I'm About to Bust With Joy!

So I went for my dry needling today and the therapist said he was starting with my leg. The therapist hit all the major spots causing my inverted foot to "shut down" the trigger point. I have to admit it did sting a bit because of the sheer size of my calf muscles and I let out a gasp or two before my controlled breathing took effect.

He took a measurement of the inverted foot of 32 before he started and a reading of 13 degrees of inversion after hitting about a dozen spots with the needle. To me, this was amazing. I joked with him about him turning me into a masochist because I kept asking him to do it again because I'm seeing and feeling results. Heck, I'm even paying him to do it to me. I know sounds kinky, doesn't it? You should hear the sounds coming from the room as I instruct him to the spot with the needle...

• "A little bit deeper."
• "You're just missing it."
• "You're getting warmer, warmer, that's it. It's on fire now."
• "That's it. You're almost there."
• And then, the painful sigh and a catch in my breath when he hits it.

Now that really sounds risque. I can only imagine what the people hearing me are thinking. But this kind of feedback helps both of us in hitting the exact trigger point of the spasm.

Anyhow to do my leg, he placed a wedge with the flat side against my buttocks and my legs sort of traveled down the incline. That way he could manipulate the leg to get all around it. I also can't see what he's doing. Not that it matters much. He talks me through it. I did warn him about the hyperactive reflex response that my chiropractor found. I'm glad I did because he hit one spot and I just missed kicking his ear.

He then moved up to the arm for stretching and needling. I did notice that he is getting less response now that the Botox is truly gone, but can still manage supination of the wrist with the elbow straight. It just takes more work to get it in that position.

As he needled on my bicep I noticed my foot drifting into its old inverted pattern. I was willing it to stop and go back to almost straight again. Most times it is a bust. I only think it can move but it doesn't. I always visualize to action I want it to be in even when it's passive movement on my part. I thought my foot moved into an upright position. I could have been imagining it though since I couldn't see it.

The therapist stopped poking me to get another needle. I asked him to look at my foot and sure enough the foot moved from inverted to straight. "It moved!" Then there was a flood of questions. Had this ever occurred before? Could he video tape it? etc.

This was the first time since my stroke I was able to move my foot out of the inverted position without physically repositioning it. He asked me to do it again for the camera and of course, the foot wouldn't comply. Twice was the limit, but we both expect it to occur more with practice and more needling. I'm begging for more at this point. I'll endure however many needles it takes for this kind of progress.

Now I'm shouting it from the rooftops! Post stroke spasticity? Try dry needling!

You May Have Noticed...

Since I'm trying to get my life into an Abby Normal schedule again, I've started posting twice a week again and hopefully back to three times a week by the end of the year. The proposed schedule will be Wednesday for writer's writing and Sunday on challenges in writing after a stroke with some more excerpts. Eventually I will do a Friday blog (promotion & marketing) with interviews with other authors and reviews of movies and books I have read and/or watched. I will not do a star system but tell a brief summary, what I liked and didn't like about said book or movie. It will only be my opinion. It won't be a single category type thing because I am eclectic in all things.

I started writing again this week. So far I've added another 1,000 words bringing the total to over 17K of 75K. I've still got a long way to go, but I keep remembering the tortoise and the hare story. Don't Get Your Panties in a Wad will be completed... I just have no idea as to when. But it's a slow and steady progress thing. There is so much difference in my writing now compared to before the stroke.

 In some ways, it's learning how to write again from scratch. It is definitely a work in progress. It will be my sole effort until my neurons steadily fire around the damaged areas in my brain. Once I can master writing in a way I'm used to I'll go back to my fiction writing. Although it probably won't ever be up to ten to twenty projects at a time as before. The genius, multitasking, master juggler is gone.

Maybe a ghost writer would be a better option, but I'm stubborn. I've ghosted manuscripts in the past for others and I still have other books and novels yet to be published. One of my daughters offered to help me reedit and reformat my novels for Kindle. Which would be great except she has no idea how to do it without me standing behind her as we go from line to line. I helped her pass her college level English courses. It would takes forever. Of course I could just go back to the original manuscript and make the changes, but I realize it is beyond me right now. 

Escape from Second Eden was originally saved to a 5 1/4 floppy, 3.5 floppy, CD and finally a thumb drive. The files corruption when I downloaded my novels from Kindle are unusable. I have to go back to square one and re-release the titles under a new cover and new edition. That's the only option I see.

My daughter mentioned that she can type faster than 100WPM if I recorded the story on a tape player she could type it. The major problem is that's not how I write or tell a story. There won't be that flash of inspiration that stems from writing it yourself. Some of my greatest scenes happened while typing the basics out on the keyboard. While I've ghosted by dictation before, it's the flair of creativity has to be added. It is an option though.

That's the beauty of being an indie author. You can do what you want when you want. It can't be any worse than getting poor reviews because of a screwed up format. It's the learning curve that's tripping me up right now. By my calculation I've lost five to ten years of memory and how-to with the stroke. Even things like languages I spoke for decades is a part of my forgotten history. So the relearning process continues on. But memory is flexible and evolving constantly.

I tested my typing speed. I do it with the Mavis Beacon Typing program. I do this every Saturday to see if I'm improving. I take big and small victories where I can.While I'm still using one hand instead of two and there is improvement. I still have to look at the keys though. My corrected speed is up to 18WPM. Yeah me!

I'm still doing my exercise workouts and e-stim twice a day. I have two therapists I married last year coming in once a week and measuring progress until the new year rolls around. I'm truly blessed because I didn't know they were therapists when I married them. Only one did I know worked with my daughter at Hospice. The other one showed pictures of her wedding to my daughter. That's when the connection was made. Both volunteered their services to me. An added blessing. It's funny when you think about it. A couple talking sessions about their weddings, me officiating and paid, and usually that's it. I rarely keep extended contact with people after the ceremony.It just goes to show how things come full circle in life. The little things that you do in this life which impact others.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.