My Smartest Purchase This Year

I bought many things in the last year but my smartest purchase was my NuStep which I ordered just after Christmas. It was very expensive and felt like an indulgence. I was wrong; it’s been worth every penny. Why, you ask? Because my legs are significantly stronger, and stronger legs are what make it possible for me to stand up easily and to walk with a walker without falling.

I used the NuStep at my gym for at least a year before I went to the hospital last summer, so I was really glad to see and use it at my first rehab center last August. It wasn’t available at my second rehab facility, but we have one in my building up on the 4th floor exercise room. I just didn’t think it would be practical for me to always have to navigate there and hope no one else was using it.

When I ordered it, my original plan was to use it twice a day but that never happened because of shoes. I wear my cute zipper shoes without the AFO’s on the NuStep but need to change to my other shoes with AFO’s so I can walk. I’m making a wild guess that changing shoes is a lot harder for me than it is for you, but in any case, it takes time and energy and I hoard both as much as possible. It’s also often not very convenient to do several times a day.

I “do NuStep” (as a verb) 4-5 days a week for 30 minutes and am now on resistance level 5. I watch TV or read on my Kindle while I work out, often with a load of laundry in the wash. I can start a load, get on the machine and work out for 30 minutes, then move clothes from washer to dryer. That saves me from backtracking on thicker carpet, which hard for rolling the chair, so being able to piggyback projects makes me happy.

My legs are now wicked strong, or at least in comparison with last summer. The NuStep also works my upper body and I can usually feel it in my arms and across my back the next morning. Climbing on the machine is still a challenge. I use a leg lifter to move the left foot across the middle of the machine and to get the feet up on the pedals, and I wrap a gait belt around my thighs just above the knee to keep my right knee from flopping out while it’s working. Getting off is much easier and I can be back in my wheelchair within 3 minutes.

The machine itself is quiet, easy to set up, and easy to use. It was used, which helped keep the cost down, but in perfect condition. Ellie and Emma have accepted that it lives here even though it’s big and doesn’t offer them treats. Having it inside my apartment was another brilliant decision, if I do say so myself. I have no excuse for not using it because it’s always there and no one else is already on it when I’m ready to go. It’s much more practical for me than having a guest bed that’s never used.

If you have access to a NuStep at your gym, give it a whirl.

Out on my own

I finished formal out patient PT on June 3rd. I’m sure I’ll be back, especially when it’s time to transfer over to a rollator, which isn’t as easy to use as you’d think after hanging on to using a folding walker for almost a year. But after 10 months of therapy, it’s oh so nice to not have to be somewhere at a set time three days a week to do things that I can mostly do on my own.

I use the NuStep 4-5 times a week for 30 minutes and am up to level 5 on resistance. It still takes a while to get on the machine but I can get off in under 3 minutes. I’m also using my weight bars to do arm exercises every day. I’m using a 2-lb bar which doesn’t seem like much until I do 3 sets of 20 of whatever it is and everything burns. I need to be doing standing leg exercises at the kitchen sink, which I will do when I finish this post.

Walking is a bit of a challenge. The person I hired to walk with me isn’t working out that well because of schedules, since she already works for a bunch of other people. I’m spending half a day walking around in the apartment using the walker, trying not to run into cats who are fascinated by Mommy standing up. I don’t want to not be walking in the hall but don’t really have anyone to do it with me, trailing behind with a wheelchair.

Frankly, I know I’m not going to fall. I know what that feels like and all I’ve felt when doing hall walking has been the need to sit down if I walk too far. So I’m thinking about going out in the hall by myself and walking up one apartment, turning around, and going back again. And then doing that several times during the day. If I’m tired, I can stand and rest, but these are short well marked distances and I do not think it’s going to be a problem. I might be stupid here, but I don’t think so. I know what I can do and what my limits are. And if I can go when I’m ready, I don’t need to plan it around someone else’s schedule.

I’m not really expecting to get much better. I could be wrong. But my research tells me that surgery doesn’t reverse severe spinal stenosis; the damage is already done. At least the surgery will stop me from getting worse. And if what I have now is what I’m going to have, well, I can deal with it. Whenever I’ve been challenged and had to add new daily living functions, I’ve been able to rise to the challenge and get it done. Things like laundry, bed changing, and showers. Yayyy for showers! I’m sure there are other things out there to add, or maybe it’s just getting more comfortable and confident with the things I can already do.

My home-health therapist told me at the end of March that I should be prepared to find myself in exactly the same functional place in 6 months as I was then. Nerves grow when and how they want; people don’t really know what to expect from them. I don’t think I’ve gained much since then except getting back to walking after a rough back pain patch. My out-patient therapist told me that my body remembered how to walk (which is an improvement, because 10 months ago it didn’t know anything) so it will be easier for me to get back to movement.

No matter what, I stand up a lot. I’m in the kitchen doing dishes, cooking, fixing meals, getting food for the cats. I’m in the bathroom brushing my teeth, and standing in the bedroom to make my bed and get dressed. I do three-point turns from the wheelchair to the lift chair or the NuStep. I stand up to do laundry. All of these weight-bearing activities help keep the muscles strong and stop them from atrophying. I will NOT stop doing them, whether I’m walking in the hall or not. They have become normal, which is itself amazing. I don’t take them for granted, not after this past year.

Discharged from OT

I was discharged today from Occupational Therapy, ordered by my primary care doctor to treat my sore shoulders which were suffering from overuse. They basically hurt all the time. First we treated them with ultrasound and diathermy, which uses electro-magnetic currents, and with resting from walking or NuStep. Putting on my AFO’s strains the shoulders from hauling and manipulating the legs into proper position, and walking strains the shoulders with pressure while using the walker (because it’s hard not to hang on for dear life). And of course, I use my arms to roll around in my wheelchair Phoebe.

After that, I did a bunch of things: stretching on the mat using a roller or little circle things. Weight bars to do curls, extensions, swings, and other exercises. Using the pulley weights. The arm bike with increasing tension. Best of all was a quick massage with BioFreeze to finish the session.

The arm muscles are better but the right shoulder still aches at the end of the day and sometimes at night, interfering with sleep. I’ve been using a muscle relaxant and a heating pad at the end of the day, which help. But if I wake up and it still hurts, I’ve learned to just relax and rest it for a day. That means no walking. So far one day of that seems to do the trick.

In any case, this round of OT is over. I invested in a set of weight bars to use at home to replicate my therapy exercises. You can do more with them than with a set of hand weights and I have them in the living room where they’re easy to grab. I’ll continue to use the heating pad and rest when needed. And if things flare up again and I need more help, I know I can go back with just a call to my doctor.

Therapy Progress Report

Just spent an hour with Harry the PT from Encompass Home Health. I warmed up on the NuStep so he could watch how I got on and off; he also adjusted my settings (my butt will be more sore tomorrow). Then he put on the old AFO’s and we went to the hall to walk, since it gives me a straight, unobstructed space for walking rather than go in circles in the apartment. I went about 250 feet with a few rest stops on the way. Finished up with seated leg exercises, then standing exercises at the sink.

Harry told me that he can see definite improvement in my stamina and ability in the 6 weeks since his first visit. I walk more comfortably and for a much greater distance (that first visit I could barely go from the chair to the kitchen). I’m getting up and down more easily and have more control over leg movements than I did when we started, because my legs are stronger and will only get more so as I use the NuStep. He anticipates at least another 6 weeks of twice a week therapy visits. Once I have the new AFO’s and we see how they will work and whether I can put them on by myself, the goal will be me for me to have my exercises and routines set so that I can just build on them without the need for a PT to watch me do them – or even without someone else on hand to follow me with a wheelchair. I may need that for longer walks out in the hall but it would be great to be able to just DO it on my own here.

Whether I walk every day or not, I have to be sure to get out of the chair and up on my feet in the kitchen or elsewhere to keep the muscles moving so they remember that they’re supposed to move instead of just atrophying. And I need to get out of the apartment and go do something with other people. I usually do that with a meal, at least, but there are social and learning activities here that are available, and I need to take advantage of them. I remember my grandfather touring us around his New Jersey retirement village, so proud of all of the amenities it offered even though he did none of them. I don’t want to be like that.

I’m being discharged from occupational therapy tomorrow with one final visit. I can do almost everything I need to do on my own, other than the shoes, and my big goal for OT was to be able to give myself showers, which I can now do. Yayyy.

Feeling a Difference

My body is sore this morning in a good way. My back is particularly sore which makes me happy because it means the upper body part of the NuStep workout is working and involving lots more muscles than I remembered. My quads are tight and hip flexors are a bit cranky, but that’s okay – I expected that. And it feels like I’m actually DOING something productive and healthy, because I am.

Yesterday I asked the physical therapist to watch me get on and off the machine to see if she spotted any ways to improve the process, and with only a few small tweaks, I’ve got it figured out. The plan is to work for 25-30 minutes once a day, gradually increasing resistance levels. Once I get that into a routine, I’ll try adding a second session so I’m doing one in the morning and one in the afternoon, starting with 20 minutes each time and building up. But no matter what, just getting on and off the machine is a workout.

So I’m feeling virtuous as well as sore.