eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 07:13am on 2003-05-17

This can't be good.

I've had a bad week, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, and that's included a fair bit of physical pain. I've been wearing flat shoes, instead of my usual heels, when I've gone out this week, because I'm favouring my right knee. Well it seem that the way I've been limping has taken its toll on my left heel. Yesterday I went out to pick up photos from the lab, and wound up doing a bit of walking (seven blocks total, not much), and was moving very slowly by the end of that. This morning I woke up around 2:00 or 2:30 (I fell asleep around 22:00), and have spent a couple hours since then sitting at the computer, feeling some discomfort in my knee ...

A few minutes ago I went downstairs to get a) a snack and b) migraine meds. I nearly gave up halfway down the stairs. And trying to move to-and-fro in the kitchen was excruciating. And this evening I have a performance in St. Mary's. We're only a quartet (just under half of The Homespun Ceilidh Band) so it's not like other instruments can just cover for my absence. So I'm going to the gig, but unless the nap I'm about to try to take results in major improvement in my knee, this is going to be one of those gigs where I have to concentrate extra hard on my timing to compensate for the painkillers. :-(

With the fibromyalgia, I'm accustomed to pain. But when it hurts bad enough to bring tears, that's a bad sign.

(Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, but I'm still going to the gig. The old "the show must go on" meme is lodged pretty deep in my brain. I'm going. I just don't know what I'm going to be able to do tomorrow.)

An idea that just came to me while writing email ... since I have to go up and down stairs so much in my house, there's a limit to how much strain I can take off my knee by using crutches at home. But if I flatten a bunch of cardboard boxes and tape them together and turn the back stairs into a slide, the one direction gets easier at least. (And I'd come back up on the front stairs.)

Mood:: pain
There are 3 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
cellio: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] cellio at 08:10pm on 2003-05-17
Several years ago I had a broken leg and I quickly became quite proficient with crutches on stairs. Give it a try.

 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 09:57pm on 2003-05-19
*nod* When I've had to use crutches, I've gotten pretty good at dealing with stairs in buildings other than houses, which tend to be wider. But the stairs in my 1830s Baltimore row-house are even narrower than most modern homes, and bloody awkward on crutches. (Though I'd be willing to drag you over to my house during Balticon for you to demonstrate your technique, if you've figured out something I haven't about dealing with narrow stairs.)
cellio: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] cellio at 06:33am on 2003-05-20
Ah, narrow stairs. I hadn't realized. The only thing I can suggest there is to lean heavily on the wall (if the stairs are narrow I'm betting they're squished in next to a wall); if the wall is on the correct side with respect to the bad leg, you might be able to get away with using one crutch instead of two. Alternatively, before I got brave enough to try going down stairs on crutches, I took 'em sitting down (think "crab walk" but with just one participating leg).

I won't be at Balticon, unfortunately. Have fun, and I hope you're back on your feet soon!

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