What Lies Around the Corner?

No one really knows.....

We are up really late most nights. Dear Hubby likes to watch Fox News and old black and white movies. He has a difficult time getting to sleep at times. Wednesday night, while trying to get comfortable in bed, he pulled a muscle in his back. Yep. He did.

He has trouble with spasticity (definition below) because of his Multiple Sclerosis. Needing to bend his legs, but having them refuse, he has to pull hard on the leg lifters I made for him. He is so sweet to try not to wake me at night and do this himself. But, sometimes he can't. Well, Wednesday night, while trying to pull those legs up, he injured his back.

It hurt all day Thursday, but he just dealt with it. He's always had a very high tolerance for pain, but since his diagnosis, he has a much lessened ability to tolerate pain and discomfort. We were up really late last night, but he was so uncomfortable he woke me very early this morning to rub his back with BioFreeze and then we went back to sleep for few hours.

By mid morning he was really suffering. Taking a deep breath hurt his back and he even felt it in his stomach. After calling the Dr. this morning and waiting for her to return the call after lunch, we decided to just make an appt. this afternoon and try to get in before the weekend hit. Trouble worsens at night and on weekends, have you noticed???? And anything left untreated usually doesn't heal itself.

I am so grateful that Dear Older Daughter and Dear Younger Son were still home before leaving to go to a friend's birthday celebration. Dear Older Son went with us to the Dr. and packed up the LARGE power chair and lifted his dad in and out of the van. Whew!! What would we do without him???

So now, we have discussed pain medication and Dear Hubby has relented and is taking some. And the Dr. has prescribed Baclofen to help with the spasms and rigidity. So, maybe if he continues taking it as prescribed, he can prevent more pulled muscles. Even I have had a sore muscle or two at times when trying to move those stubborn legs!

Like all caregivers, I'm learning to roll with the punches and just go with it. I'm always amazed at the way things seem to fall into place. Normally, this is my week to be gone quilting all day....and the two older kids were planning on leaving a bit earlier, but didn't. Hm.....maybe the Lord was working???? LOL


From Wikipedia: Spasticity or muscular hypertonicity is a disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) in which certain muscles continually receive a message to tighten and contract. The nerves leading to those muscles, being damaged and unable to regulate themselves (which would provide for normal muscle tone), permanently and continually "over-fire" these commands to tighten and contract. This causes stiffness or tightness of the muscles and may interfere with gait, movement, and speech. Spasticity is most common in spastic diplegia and in other forms of spastic cerebral palsy, but it also presents extensively in multiple sclerosis and to different degrees in most other neuromuscular diseases and conditions as well, both progressive and not.