales

I learned in several businesses I've operated over the decades, networking is an invaluable sales tool. I mean honestly, if we didn't want to sell books we wouldn't want to publish them, right?

Here we are in the 21st century, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Doh! Social networking via blogs, websites, Facebook, MySpace, Google+, twitter, and all the hundred different sites you can promote on. The sky is the limit unless you do too much of it and are banned. Don't laugh. Authors have been permanently banned for making a nuisance of themselves with spamming. There is a limit to how much you can do before you are blocked, unfriended, deleted, or banned.

Initially, it was tolerated because there were only a few but these days authors are coming out of every nook and cranny. Some are good and some are not so good. It just goes to show you there's a book in everyone.

One of the most overlooked avenues of promotion, often forgotten, is the personal, face-to-face meetings. The human touch. When was the last time you bought a book because you saw a buy-my-book plea online? Never? Really? I guess I proved my point. That's not to say it can't happen, but it is the bottom of the promotion charts on how people buy books.

What's the number one way people buy books? Do you know? Yes, a recommendation from another person. Either you know the person who wrote the book, read pieces of it, or a friend told you how great it was. Sometimes lightning will strike and someone buys the book because of the cover or the write up about it. That's #2 by the way.

The human touch is as alien today as Sigourney Weaver's "Alien" movie because it takes-

• Time
• Human interaction
• You have to actually meet people and go places

A case in point- pharmacy reps. They go and visit all the doctors in their service area. They carry with them assorted promotional gimmicks and samples, buy lunches for the doctors and their staff, and information in a concise format. They take this time to develop relationships with the doctor. Each and every one of them. They have something to sell and we, as authors, do too.

Gone are the days when a writer could hide away in their office and write. If you want to sell books you have to promote yourself and your books whether you are traditionally published or an indie like me.

Have no idea where to start? It will mean you have to get off your office chair and actually meet people. Oh no! Strangers! Remember one person will tell ten, those ten will tell ten each so put your best foot forward.

"You'll never guess who I saw yesterday. I saw Jo. Did you know she's published books? Some are about..."
You get the idea.

• A feature article in the local paper. Everybody that knew you way back when likes to be associated with someone famous. As an author, you are famous or infamous for what you write. Everybody likes to say, "I knew her when..."
• Are there groups in your area that can relate to what your book is about? There are some survivalist here, former spies and military, six zombie walks within 100 miles from home, a stroke survivor's group, and published authors, agents and publishers at annual writer's conferences within 100 miles of home.
• Are there independent bookstores in your area? Most will welcome indie authors for readings and book signings as a draw into their business.
• Reading groups? You can get feedback from readers, as well as a market source.
• Libraries are a great place for readings and "Meet the Author" type events. 
• Chamber of Commerce and their Speaker's Bureau.

The possibilities are endless. You may not make any money on the front end, but lo and behold the back end is golden.
But I hear you, you live in a small town that doesn't have anything much. On to a town that has less than a thousand people in it in the smack dab middle of nowhere.

My aunt donated a copy of Escape from Second Eden to my father's hometown. My grandmother was the librarian until her seventies. It is marked as required reading for the town and even the neighboring towns. I wrote the librarian a nice letter when my aunt gave them a copy. It is now framed and hanging on a wall in the library. The town fathers sent me a letter afterwards to give them a month's notice of my next visit so they could arrange a parade down the center of Main Street in my honor.

This is an extreme example for sure. But, from little acorns mighty oak trees grow. My head is still swimming after a year of receiving their letter. No, I haven't been back yet. I'm frankly too embarrassed by the honor they want to bestow on me.

All you have to do is talk.

Are you selling yourself short?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Writerly Ways ~ Blank Page Syndrome

Is there anything worse than staring at a blank page on your computer screen for a writer? "Oh no!," you cry. "Not the dreaded blank page syndrome!" I use page and computer screen interchangeably because who writes first on paper these days. I know there are a few hold outs, but really does anyone... besides Danielle Steele?

I might jot down references, possible dialog, and scenes on paper, but actually write out the whole book on paper? Honestly I don't put pen to paper unless it's an important to-do lists or my grocery list these days because it's hard for me to write legibly with my left hand. A major milestone for me was writing my name in cursive to sign a check. I gave up writing first/typing later with my first computer in the 80's, but I digress.

Not staring at a blank screen was a goal of mine when I first started writing fiction. I achieved it by the following steps...

• Start with a good, detailed outline.
• Never stop writing at the end of a scene or page.
• Type notes for your ideas of what's next or a what-if before you shut down your computer. I do this in a different color so I don't confuse my notes from my story. 

Most times, as writers, we keep writing until we finish a scene, dialog, or chapter. I tell you as a recovered "blank page syndrome" addict this is WRONG PLACE TO STOP! <Pushing back my chair and standing up. Give you a little wave.> "Hi. I'm Jo and I'm a blank page syndrome addict. I've been blank page free since 1996."

I say this sheepishly and speak from experience. I would write and write until my forehead hit the keyboard. I'd awaken to pages and pages of weird letters configurations depending on how I had moved my head in my sleep. Or I'd close down my computer at the end of the chapter, awake refreshed in the morning itching to start work, and go "er, um, it was all so clear last night before I went to bed...now nothing." After a few minutes of sweaty palms, shaky fingers, and blank staring off into space...otherwise known as sheer panic, I'd eventually remember my train of thought from the night before.

By starting with a good, detailed outline and character sketches you already have the what-ifs on there. You know where your story starts, the middle and the end. If you've done your character sketches, you won't have the characters chastising you with, "I wouldn't do or say that."

All right, maybe they still will. That happened to me repeatedly with The Sacrificial Lamb. Little, ol' Jackie Luann couldn't keep her mouth shut. That character wanted to argue with me about everything. She wouldn't leave me alone even in my sleep! It was reminiscent of my children in the why stage. Parents, you know what I'm talking about.

Before it was finished, I wanted to call 911 for adult abuse on me! But then, I would have to admit to the authorities that it was just the little voices in my head telling me to do bad things  to others. Ah, here come the men in their little white coats, with a straight jacket in just my size. Boy, that kid is still doing it to me. "Shut up Jackie Luann!" She's hedging about a sequel. I'm sideswiped again.

To finish with my previous train of thought before my brain was hijacked by an unruly child and a character at that, a good, detailed outline can save your hinny from the fire in another way too, the dreaded writer's block.

By writing part of the next chapter or scene, you can quickly orientated yourself back into story writing mode. If you've left off in the middle of the dialog, you know how to finish it. If you've started the next chapter, you have a pretty good idea where it is going. The same thing goes for scenes. I know, I know. It's messy. It looks halfway done and you can't stand it. But while you  are finishing that scene or dialog the next day, it helps get your creative juices flowing like oil on machinery. The gears in your brain start turning easier. We are talking about the morning after here. By the time you are ready to write something new, you are ready.

Making notes in a different color gives you a kick start into the next thing you want to write about. You wrote the note to yourself while the ideas were still flowing before you got interrupted by sleep, the in-laws, the out-laws, or kids with, "Mommie, can you read me a story?" Such interruptions such as real life effects your writing. Let's face it when you are writing first thing in the morning, doesn't everyone need a swift kick in the backside to get motivated? I know I do. This particular tip works well for panster writers. A pantster is someone who writes by the seat of their pants without an outline.

I hope this helps some of you with the blank page syndrome. Try it sometime. You just might like it.Come on y'all stand up and introduce yourself. I'll start it for you...

"Hi. I'm (insert your name). I am a blank page syndrome addict."

Keep writing and loving the Lord.